The Interreligious Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, founded in 1997 and composed of the religious leaders of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Jewish Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, has issued a statement condemning remarks made by Mustafa Cerić, former head of the Islamic Community, regarding the establishment of a so-called “Bosnian Orthodox Church,” according to the news agency Vijesti.
In its announcement, the Council described these statements as “malicious and irresponsible,” stressing that “an individual is assuming the right to propose or even dictate ways of regulating and organizing Churches and religious communities.” It underlined that such views were expressed publicly through online platforms and social media and do not reflect any institutional or official positions.
According to Vijesti, the Interreligious Council warned that public statements of this nature, “with an obvious intention, contribute to the creation and deepening of mistrust and to the disruption of interreligious relations.” The Council also recalled that Mustafa Cerić himself had participated in the founding of the Interreligious Council, a fact that makes the controversial remarks particularly troubling.
At the same time, the Council condemned “any attack on shared values” and called on all social actors to clearly distance themselves from “malicious and irresponsible proposals and statements made by private individuals.” It was further clarified that the views in question “in no way express the positions of any Church or religious community, nor those of the Interreligious Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina itself.”