Nationalized and confiscated waqfs

"There will never spread a plunder of another's property in one nation without the fear of enemy pouring into their hearts; there will never spread measuring deception in one nation without their nafaka being reduced; an unfair trial will never spread without bloodshed; and never in one nation will treats and agreements be betrayed massively without that nation deserving to be ruled by its enemy."(Hadith)

A waqf is a property that cannot be sold, bought, inherited or given away. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Waqf has long been the basis for the material security of the Bosnian Muslim community. What has been done with endowments not only in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but in the entire Balkans, is a precedent on a global scale.

After Bosnia and Herzegovina was occupied by Austro Hungarian monarchy in 1878, there started a whole new and unpredictable period for Islam and Muslims in our country. For the first time, local Muslims found themselves under the foreign rule. They were supposed to break centuries-old ties with Ottoman authorities and turn to the new non-Muslim one. It was hard to come up with new methods of Islamic community in managing such a powerful institution as waqf. Memoranda of Muslim representatives sent to the authorities are the first-class documents about the total disfranchisement of Bosnian Muslims and Islamic community under the Austro-Hungarian rule. Here are the several excerpts from memorandum sent to minister Kallay on December 15, in 1900, speaking about numerous violations of the rights and usurpation of property of Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina under the Austro-Hungarian rule:

• In Zvornik, Catholics turned Fethiye Mosque into the church, having demolished its minaret and erected a bell tower, although no Catholic population live there, except for a few officials and army.
  
• In Sarajevo, upon Isa-bey's mosque cooperative was built, on Ayaz pasha Mosque new inn was raised, on Čemal beg Mosque, beer warehouse was made, on Atmeydan Mosque wood warehouse was made and so on.
• In Konjic, on Repovac Mosque there is a military magazine.
• In Stolac, the mosque located in the city, after serving as a military magazine for a long time, was demolished.
• The large Islamic cemetery Čekrdžinca in Sarajevo was turned into a city park.
• In Travnik, a Roman Catholic church was built on cemetery, which used to be next to Rahimino turbe in Halil's garden.
• In Livno, on Islamic cemetery Turnića harem, municipal office building was made.

There are hundreds of other examples of usurpation of waqf property across Bosnia and Herzegovina during the period of Austro - Hungarian rule. Mosques were usurped for the needs of army and demolished for hotel building, barracks and other public objects; cemeteries were turned into parks and public areas, upon which railways, roads, railway and bus stations (Tuzla, Mostar) were built; on musallas public buildings and hotels were built (Sarajevo, Konjic, Mostar); Islamic objects were demolished due to the regulatory plans, widening of streets and squares; lead from mosque was removed for needs of army and so on.

After Bosnia and Herzegovina fell under the rule of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, dark days had begun for the Islamic Community and its property. The work of the Islamic Community under the royal regime, for the first ten years, took place mainly according to the normative acts that were valid during the rule of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Significant changes in normative acts occurred only in the 1930s, though very unfavorable for the Islamic community. All religious and waqf organs were under the control of the state which was given the right of supreme control over the management of the property of the Islamic Community. Additional influence of the regime was provided through the work of cultural and support societies, especially the pro-Serbian "Gajret". The Gajrets had a significant influence in the administration of the waqf bodies, but they wanted even more "complete influence and control over the distribution and use of the waqf's income." During that period, waqf property has been massively confiscated, under the excuse that it should serve to all people, not just Muslims.

Waqf parcels located in the most attractive places in cities, Muslim cemeteries that made up at least a fifth of the city's space were confiscated to build public buildings, bus and train stations, playgrounds, parks, schools, homes, post offices, administrative buildings. During the time of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and later on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between 1918. and 1939. around 4 million acres of land has been confiscated from waqf! At the same time, in Bosnia and Herzegovina twelve and a half million of bey's land which in total amounts to sixteen and a half millions acre of land! This is almost a third of the total area of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Only one decision of Banja Luka district in 1939. was enough to confiscate 107.000 acre of land in the area of Tešanj and Teslić from Gazi Husrev – beg. Not just that the waqf goods confiscated but numerous mosques and other religious buildings were demolished. Only in Sarajevo, 24 mosques and two madrasas were demolished, the Inadija or Jedid madrasa on Bentbaša and the Hadži – Ismail Misir's madrasa at At-maidan, next to Bakir – baba's mosque. During that period, only in Sarajevo 75 cemeteries (not a single Serbian cemetery) were exhumed, 108 shops, 118 houses with yards, 90 orchards, gardens, arable land and meadows were confiscated. Several mosques were demolished in Mostar, and nine of them in Banja Luka.

What was left of the waqf after Serbian rule, during the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, was taken away by the communists in the post-war Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The Islamic community was left with only sole religious buildings, mosques, imam's apartments, some maktabs (not all), mausoleums, tekkes and one madrasa. Waqf plots, cemeteries, residential buildings and apartments, madrasa buildings, shops and business premises, mills and workshops, palaces, spas, hotels, everything that could be taken away and that had some value was confiscated. Gazi Husrev-bey's waqf was reduced to the Bey's mosque and its harem. All the shops that surrounded it were confiscated.

Dozens of Gazi Husrev-bey's shops and other Sarajevo endowments were confiscated by a single act. In whose hands are all these shops today that bring so much profit to former tenants and current illegal owners? Not so long ago, after the last war, the former Gazi Husrev-beg shop across the Bey's mosque was the main prize in the hands of the lottery and who authorized it to alienate it in the form of the main lottery prize?!

Waqf property confiscation was carried out through the agrarian reform, nationalization and expropriation of the private property. The legal basis for robbery was found in the following laws: The Law on Agrarian Reform and Colonization of August 28, 1945, Law on Disposal of Apartments and Business Premises of February 17, 1945, Law on Nationalization of Private Enterprises of December 6, 1945 (as amended on December 29, 1948), The Basic Law on Expropriation of 1948, Law on Nationalization of Rented Buildings and Construction Land of December 28, 1958 and others.

Waqf property was usually confiscated in a „legal manner. “However, there were many cases of confiscation without any legal coverage. The letter of the Waqf Directorate referred to the Commission for Religious Affairs in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1954 points out that a great deal of waqf property was usurped without any legal basis as well as nationalization, arondation, expropriation and inclusion of residential buildings into housing units based on the regulations of the agrarian reforms. According to the data of the Commission for Religious Affairs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by September 1, 1961 803 objects owned by Islamic community were nationalized, which makes 53,7% of the total property in relation to the situation before nationalization. At the same time, 149 buildings were nationalized from the Serbian Orthodox Church, and 36 from the Catholic Church. Out of a total of 992 nationalized buildings of religious communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina the buildings of the Islamic Community accounted for 80.9% of fasting! Of all the religious communities, the Islamic community has suffered by far the greatest damage from the nationalization of religious buildings. What should not have been taken away by law was also confiscated. Dozens of imam's apartments were confiscated from the Islamic community, which it had the right to keep as purpose-built apartments. An example is the Hrasno Jamaat in Sarajevo, where a mosque house consisting of one body with a mosque, in which there was a police station years later, was confiscated.

According to the data of the Waqf Directorate, during the time of the SFRY, the total number of confiscated waqf goods (mosques, mektebs, shops, houses, apartments, buildings, cemeteries) was 11,324 units with a total area of 30,342,496 square meters. From 1950 to 1990, the waqf suffered inexplicably great damage! It is estimated that due to the failure of passing the Law on Restitution, the Islamic Community loses 24 million KM every year!

Although the confiscation of waqf property was "legally covered", there were still irregularities and various deviations even to the few remaining assets. This is evidenced by the complaints sent to the nationalization commissions. By July 1, 1961, 173 complaints had been sent to the authorities, of which only 32 were resolved positively and 141 negatively. The Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina came out of the communist period with only five percent of the endowments it had at its disposal.
Mnogi objekti koji su ranije služili za mektebsku nastavu, naročito oni bolje gradnje, oduzeti su i dati na upotrebu osnovnim školama, a medresanske zgrade u neke druge namjene. Elči Ibrahim-pašina medresa u Travniku, dočekala je posljednji rat kao „Šipadov“ salon namještaja, Ibrahim-pašina medresa u Počitelju služila je kao bife u kojem je služen alkohol, Sultan Selimov mesdžid u Mostaru i Lukačka džamija u Travniku služili su za galerije. Tako se u mihrabu mogao naći ženski akt ( obznaženo žensko tijelo). U Gazi Husrev-begovom hamamu u Sarajevu bila je kockarnica i noćni klub, a desetine drugih džamija je pretvoreno u skladišta.

Demolition of mosques and other religious objects is a different story. During that period, under the excuses such as urbanization, street and square planning, numerous mosques and other objects owned by Islamic community were demolished. Even the oldest domed mosque of Muslihuddin Čerekči, built in 1526 in Baščaršija, in Sarajevo, was planned to be demolished. However, it was spared by the intervention of Supreme Islamic Elders. Due to the dilapidation and urbanization, street and square regulation, many of mosques in Sarajevo, Mostar, Banja Luka and other cities was demolished. For instance, madrasa in Bjeljina was demolished in 1984, because of the city urbanization. The oldest mosque in Mostar, Sinan Pasha on Mejdan, was demolished by the communist authorities in 1949 to build a playground for officers in its place. Currently that mosque is being restored.

Many objects that were previously used for maktab classes, especially those of better construction, were confiscated and given to primary schools and madrasa buildings for some other purposes. Elči Ibrahim-pasha's mosque in Travnik entered the last war as a „Šipadov“furniture salon, Ibrahim-pasha's madrasa in Počitelj was used as a buffet in which alcohol was served, sultan Selim's masjid in Mostar and Luakč mosque served as galleries. So, in mihrab there could be found female act (nude female body.) There was a casino and a night club in Gazi Husrev-bey's hammam in Sarajevo and dozens of other mosques were turned into warehouses.

In terms of religious teaching and education in schools and maktabs, even more harm was inflicted upon Muslims. As time went by, all of the madrasas in Bosnia and Herzegovina, except for the Gazi Husrev beg's madrasa, had been abolished, as well as maktabs, by the beginning of 1952. Even though Gazi Husrev bey's madrasa was the only madrasa in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it had had to be removed from the building of Đulaga's palace, across the Bey's mosque. That representative building, for which waqf invested so much material resources, was given to the Faculty of Philosophy, and the students and teaching staff moved to the old and dilapidated building of the boarding school of the Sharia Gymnasium near the Drvenija bridge. Madrasa professors had miserable salaries, and it happened that some part-time teachers did not receive a single dinar during the entire school year. The outflow of students due to the conditioning of eight-grade primary schooling before the madrasa has almost extinguished the interest in enrolling in the madrasa. It was similar with Tuzla's Lower District Madrasa. The building of that madrasa was occupied by the Third Corps for the needs of the infectious military hospital, so the work of the madrasa began in the mekteb near the Jalska mosque.

Maktabs were abolished in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1950s, and their buildings were looted for the needs of primary schools, cooperative homes, warehouses and similar. In March 1952, the operation of all active tekkes in Bosnia and Herzegovina was banned. In order not to "extinguish the tariqa candle", zikr was occasionally held in mosques and private houses, but quietly and carefully.

During the last war, from 1992. to 1995. a large number of mosques and other objects owned by Islamic community in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been demolished.

During those three and a half years, 1.311 waqf object has been destroyed; 614 of which were mosques, 218 masjids, 69 maktabs, 4 tekkes and 37 mausoleums. 472 objects owned by Islamic community were damaged.

Because of nationalization of apartments and business premises, starting from 1996. damage inflicted upon the waqf in Bosnia and Herzegovina amounts to 286.000.000,00 KM. The total damage inflicted upon the waqf property amounts to 1.030.000.000,00 KM. The caused damage refers to waqf business premises and apartments caused by their non-return of Islamic community.

Due to the non-return of property of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the annual damage of waqf amounts to 15.840.000,00 KM while in Republic of Srpska it amounts to 9.660.000,00 KM. The total annual damage caused to waqfs is 25.500.000,00 KM.

From all the above, we can conclude that it is the obligation of the Islamic Community, but also the general interest of society to return the waqf to its original function. In this work, we must be able to, as individuals, but also as a wider community, be ready to defend the rights of those who have given up their own property for the common good.