Studying the experience of Ali Izetbegovic can open up new areas for us to develop the science of leadership, as it shows that difficult experiences can lead to the qualification of a person to lead, develop his vision of the future, and increase his ability to inspire and influence others.

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Studying the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina in depth was one of the most important qualifications of Ali Izetbegovic to lead his people. He learned from this study to be proud of the Islamic identity, as it is what distinguishes his people.

It indicates that the ruler of Bosnia, Ali Pasha Hečović, was able to defeat the Austrian army in the Battle of Banja Luka in 1737, and this resulted in the demarcation of the northern borders of modern Bosnia during the peace agreement that followed that war known as the "Treaty of Belgrade" in 1739.

Since that date, the Bosnians have made fierce resistance and repeated revolts against Europe's attempts to control Bosnia, and subjugate it to Austria.

Ali Izetbegovic's mother had an important role in preparing her son as the leader of the Bosnian people;

This lady was distinguished by piety and piety, and she was keen to wake her son for the dawn prayer, and to go to the only mosque in the area, and what pleased him was listening to the imam’s recitation of Surat Al-Rahman

Muslims in Bosnia have been continuously persecuted and killed until the number of those killed during World War II reached 75,000, which is equivalent to 8% of the number of Muslims.

After World War II, the Communists dealt harshly with Muslims, as 250,000 of them were subjected to mass executions by Tito in forced death marches and concentration camps during 1945 and 1946.

The communist regime also closed Sharia courts and schools in which students were taught the Qur'an, and dissolved all Islamic cultural and educational societies.

Despite this, the Bosniaks did not submit and turned to the underground resistance, and they continued to circulate Islamic books, and the Muslim Youth Organization resisted the campaign against Islam until hundreds of its members were imprisoned.

Therefore, the Islamic identity did not disappear in Bosnia, despite the persecution and oppression carried out by the Yugoslav communist regime.

identity awareness

Ali Izetbegovic's mother had an important role in preparing her son as the leader of the Bosnian people;

This lady was distinguished by piety and piety, and she was keen to wake her son for the dawn prayer, and to go to the only mosque in the area, and what pleased him was listening to the imam's recitation of Surat Al-Rahman.

Alija Izetbegovic worked with a group of fellow students to form the Muslim Youth Association;

Which led to his arrest in 1946 to spend 36 months in prison.

After his release from detention, he was forced to give up his dream of enrolling in law school, and studied agricultural economics, but he was able to transfer to a law major in 1954, despite the censorship that the communist authorities continued to impose on him.

Ali Izetbegovic says, "A person does not know what benefits him and what harms him in life. If I had not been imprisoned in 1946 - which I and my family considered a catastrophic matter - I would certainly have been killed in 1949, as was the death of the late Khaled Kaitaz, who took my position in the Muslim Youth Organization after My arrest, Khaled was sentenced to death by firing squad in October 1949, and this is how prison saved my life.”

Despite the imprisonment, Alija Izetbegovic maintained his membership in the Muslim Youth Organization, whose members were subjected to prison sentences totaling thousands of years, but individuals continued to maintain the idea.

As a result of the aggressive actions of the communist regime, Sarajevo was in dire straits, its shops were empty, and the prisons were full of young Muslims.

"Islamic Manifesto"

After graduating from the Faculty of Law in 1956, Ali Izetbegovic worked on writing articles, but they were not published, and he wrote the book "The Islamic Manifesto", which he succeeded in publishing in 1970, and the book was about the Islamic world, and there was no mention of Yugoslavia, as the main idea in it was that Only Islam can restore the creative capabilities of Muslim peoples, enabling Muslims to once again play an active and positive role in making their own history.

In 1983, Alija Izetbegovic was arrested and interrogated for more than 100 days, during which he was starved until his face turned pale.

At the trial, Izetbegovic addressed the audience with the greeting of Islam, "Peace be upon you." The judge became angry and warned him about that. He replied, "It is my right to greet my children sitting in the hall."

A list of charges were brought against Ali Izetbegovic and his companions, the most important of which is working for the Islamic renaissance and the Islamization of the state.

The evidence for the accusation was the book The Islamic Manifesto. Alija Izetbegovic had the courage to express his views in court;

He boldly said: "I acknowledge that I am a Muslim and will remain a Muslim, and consider myself a defender of Islam's causes in the world. Islam is a promise and hope for a better future for Muslim peoples, and in their right to live in freedom and dignity, and in all that is worthy of one's life."

Therefore, the Communist Court sentenced Alija Izetbegovic to 14 years in prison.

in criminal prison

Ali Izetbegovic was transferred to the terrible Foca prison in November 1983. This prison housed those convicted of criminal offenses. He was placed in the ward of those who had committed murders, the aim of which was for the prisoners to kill him.

When Alija Izetbegovic entered this terrible prison, he gave free rein to his imagination, and told himself that he was over 60 years old;

So he will die in prison.

It was a moment of weakness that Izetbegovic experienced as every human being, but he discovered that God wanted him well by sending him to the killers wing in prison. These prisoners were able to smuggle papers and pens to him, and he was able to produce 13 volumes, and the prisoners smuggled the book "Islam Between East and West" and wrote Others out of prison in a chess game box.

The prisoners loved Ali Izetbegovic, as they found him the best help in their cases, and they confessed to him what they had committed, and it was discovered that most of them were good people, and some of them committed the crime of murder for “humanitarian” motives, such as a prisoner who killed someone because he beat his father.

After 6 years spent in prison by Ali Izetbegovic, the communist regime began to collapse, so he was released from prison to be elected head of the Democratic Action Party, which won in the November 1990 elections 86 of the 240 seats in the Parliament of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

But the conflict broke out when the Serbs and Croats attacked the Muslim people of Bosnia with the aim of destroying this people, after the Serbs seized all the weapons of the Yugoslav army, and Ali Izzat fought the battle of negotiations, and the battle of defending his Muslim people in the face of Serbian aggression.

Izetbegovic believes that the war began when the forces of Serbia and Montenegro invaded Bosnia, and these forces were in the spirit of killing and looting, while the people of Bosnia did not have the weapons to defend themselves. The Security Council issued a resolution imposing an arms embargo on all Union republics The former Yugoslavia, while the Bosnian army was the only one who was deprived of the means to arm itself because of this ban.

"The war in Bosnia was not from the beginning between two warring armies, but a strong military attack against a defenseless people, as the goal was to create a Greater Serbia," says Ali Izetbegovic.

Alija Izetbegovic has proven that he has outstanding abilities in conducting negotiations, expressing the hopes of his people, and using all diplomatic tools.

He was also able to explain to the world the hypocrisy of America and European countries and their bias against Muslims, as the people of Bosnia are subjected to a process of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

He also made sure that his army and people adhere to the ethics of Islam. In his November 1993 speech, Izetbegovic said, “God has afflicted us with a painful challenge. Because we are doing our best to be a respectable people in the midst of our difficult situation, and because the Holy Qur’an, which we believe in, prevents us from that.”

Izetbegovic added, "My tolerance has Islamic roots, not European. My tolerance stems from being a Muslim first and foremost. Europe suffers from some illusions that it has not been able to free itself from its shackles despite the obvious facts. During this war, hundreds of mosques and churches were destroyed, and hundreds of mosques and churches were destroyed. All of them were destroyed by the Europeans, not by the Bosniaks, and fascism and communism are the products of Europe.”

Ali Izetbegovic led a self-defense operation in the face of aggression aimed at ethnic genocide of Muslims, and directed his army and people to adhere to Islamic morals and conscience, and thus he was able to achieve an Islamic civilizational victory in the face of the arrogance of the brutal European power.

This was the result of his long experience in studying Islamic history in depth, awareness of identity, and the many years he spent in prisons, in which he formed his vision for the future of his people.