Thursday, 3 February 2022
MEETING BETWEEN PRESIDENT XHAFERI AND ZAGREB MUFTI HASANOVIĆ
President Xhaferi met today with a delegation from the Croatian Islamic Community, including Zagreb Mufti Dr. Aziz Hasanović, President of Meshihat of the Islamic Community in Croatia; Dr. Mirza Sabić, President of the Assembly of the Islamic Community in Croatia and Mevludi ef. Arslani, Director of the Islamic High School in Zagreb.
The delegation was accompanied and hosted by the President of the Islamic Religious Community of North Macedonia, Reis Ulema H. Hfz. Shakir ef. Fetai and H. Irsal Jakup, Secretary General of the IRC in RNM.
President Xhaferi welcomed the guests from Croatia, a country with which we share the same values in terms of policies and legal regulation of religious communities. He informed the interlocutors about the current parliamentary composition, its specifics and the challenges we face as a country on the path of European integration, which Croatia completed in 2013. He spoke about the importance of religious communities in fostering peace, coexistence and interfaith tolerance in society, especially in societies 
where many religions coexist. To this end, he stressed it is extremely important that religious education be treated equally and integrated into the school system, which will contribute to higher inter-religious tolerance and the prevention of any deviation from the original Islamic teaching. In that regard, he spoke about the initiation of the formation of a working group that will develop a legal solution regulating the status of religious schools.
Academician Hasanović warmly thanked for the opportunity to meet with President Xhaferi, whom he commended for the contribution to the stability of the country with his wise management and then followed up on the issue of integration of religious schools in the education system of the country, which is resolved in 
Croatia with a mutually signed Agreement between the Croatian Government and the Islamic Community of Croatia. He also spoke about the success of the "Croatian model", as a platform for resolving the religious and national issue in a country, which has been implemented in Croatia since 2002. He underlined that prevention is always a better solution than a sanction and expressed readiness to share their experiences and legal solutions with our country.