Ismet Muftić (born 1876,

Žepče Žepče ( sr-cyrl, Жепче) is a town and municipality located in Zenica-Doboj Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in central Bosnia and Herzegovina, between Doboj and Zenica. ...

– died 1945,

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

) was a Bosnian

imam Imam (; , '; : , ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Salah, Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, ...

and the first

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

Mufti A mufti (; , ) is an Islamic jurist qualified to issue a nonbinding opinion ('' fatwa'') on a point of Islamic law (''sharia''). The act of issuing fatwas is called ''iftāʾ''. Muftis and their ''fatāwa'' have played an important role thro ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

. He became mufti of the Croatian capital

in 1917 after the Islamic community was reformed there. His main task was to attempt to build a permanent mosque in the city. Due to lack of funds, the community was not able to achieve this on its own. Plans to build a mosque at Zelengaj in the 1930s did not succeed, however. In March 1939 Muftić was one of the founders and vice president of ''Društvo bosansko-hercegovačkih Hrvata u Zagrebu'' (Society of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Croats in Zagreb).Zlatko Hasanbegović, ''Muslimani u Zagrebu 1878.-1945. Doba utemeljenja'', Medžlis Islamske zajednice u Zagrebu-Institut društvenih znanosti Ivo Pilar, Zagreb, 2007, pp. 175:

"Muftić je u ožujku 1939., s većim brojem zagrebačkih muslimana, sudjelovao u osnutku ''Društva bosansko-hercegovačkih Hrvata u Zagrebu'' čiji je predsjednik bio povjesničar
Ćiro Truhelka Ćiro Truhelka (2 February 1865 – 18 September 1942) was a Croatian archeologist, historian, and art historian who devoted much of his professional life to the study of the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He wrote about prehistory, Roman and ...
. Izabran je i za potpredsjednika društva koje je u javnosti zastupalo je koncept hrvatske nacionalne pripadnosti Bosne i Hercegovine, i to u vrijeme pregovora oko određivanja konačnih granica Banovine Hrvatske."

However, after the

Independent State of Croatia The Independent State of Croatia (, NDH) was a World War II–era puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy (1922–1943), Fascist Italy. It was established in parts of Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, occupied Yugoslavia on 10 April 1941, ...

was formed, the ruling Ustaša party sought to better accommodate the Croatian Muslims. Muftić and the Muslim community put forth a proposition to turn the Orthodox church on Preradović Square into a mosque. In the end, it was decided that the Meštrović Pavilion would take that role. To that effect, three minarets were added to the building. In 1945, at the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Muftić was hanged by the

Yugoslav Partisans The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian language, Macedonian, and Slovene language, Slovene: , officially the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska i partizanski odr ...

. In 1949 the Pavilion's minarets were taken down, and the building returned to its old usage.

References

1876 births 1945 deaths Croatian imams 20th-century imams Croatian civilians killed in World War II Date of birth unknown Date of death missing People killed by Yugoslav Partisans People executed by Yugoslavia by hanging Executed Bosnian Muslim collaborators with Nazi Germany Executed Croatian collaborators with Nazi Germany {{World-War-II-bio-stub