Abdulah Muhasilović

Who is Abdulah Muhasilović?

Abdulah Muhasilović was a Bosniak army chaplain best known for his involvement in the 13th Waffen-SS Division "Handschar".

Muhasilović joined the nascent Division early on in the recruitment stage in June 1943 and was quickly appointed senior Imam to the entire Division as he was comparatively the oldest of all the young ulema who signed up. His tasks included supervising the younger imams and serving as spiritual leader of the Divisional headquarters Stabsjäger Kompanie.

In July 1943 he and several other Bosnian Ulema in the Handschar attended an "Imam Training Course" in Berlin organised by SS Obergruppenführer Gottlob Berger. Zvonimir Bernwald described Abdulah Muhasilović as a "skirt chaser".

Later in 1943, training at Neuhammer, Imam Muhasilović gave an important speech during festivities to mark Bairam: "The world's Muslims are engaged in a terrible life-and-death struggle." He appealed to the men to prepare for conflict with Communism in their "beloved Bosnia".

Abdulah Muhasilović was later judged to be a "complete failure." On 21 October 1944 he led a mutiny at Cerna: he and over 100 Bosnian men simply walked away with their weapons towards Bosnia. They joined 500 other deserters and surrendered to the Partisan XVIII Croatian Brigade in the Maoča - Rahić area.