Ševko Omerbašić

Ševko Omerbašić (9 June 1945 – 31 October 2024) was a Croatian imam who was president of the Islamic Community in Croatia and Slovenia.

Effendi Ševko Omerbašić
Title	Mufti
Personal life
Born	(1945-06-09)9 June 1945 Ustikolina, Democratic Bosnia and Herzegovina, DF Yugoslavia
Died	31 October 2024(2024-10-31) (aged 79)
Nationality	Bosniak
Home town	Zagreb, Croatia
Religious life
Religion	Islam
Denomination	Sunni Islam
School	Hanafi
Muslim leader
Based in	Zagreb, Croatia
Successor	Aziz Hasanović
Previous post	President of the Islamic Community in Croatia and Slovenia

Biography

Omerbašić was born in Ustikolina, near Foča, Yugoslavia, presently in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He finished elementary school in his birthplace and went to Sarajevo where he entered high school, the Gazi Husrev Bey's Madrasa which he attended from 1956 until 1964. After he finished high school education, he worked as an imam in Rudo, and then he returned to Ustikolina also as imam.

Soon after he enlisted into the Yugoslav Army, and after that he went to be educated in Libya at the Islamic University of Libya where he studied Islam and Arabic. He returned to Yugoslavia in 1975 and was appointed imam of Zagreb. In 1988 he became chief mufti of the Islamic Communities in Croatia and Slovenia. In 1990 when the Seniority of the Islamic Community of Croatia and Slovenia was founded, Omerbašić was named its president and thus he got the title "mufti".

He taught for five years at the Jesuit Faculty of Philosophy of Society at the University of Zagreb; for ten years he taught the history of Islam, interpretation of the Qur'an, Arabic language and Islamic studies at Zagreb's Dr. Ahmed Smajlović Madrasa. Omerbašić attended two years of religious pedagogy at Catechetical Institute of the Catholic Theological Faculty in Zagreb.

In the 2017 Zagreb local elections Omberbašić was elected member of the Zagreb City Assembly as a candidate of Milan Bandić's party list.^[1]

Omerbašić died on 30 October 2024, at the age of 79.^[2]

Views

Omerbašić was known for inter-religious tolerance. As he was teaching, he introduced the practice of sending his students to Catholic mass.^[3] He was also an opponent of terrorism committed by Islamic extremists, explaining that such things occur because of misreading the Qur'an.^[4]

References

1. "U ZG skupštinu ulaze poznata glazbenica, bivše ministrice, proslavljeni filmski producent..." dnevnik.hr (in Croatian). Retrieved 23 May 2017.
2. Preminuo bivši zagrebački muftija Ševko Omerbašić (in Croatian)
3. "Međureligijski dijalog i ubijanje prodavača leda" (in Croatian). Politika. 20 November 2006. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
4. Mumić, Sanel (6 November 2011). "Ševko ef. Omerbašić, muftija zagrebački: Treba ispitati ko je doveo vehabije u BiH". Dnevni Avaz (in Bosnian). Retrieved 12 November 2011.