The Category of Neighbourhood in Islamic Modernism of Yugoslavia. "Fetve" of Husein Đozo

Abstract

Departing from Carl Schmitt’s assertion that all significant concepts of modern theory of the state are secularized theological concepts, the article tries to recreate the political and ethical theory of the neighbour present in the Qur’ānic commentaries and fatwās (fatāwā) of Husein Đozo as the main representative of Islamic Modernism in former Yugoslavia. Subsequently it seeks to establish connection between the theoretical framework od theological dogmas, and the everyday praxis preserved in the formula of fatwā as a genre of religious Islamic literature which by giving answers to the questions of the faithful Muslims, forms a dialogue of authority and the society, of the theory and the praxis.

Using the tools of Critical Discourse Analysis the text extracts the categories of neighbourhood and reveals that they are mainly faith-based. In other words, in the common perception, members of various religious communities: Muslims, Jews, Christians are each other’s neighbours. According to the analysed exegetical and juridical Islamic sources, the neighbourhood category is based on freedom and mutual respect and can be shared by Muslims, atheists and apostates from Islam to atheism.

In consequence the text shows that the non-trespassable border of an inherent to each of the neighbour units culture, forms a central neighbourhood-defining category. It is precisely the maintenance of dissimilarities between the neighbours that safeguards tolerance, respect and freedom for the members of particular entities. The internal systems of signs, behaviours, artefacts and lifestyles sustain the preservation of equality between the neighbours, as long as they share the same social capital and thus, retain the symmetrical positionality towards each other.

Taking up a position of distance from the common lifestyle values (like in the case of Roma Muslims), or from intellectual legacy of Semitic Abrahamic faiths (like in the case of Baha’i faith which incorporates such figures as Krishna and Buddha), results in exclusion from the category of neighbourhood. Thus, the spatial and social proximity forms the core of neighbourhood classification.

The paper is based on rich exemplification of fatwas that reveal the absorption of Judeo-Christian heritage into the Islamic thought, and explains the theoretical and theological framework of this process. It presents the perception of neighbour and neighbourhood in the Islam of socialist Yugoslavia, and – to some extent – the intellectual outcome of Judeo-Christian and Islamic neighbourhood in terms of spatial and theological vicinity.

Finally, the article shows that the Yugoslav Islamic stance towards the once classified neighbour is inclusive, welcoming and hospitable. Intellectual background of this attitude is formed by the tradition of Islamic Modernism of early 20^th century Egypt, and the influence of such Islamic thinkers as Jamāl ad-Dīn al-Afghānī, Muḥammad ‘Abduh, Muḥammad Rašīd Riḍā, Maḥmūd Šaltūt. Hence, the article implicitly poses a question on the intellectual origins of the Islamic openness towards the neighbour, inherent to Titoist Bosnia.