Raisu-l-ulama dr. Mustafa Cerić

Grand Mufti of Bosnia

President Barak Hussain Obama

President of the United State of America

Mr. President,

Thank you for your two historic speeches in Ankara and in Cairo. Both of them remind us of our Bosnian experience that the law is not in the book, but in the heart. And this is exactly what you are doing. You are changing the law in the hearts of Muslims and Americans so that they may trust each other for the good of all mankind.    

It is true that two speeches cannot "eradicate years of mistrust", but it is also true that in the beginning,  there  was just a word. And yours, Mr. President, was a good word for a new beginning like a good tree, the root of which is firmly grounded and the branches of which have reached the hearts of all the people of good will. It has also reached us here in Bosnia, whose children you did not forget to mention together with the slaughtered children of Darfur. It is on their behalf that we would like to support your mission of peace among all nations by our words and by our deeds in combating all kinds of extremism, in supporting a just and lasting peace and security in the Holy Land, in eliminating nuclear weapons everywhere, in protecting human rights and democracy as well as the rights of women and children wherever they are.  We are sure that, by the leave of God,  those challenges that you expressed in Cairo so truthfully will bear fruits in due time.

Mr. President, your choice to speak to the Muslim world from Istanbul and Cairo as two great symbols of Muslim culture and civilization shows your feeling and your knowledge about the importance of place and time in your mission. Also, it demonstrates your good will to bring the American heart to the Muslim heart in peace and harmony.

Obviously, Istanbul represents the immeasurable Turkish contribution to the unique Islamic  civilization as an indivisible part of a global civilization which stays as a firm bridge between East and West in all their diversity of faith and culture,  whereas Cairo stands as the outstanding Arabic contribution to the classical and modern Islamic learning throughout  the whole Muslim world, the true witness of which is my diploma of the University of Al-Azhar which is perfectly compatible with my Ph. D. of the University of Chicago.

I wish that your next speech in the foreseeable future will be in Tehran as the third symbol of Islam, of the Persian kind, of the contribution to the Islamic culture, which has tremendously enriched the world culture of literature, art and wisdom. These days I am visiting Tehran where I will meet many Iranian religious dignitaries as well as political leaders. I want you to know that I will not miss the opportunity to carry on your message to Tehran to encourage all my religious colleagues there to meet your good will with their good will for the sake of building a new trust between the United States of America and the Muslim world who, as you have said: "Overlap and share common principles - principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings". 

I  am just one of more than one billion Muslims in the world who represents a small Muslim Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Of course, there are much more important people in the Muslim world who did respond to your two speeches with  great respect and support. But I thought it was my right and my duty to express the gratitude of my Community to the American people for the care and support during its recovery from a genocide at the end of the 20^th century, the like of which the Jewish Community suffered in the Second World War.

While listening to your Cairo speech I looked at my grandson Nadir, who is now just one year old, with a stronger hope that his and the future of his peers will be better than our past in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

 Mr. President, I thought that it would be good to share with you an old wisdom of the writer of the Mirror of Princes who had advised his Prince that he should not neglect four small things: a small fire, a small decease, a small enemy and a small wisdom. In fact, it is the small wisdom of Bosnia that tolerance is the highest degree of power and the desire for revenge is the first sign of weakness that I wanted to share with your great wisdom that is now visible in your words and deeds alongside the great American power.

I would like to end my letter with this Bosnian prayer: Oh God, if you take from us the blessing of health, provide us with the blessing of faith! If we sin against people, give us the strength of apology! And if people sin against us, give us the strength of forgiveness! Amin!

Mr. Prsident, with these thoughts I sincerely pray to God to bless you and protect you for the good of mankind and peace in the world! Assalaamu alaykum!.