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Bosnian Muslims Want to Rebuild Historic Mosque
BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Hercegovina, June 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Bosnian Muslim leaders will try again Monday to begin the process of rebuilding a 16th century mosque destroyed by Serb militants during the Bosnian war, after Serb rioters forced the cancellation of the first attempt last month.
Bosnian Serb police authorities gave their approval Friday for a ceremony to lay the mosque's foundation stone, a spokesman for the Bosnian Serb interior ministry, Zoran Glusac, said.
The ceremony is scheduled for 11:30 am (0930 GMT), Glusac said, adding that it was not yet known how many people were planning to attend.
The police were widely criticized for doing little to prevent the ethnic violence that marred the first attempt last month, when sections of a 4,000-strong crowd of Bosnian Serb demonstrators stormed the site.
The riots left one Muslim dead and over 30 injured, while several high-level international officials and some 300 Muslim dignitaries were trapped for several hours in a building.
The violence was condemned by the international community although international reaction was not comparable to the outrage over a decision a few months ago by Afghanistan's Taliban to destroy two statues for Buddha.
The Ferhadija mosque site is situated in central Banja Luka, the capital of the Bosnian Serb republic. It was dynamited during the 1992-95 war when widespread ethnic cleansing by the Serbs forced Muslims and Croats from the ethnically-mixed city.
The Dayton Agreement which ended the war left the country divided into two entities -- the Serbs' Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation.
If Serb militants don't block the renewed effort to build the mosque, it will one of seven mosques to be rebuilt in Banja Luka, according to the Bosnian Human Rights Chamber.
Meanwhile, Bosnian Serb President Mirko Sarovic called Saturday on Serbs to show tolerance next week when Muslims start rebuilding the mosque razed during wartime ethnic cleansing of Muslims.
A ceremony to lay the foundation stone at the 16th century Ferhadija mosque in Banja Luka on Monday has attracted international attention after Serb rioters forced the cancellation of the first attempt last month.
"I call upon all citizens of Republika Srpska (RS), especially youth, to help the RS by making it possible that this religious event ends in peace and tolerance," Sarovic told Bosnian Serb radio.
"I think that both the RS government and (interior) ministry have taken all necessary measures to ensure that this event ends in dignity and peace," he added.
He said he was convinced the Serb entity would prove that it could provide full religious freedom and tolerance.
Banja Luka, the capital of the Bosnian Serb entity, was the center of massive ethnic cleansing of minority Muslims and Croats during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
Efforts to rebuild the historic mosque are part of a drive to allow the return of thousands of Muslim refugees to the area.
In March the international community, overseeing Bosnia's peace process, welcomed a recent decision by Bosnian Serb authorities to allow one of the country's most famous mosques to be rebuilt.
The Bosnian Human Rights Chamber ordered Bosnian Serb authorities in June 1999 "to swiftly grant ... necessary permits" to the Islamic community of Banja Luka, which requested the rebuilding of the mosque.
Stressing that the permit was only the first step in the process, the office of the top international mediator in Bosnia, Wolfgang Petritsch, had voiced hope that there would be no delay in issuing a building permit.
Petritsch's office also said it considered the facilitation of the rebuilding "a litmus test for the authorities to demonstrate their commitment to the Dayton peace accord, reconciliation, return and mutual respect."
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