Mustafa Ceric

Dr. Mustafa Ceric was born in Visoko, Bosnia in 1952.
He served as the Grand Mufti of the Islamic Community in Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia from 1993 to 2012.
He is now the Grand Mufti Emeritus of Bosnia.
He finished his Grammar Islamic School in 1972 in Sarajevo; got his Diploma at the Faculty of Arabic Language and Literature of the Al-Azhar University in Cairo in 1978; received his Ph.D. degree at the Department of Eastern Languages and Civilizations of the University of Chicago under the mentorship of Pakistani Professor Fazlur Rahman ( 1919 –1988).
He served as the Imam of Islamic Cultural Center in Chicago and the Islamic Center of Zagreb in Croatia; he lectured at the American Islamic College in Chicago, at the Faculty of Islamic Studies in Sarajevo, and taught at the International Institute for Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
He is the co-recipient of the 2003 UNESCO Felix Houphoet Boigny Peace Prize for Contribution to World Peace and the recipient of the International Council of Christians and Jews Annual Sir Sternberg Award for exceptional contribution to interfaith understanding.
He is the co-signatory of an Open letter by Muslim personalities, meant as a reply to the Regesburg speech by Pope Benedict XVI, which is “The letter by 139", 13 Oct 2006; he is the co-signatory of the ecumenical Muslim document "A Common Word Between Us and You”, which is an appeal addressed to all Christian churches for dialogue on the basis of love of God and love of the neighbour. ("The Letter by 138", 13 Oct 2007).
He is awarded the Theodor-Heuss-Award of 2007 and the Eugen-Biser-Award of 2008 in Germany; he is the recipient of 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award from The Association of Muslim Schools (AMS) UK; he is the co-recipient of the King Abdullah I Bin Al-Hussein International Award of 2010 for intellectual contribution to spreading Islamic tradition and culture, and co- recipient of Ducci Foundation Peace Prize of 2012 for a relevant and sensible engagement in promoting the dialogue and the distention between religions and cultures.
Dr. Ceric was a co-founder and a member of several local and international organizations and societies, including the Inter-religious Council of Bosnia- Herzegovina; the Foundation of Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial and Cemetery; the Council of 100 Leaders of the World Economic Forum; the European Council for Fatwas and Research; World Conference of Religions for Peace; the Executive Committee of the European Council of Religious Leaders; the
Sharia'h Board of Bosnia Bank International; the Fiqh Academy in Mecca; Aal Albayt Foundation for Islamic Thought in Jordan; the World Council of Religions for Peace; International Commission for Peace Research chaired by dr. Henry Kissinger, UNESCO.
He was visiting professor 2013-2014 at the World Islamic Science & Education University in Amman, Jordan.
He authored several books and many articles: “Roots of Synthetic Theology in Islam” and “The Declaration of European Muslims”.