Plato, the philosopher of the golden age of ancient Greek philosophy, dreamed of an exemplary ideal state ruled by philosophers, believing that the philosophers for their wisdom would make the city a model, in which the features of civilization and the utopia would be fulfilled.

Despite the long debate that took place among philosophers over more than 23 centuries, over Plato’s idea, and its renewal in the modern era, about the validity and criticism of Plato’s idea; I found examples that can be considered as realizations of the idea of ​​the Greek philosopher. Not far from the Academy of Athens, which was founded by Plato, he was born in eastern Europe, a philosopher, thinker, and politician who leads an Islamic nation in eastern Europe, and lived a life full of intellectual and political struggle, which included many years behind bars before becoming the first president of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina after the end of a bloody war during the 1990s. .

The people of Bosnia have experienced an enormous human tragedy, from which they ultimately survived and the leaders of the Serbian extermination were condemned, Bosnia recovered after the war, and received support for reconstruction. Although the Bosnians have not forgotten the genocide that they lived through, the efforts of "Dido"; That is, the grandfather in Bosnian, as his people called him, succeeded in putting an end to long suffering.

Contrary to the image of the main leader, Izetbegovic presented a renewed intellectual project for Islamic thought in a regional circumstance that included the submission of his country to the communist occupation and the suffering of his people for a long time from the ravages of war.

He wrote - in the spirit of the European Muslim writer, artist and philosopher - his most important book "Islam between East and West" during his imprisonment, trying to overcome the clash of civilizations to see a human being guided by the inspiration of heaven.

The late Egyptian thinker Abdel-Wahab El-Messiri described the late President Izetbegovic as "the only mujtahid in the world now." Elmessiri added that Izetbegovic was a thinker and head of state, "analyzing Western civilization and demonstrating the nihilistic materialist cognitive model inherent in its sciences and its dominant model, and then confronts it and resists its attempt to annihilate its people."

Elmessiri added that he (Izetbegovic) was at the same time benefiting from the jurisprudence of Western thinkers defending mankind.

Philosopher President and Open Society

According to Plato, the philosopher king is a ruler who enjoys a love of wisdom, intelligence and simple living, and knew ancient history examples considered a kind of models of the philosopher king, such as the Roman Emperor the writer Marcus Aurelius, who was one of the most important Stoic philosophers and the 16th Roman Emperor at the same time, and the King of Hungary and Croatia Matthias Corvinus His library contained the largest collection of scientific, historical and philosophical books in 15th century Europe.

But despite these models of philosophical rulers, the Austrian-English philosopher of the twentieth century Karl Popper blamed Plato for the rise of totalitarianism in the twentieth century, as the theory of the philosophical kings of Plato led to fascist dreams such as "social engineering" and "idealism", and led directly - According to Popper - of models such as Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin via Hegel and Marx philosophy. 

Popper called the trio of philosophers Plato, Hegel and Marx the "enemies of open society," and held them responsible for the suppression of dissenting ideas and the spread of totalitarian dictatorships in the Middle Ages until the emergence of Hitler and Stalin.

And he asserts that a democratic society should not be ruled by a definite "platonic" idealist concept. On the other hand, he should rely on trial and error steps and open up to the ideas of others, ruling out any preconceived notions about the future.

In this context, the late Bosnian President Izetbegovic seemed to be the exception of the 20th century to the problems of Plato's idea expressed by Popper, as he is an intellectual, non-totalitarian president, and he founded a party that won the parliamentary majority after a democratic competition, and participated in the governance of his country as a member of the Bosnian Presidency Council from 1996 to the year 2000, and chairing the council twice, alternating with representatives of Serbs and Croats, before he retires from political life and resigns from official positions, and writes in his memoirs, "I am a president elected by the people."

Born in Shabats, in the Yugoslav kingdom, in 1925, he clashed early with the authorities as a result of his Islamic intellectual interests in contrast to the communist positions, as he joined in his youth the Muslim Youth Organization that was established in Sarajevo, and was sentenced in 1946 to 3 years imprisonment.

After his release from prison, he continued to study rights, and continued to form himself by reading and publishing some articles under a pseudonym. He became famous in Yugoslavia when he wrote the "Islamic Manifesto", for which he was brought to trial in Sarajevo in 1983 with 12 intellectuals on charges of "fundamentalism" and was sentenced to 14 imprisonment. He was finally released at the end of 1988, to be known as a lawyer, intellectual and political activist.

Izetbegovic rejected his accusation of fundamentalism, saying that the accusation was a cover for ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Muslim Bosniaks.

After a career as a jurist, Izetbegovic founded the Democratic Action Party in 1990, and as a free voice for his people from the Bosniaks of Muslims, he called for the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and an example of the coexistence of different ethnicities in Yugoslavia.

In 1990, his party won 86 seats in the 240-seat parliament, after which it led the Bosnian people's struggle to defend their country against the Serbian aggression, which began with Bosnia and Herzegovina declaring its independence from Yugoslavia in 1992, and continued until the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement on November 1. The second 1995.

He authored many books of an intellectual and political nature, based on his vision and understanding of the universality of Islam's message and teachings, and in his theses and theories he called for tolerance and coexistence between different religions and races.

Among his most prominent works are: “The Islamic Manifesto,” “Obstacles to the Islamic Renaissance,” and “Islam between East and West.” His work in authorship culminated in the end of 1999 with the publication of his memoir "My Escape to Freedom", in which he recorded his notes in prison during the period between 1983 and 1988.

East and West

In his introduction to the translation of Izetbegovic's most famous book "Islam between East and West," the Egyptian philosopher Abdel-Wahab El-Messiri described the writings of the Bosnian thinker as indicating an unusual familiarity with Western philosophies, adding that the acquaintance of Begovich "is not the same as that of the professors of philosophy who present different philosophical ideas in a neutral presentation. "The knowledge of the true philosopher, who stands on a solid philosophical ground and overlooks the other, realizes the essence of the epistemological model that dominates it."

Elmessiri described Izetbegovic as living under the shades of Marxism and socialism, “so he realized from the beginning that we are not talking about two different systems, one capitalist and the other socialist, but rather we are talking in reality about one underlying epistemological model that takes a socialist form in the case of socialism, and a capitalist form in the case of capitalism, and that There is one vision behind all these conflicting systems of conflict. "

In his book "My Escape to Freedom," Izetbegovic said of himself, "My mind is always thinking, but my heart is at rest with faith."

The philosopher president - the exception of the twentieth century - and the leader of the Bosnian nation died in 2003 of a heart disease, and was buried in a modest cemetery for war martyrs and genocide victims of the Bosnian people, and said before his death that "the battle to unify Bosnia and consolidate democracy is progressing step by step."