Islamic community rejects accusations of election interference

Bosnia’s Islamic Community (IC) condemned on Thursday the “malicious campaign led by extremist political groups from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina,” targeting “the Islamic Community and the Islamic identity of Bosniaks.”

For quite some time and more intensively after the October election, the Islamic Community is “exposed to brutal political attacks from radically anti-civil and anti-European political circles in Croatia,” led by local officials and those from the neighbouring country, the IC said in a press release.

The malicious campaign was uncalled for, it said.

"The Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina is without any proof being repeatedly accused of organised and intentional interference in the election process in the interest of a presidential candidate,” it said, explaining that the institution is being blamed for "not making sure" a candidate preferred by certain Croat political circles was elected.

The IC reminded the public that it had openly told its members several times that it will not interfere in the election process and repeated again that it is rejecting such accusations as “malicious and unfounded.”

“The activities of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina are transparent and its positions are announced publicly and responsibly as it does not function based on the principles of conspiracies and secrecy,” the statement said.

The IC also noted that it had refrained from "triumphalism" after the same policies that are "now targeting" the institution were convicted by an international court as being part of a joint criminal enterprise.

(N1 Sarajevo)