within it as well,” “We are fighting for a Bosnia and Herzegovina in which no one
will suffer on the grounds of their faith, nation and beliefs,” and “Let us negotiate
whenever we can and make war when we must.” Sjećanja conveys these messages of
his as testaments: He did not think he was saying these in vain but that there were
people who would hear them.

Sjećanja clearly shows all the roads that Muslim humanist Alija Izetbegović has
travelled and mentions all the important world destinations to which he brought
his messages about the hardships of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its people. Across
the world, Alija Izetbegović has warned about the torments of the people in Bosnia
and Herzegovina fighting against the war, repeating the words he first said at his
speech at the SDA convention on December 1, 1991:

Should the gunpowder barrel explode, everything would disappear in smoke and disgrace,
both cartographers and generals, and all the parties and all the leaders, all the laws and institutions, and the major part of what has been built in this territory through the hard work of
dozens of generations. Since they are unlucky enough to be indestructible, the three bleeding
and defeated peoples will remain alone, losing their minds and being reduced to the level of
barbarity. (Izetbegovic, 2005, pp. 114–115)

Unfortunately, in the turbulence of 1992, the gunpowder barrel exploded. Sjećanja
offers documents with authentic data about the times and places (e.g., London, Lisbon, Geneve, Rome, Paris, Vienna, Washington, New York, Dayton, Riyadh, Jeddah,
Teheran, Casablanca) where Alija Izetbegović had spoken, warned, requested, pleaded,
and moved the knockers on the gates of the world’s powerful people.

For this reason, his Sjećanja has an international dimension as well a local one.
Such chapters from this valuable book are at times drenched in pessimism and at
others with the author’s huge disappointment at the (lack of) readiness of the major
centers of global power to defend the principles they themselves proclaim. These are
the pages in Sjećanja where the author questions his long-standing upholding of the
concepts of the Muslim humanists. Whenever he would visit the major centers of the
Muslim East (e.g., Riyadh, Teheran), he would challenge his Muslimhood, whereas in
the Western capitals, he would question his humanist viewpoints. Sjećanja faithfully
speaks about its author as a man in the middle, searching for the midway solutions
and remaining constantly open to all the sides of the world that the phrase Muslim
humanist implies.

In several places of his Sjećanja, the author brings selections from his speeches
about Bosnia and Herzegovina held at important summits and conferences where
he warns not only the survival of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina to be at stake
but also the survival of its society. He reminds the European Union that the EU itself