Position and the role of Islamic religious community and "Gajret" in socio-political life of Muslims at the beginning of 30-es of this century

Abstract

In the second part of 1928 the process of a very complex crisis in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians, with significant and particularly characteristic manifestations in the region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was getting deeper and deeper, so that all the events and actions of the time were the reflections, to a smaller or greater extent, of the contemporary situation in the country.

 Those phenomina were especially explicit at the time of the dictatorship of January 6th, when the State regime through the reorganization of the Islamic religious community and with the full support of the leaders of the largest Muslim cultural and aducational society the »Gayret« made efforts to exert political pressure on Muslims. In accordance with such policy, the regime established on January 6th, by abolishing the autonomy of the Islamic religious community and by introducing the religious organization controlled by the State, wanted to put an end to the influence of the Yugoslav Muslim Organization, which up to that time had been the leading Muslim political party. In order to reach those aims the regime relied on pro-government Muslim politicians, among others on the leaders of the »Gayret« society whose claimswere not limited to the leardership in the sphere of cultural life alone.

 They  were also trying to become (political representatives of Muslims, considering that the »Gayret« society was a suitable platform for political influence on the masses. However, the attempts of the regime to win Muslims over for their policy and to separate them from the Yugoslav Muslim Organisation were not successful.

When M. Stojadinović came to power and when the autonomy of the Islamic religious community was reestablished the political influence of the above imentioned politicians came to an end and was restricted only to the »Gayret« society and the improvement of the education and the cultural life of Muslims through it.