In the aftermath of the New York at acks in September 2001, the
massacre in Madrid in March 2004, and the London bombing in July
2005, Dr Mustafa Cerić – as Raisu-l-‘Ulama and Grand Mufti of Bosnia-Herzegovina – issued the Declaration of European Muslims on July 2005 at the East London Mosque, London.
The Declaration has been endorsed and disseminated by the Islamic Forum of Europe and is largely supported across Europe. In an interview with RFE/RL on March 14, 2006 Dr Cerić described the declaration: “It is a personal — it is probably too much to say, “confession” — but a personal appeal to the European audience not to make a mistake in generalising all Muslims and not to spread
Islamophobia, that was, I think, going on in Europe and in the West generally, especially after September 11 [2001].” Dr Cerić added, “The second message was to the Muslims who live in Europe to take seriously these three events that may have great consequences for their stay in Europe and their status in Europe. The third message was to the Muslim world at large to ask them to help us in the West, and especially in Europe, to develop a kind of dialogue that is acceptable
to us as Muslims, as well as to our European neighbors.”
Eight years after the Declaration of European Muslims, now as the president the World Bosniak Congress and Grand Mufti Emeritus of Bosnia, Dr Cerić has led the effort to issue the Second Declaration on Common Security and Global Citizenship.
The Congress was inaugurated in Sarajevo on December 29, 2012
as a global national voice of the Bosniak nation in the aftermath of the last genocide in Bosnia.
This Second Declaration comes as a response to recent events in Boston and London with an emphasis on the unacceptable use and abuse of the name of Allah and Islam, especially in the case of the London killing.
At this time Dr Cerić, as president of the World Bosniak Congress, is calling on the Bosniak nation to take a bold stance about their faith and culture and be a good example to others: to condemn violence and promote peace and tolerance whereever they are.
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