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.

Earlier this month, Croatian MEP Zeljana Zovko said that Bosnia’s Islamic Community had told Bosniaks to vote for Zeljko Komsic, leader of the centre-left Democratic Front, for Bosnia’s Croat member of Presidency in the October general election.

Komsic, Bosnian Croat who ran on a multi-national platform, was ultimately elected to the seat, defeating the leader of the nationalist Croat Democratic Union (HDZ BiH) Dragan Covic.

Komsic’s legitimacy is contested by all the major Croat parties in the country, who claim that his election was not legitimate because he was not elected by Croats, but by the numerically dominant Bosniaks.

The malicious campaign was uncalled for, the IC said, commenting on Zovko’s statements.

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

The IC said they had openly told their members they, on several occasions, they would not interfere in the election process, adding that any accusations to the contrary were “malicious and unfounded.”

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

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