The Islamic Declaration (Bosnian: Islamska deklaracija) is an essay written by Alija Izetbegović published in 1970 in Sarajevo, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia.
The Muslim masses therefore, lack the leaders and ideas which would awaken them from their lethargy, and there is a tragic distinction between the intelligentsia and ordinary people.
[9] The work discusses the difficult situation of Muslims in the contemporary world, that of "moral decay and humiliating stagnation", which should be thwarted with the necessary returning to the Qur'an and Islam.
He stated the renaissance would follow "from the principles and nature of Islam and not the dismal facts characteristics of Muslim world today".
As a first step, he called for a moral revolution to bridge the gap between higher principles of Islam and the "disappointing behaviour of contemporary Muslims".
Izetbegović purportedly did not reject Western civilization in itself, although he criticized what he regarded as the rapid coercive secularization of Turkey under Atatürk.
Izetbegović raged against the "so-called progressives, Westernizers and modernizers" who want to implement the same policy in other countries.
Since its foundations Islam engaged, without prejudices, in studying and gathering of knowledge inherited by previous civilizations.
We don't understand why today's Islam should take a different approach toward the conquests of the Euro-American civilization, with which it has so many contacts.
[citation needed] In his treatise, Islam between East and West, he reportedly praised Renaissance art, Christian morality, and Anglo-Saxon philosophy and social-democratic traditions.
Under present conditions, this desire means a struggle for creating a great Islamic federation from Morocco to Indonesia, from the tropical Africa to the Central Asia.
[citation needed] Izetbegović's approach to Islamic law seems to be open since he thinks that Muslims do not have to be bound by past interpretations.
Non-Muslim minorities within the confines of an Islamic state, provided they are loyal, enjoy religious liberties and all protection.
[13] Although details of Islamic political organisation are left quite vague, three republican principles of political order are deemed to be essential which are: (1) the electability of the head of the state, (2) the accountability of the head of the state to the people, (3) the obligation of solving communally general and social issues.
In the history of the first, and perhaps so far the only authentic Islamic order - the era of the first four caliphs, we can clearly see three essential aspects of the republican principle of power: (1) an elective head of state, (2) the responsibility of the head of state towards the people and (3) the obligation of both to work on public affairs and social matters.
[18] The verdict was strongly criticized by Western human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Helsinki Watch, which claimed the case was based on "communist propaganda", and the accused were not charged with either using or advocating violence.
The following May, the Bosnian Supreme Court conceded the point with an announcement that "some of the actions of the accused did not have the characteristics of criminal acts" and reduced Izetbegović's sentence to twelve years.
[21] Izetbegović himself insisted many times that the statements about the creation of an Islamic state were hypothetical and were not to be the applied to the situation in Bosnia.
[1][22] Passages from the declaration were frequently quoted by many prominent political figures as well, such as Franjo Tuđman, Radovan Karadžić, Dobrica Ćosić, Vojislav Šešelj, among others.
[15] One of the passages that was in particular picked out by his opponents was, "There can be no peace or coexistence between the Islamic faith and non-Islamic social and political institutions...the state should be an expression of religion and should support its moral concepts.