There is no dilemma – Bosnian Muslims belong to the West, Sarajevo mufti and university professor Nedzad Grabus told N1, stressing that the country they live in is a secular state.

Speaking to N1's Nikola Vucic, Grabus said that “dissonant tones” about different ideas and dilemmas that Muslims should have towards the West emerge occasionally, but that there should be no alternative – “we are a part of the Western-European world, in a secular state.”

“Within the framework of the freedoms we have, we can very clearly articulate our religious views on important social issues, and I believe that it will be of great benefit to many to get to know the different ideas and concrete ways of life that people have in different parts of the Western world,” he said.

Grabus is a member of the European Council of Religious Leaders and co-president of the new York-based World Council Religions for Peace as well as co-chairman of the Muslim-Jewish Leadership Council, Vienna.

He said there is no dilemma – “we belong to that world and need to work on how to articulate more clearly within that part of the world.”

“God made us different. Every Qur'an verse speaks about that, that God created people different and how can I have the right, as a human, to be against someone of different religion if I comprehend my own religion in a fundamental way? Could that happen in Bosnia? I strongly believe it could unless some corrupt political or even religious structure stop it,” he noted.

He also emphasised the importance of fighting against tendencies that suggest that people cannot coexist here. “That is not true,” he stressed.