Fevzija Murić (; born 12 May 1959) is a politician in Serbia from the country's Bosniak community. He was the mayor of Novi Pazar from 1996 to 1997, a member of the National Assembly of Serbia from 1997 to 2001, and a secretary of state in the Serbian government from 2007 to 2008. He has also served several terms on the Novi Pazar city council (i.e., the executive branch of the city government). Murić has led the Party for Sandžak (Stranka za Sandžak, SZS) since 2001.
Early life and private career Murić was born in Novi Pazar, in the Sandžak region of what was then the People's Republic of Serbia in the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. He completed his early education in the community and later graduated from the Faculty of Stomatology at the University of Sarajevo in what was then the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was president of the Muslim humanitarian organization Merhamet-Sandžak from 1991 to 2001.GRADSKA UPRAVA - GRADSKO VEĆE, , City of Novi Pazar, accessed 16 November 2022.
Politician Party of Democratic Action of Sandžak Murić became politically active in the early 1990s as a member of the Party of Democratic Action of Sandžak (Stranka demokratske akcije Sandžaka, SDA). During this period, the political culture of Serbia and Yugoslavia was dominated by Slobodan Milošević and his allies, many Bosniaks were boycotting state institutions, and the SDA-dominated Muslim National Council of Sandžak had taken some steps toward establishing parallel institutions.
When the SDA split into rival factions led by party leader Sulejman Ugljanin and Rasim Ljajić in January 1995, Murić sided with Ugljanin, who was then in exile in Turkey following charges that he had distributed arms to the Bosniak community in the Sandžak. Murić was prominent in organizing a petition drive for Ugljanin and his allies to be amnestied. He criticized Ljajić's faction for entering into negotiations to the Serbian government in May 1995, arguing that negotiations could only take place after Milošević recognized Bosnia and Herzegovina and would need to be based on the Muslim National Council's Memorandum on the Establishment of Special Status for Sandžak, a strongly autonomist document."Serbia: Talking to the SDA", Vreme, 8 May 1995, accessed 16 November 2022.
Ugljanin ultimately returned to Serbia and was elected to the Assembly of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the 1996 federal election. The SDA-led List for Sandžak coalition won a majority victory in the election for the Novi Pazar municipal assembly in the concurrent 1996 Serbian local elections; Murić was among the SDA candidates elected and was chosen as the assembly's president, a position that was at the time equivalent to mayor, on 26 November 1996. He did not serve in office for long; the Serbian government dissolved the local administration in July 1997, alleging that it had provoked national and religious intolerance. The specific point of contention was the municipal government's decision to fly the SDA flag between the flags of Serbia and Yugoslavia on a municipal building. Murić later said that the Serbian government had taken an antagonistic stance to the List for Sandžak's administration from the beginning.Slavka Bakračević, "Svi predsednici Novog Pazara", Politika, 14 March 2016, accessed 16 November 2022."Blue jeans za lezece policajce", Naša borba, 20 July 1997, accessed 16 November 2022.IFIMES 2004, International Institute for Middle East and Balkan Studies, pp. 161-162."U susret novim izborima", Republika, Number 181 (1998), accessed 17 November 2022.
Parliamentarian Murić appeared in the lead position on the List for Sandžak's electoral list for the Kraljevo division in the 1997 Serbian parliamentary election and was elected when the list won two mandates."Ugljanin nosilac liste", Naša borba, 5 September 1997, accessed 17 November 2022.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године – ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (21 Краљево), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 9 September 2021.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године – РЕЗУЛТАТИ ИЗБОРА (Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за народне посланике у Народну скупштину Републике Србије, одржаних 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године (Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997.) године, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 2 July 2021. The List for Sandžak won three seats in total, and its members served in opposition to Serbia's coalition government led by Milošević's Socialist Party of Serbia (Socijalistička partija Srbije, SPS) in the term that followed.
Various Serbian opposition parties formed the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (Demokratska opozicija Srbije, DOS) coalition in early 2000. Murić criticized the DOS's platform in March of that year, describing it as "meagre and pretty disappointing" and arguing that it left little room for the recognition of Serbia's multi-ethnic character."Sandzak deputy criticizes opposition 'meagre' platform," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European – Political, 5 March 2000 (Source: Beta news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 1001 gmt 5 Mar 00).
DOS candidate Vojislav Koštunica defeated Milošević in the 2000 Yugoslavian presidential election, a watershed moment in Serbian and Yugoslavian politics. The List for Sandžak won a majority victory in Novi Pazar in the concurrent 2000 local elections. Murić was re-elected to the municipal assembly, although he did not return to the mayor's office.
Serbia's government fell after the Yugoslavian election, and a new Serbian parliamentary election was called for December 2000. The List for Sandžak did not contest the election, and Murić's term in the national assembly came to an end in January 2001.
Murić was also a member of the Bosniak National Council during this time."Sandzak deputy criticizes opposition 'meagre' platform," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European - Political, 5 March 2000 (Source: Beta news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 1001 gmt 5 Mar 00).
Party for Sandžak Early years (2001–04) Murić broke with Ugljanin almost immediately after his parliamentary term ended. In January 2001, he convened the first assembly of the Party for Sandžak and was chosen as its representative."New Muslim party urges action against Seselj over armed uprising claims," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European – Political, 28 January 2001 (Source: Tanjug news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat, 1703 gmt 28 Jan 01). The party was registered at the federal level in July 2001 and held its first electoral assembly in the same month. Murić formally became the party's leader at this time; in so doing, he called for the Sandžak to remain a united and autonomous entity in the event of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's disintegration."In case of Yugoslavia's breakup, Sandzak must remain whole - party chairman," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European – Political, 6 July 2001 (Source: Radio Novi Pazar in Serbo-Croat 1400 gmt 5 Jul 01)."Sandzak party adopts document on autonomy in case of Yugoslavia's break-up," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European – Political, 23 July 2001 (Source: Text of report by Serbian local radio from Novi Pazar on 23 July).
In September 2002, Murić announced the Party for Sandžak's support for Miroljub Labus in the September–October 2002 Serbian presidential election."Junior Sandzak party gives its support to Labus," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 17 September 2002 (Source: FoNet news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 1301 gmt 17 Sep 02). He later called for a boycott of the December 2002 presidential election and urged new elections at all levels of government."Sandzak party calls for election boycott, advocates general elections," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 4 December 2002 (Source: Radio Novi Pazar in Serbian 1500 gmt 4 Dec 02). Both presidential elections were invalidated due to low turnout.
Murić and other SZS members were expelled from the Novi Pazar municipal assembly in November 2002 on the grounds that, having left the SDA, they had lost the party affiliation under which they were elected."Members of junior Sandzak party ousted from local assembly," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 15 November 2002 (Source: Radio Novi Pazar in Serbian 1500 gmt 15 Nov 02). Murić sought re-election to the assembly in a January 2003 by-election and finished a distant third, as the local electorate became increasingly polarized between Ugljanin's SDA and Rasim Ljajić's Sandžak Democratic Party (Sandžačka demokratska partija, SDP).
In August 2003, Murić indicated that the SZS would not participate in the pending indirect elections for the Bosniak National Council, describing them as an undemocratic cover for Ugljanin's interests and those of the Serbian state."Poziv za elektorsku skupštinu Bošnjaka", B92, 22 August 2003, accessed 17 November 2022.
Murić brought the Party for Sandžak into the Together for Tolerance (Zajedno za toleranciju, ZZT) coalition in the 2003 Serbian parliamentary election and received the 141st position on the coalition's electoral list.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 28. децембра 2003. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (12. ЗАЈЕДНО ЗА ТОЛЕРАНЦИЈУ - ЧАНАК, КАСА, ЉАЈИЋ) Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 2 July 2021. During this period, mandates in Serbian parliamentary elections were awarded at the discretion of sponsoring parties or coalitions irrespective of numerical order, and Murić's list position had no specific bearing on his chances of election.Serbia's Law on the Election of Representatives (2000) stipulated that parliamentary mandates would be awarded to electoral lists (Article 80) that crossed the electoral threshold (Article 81), that mandates would be given to candidates appearing on the relevant lists (Article 83), and that the submitters of the lists were responsible for selecting their parliamentary delegations within ten days of the final results being published (Article 84). See Law on the Election of Representatives, Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 35/2000, made available via LegislationOnline, accessed 28 February 2017. In any event, the list did not cross the electoral threshold for assembly representation.
Murić later called for a boycott of the 2004 Serbian presidential election. He criticized Ugljanin for endorsing Democratic Party (Demokratska stranka, DS) candidate Boris Tadić, arguing that the DS's platform did not recognize regionalization in Serbia."Sandzak party calls for boycott of Serbian presidential elections," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 28 May 2004 (Source: FoNet news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 1204 gmt 28 May 04).
Cooperation with the SDP (2004–08) Serbia introduced both the direct election of mayors and proportional representation for local assembly elections in the 2004 local elections. Murić ran as the Party for Sandžak's candidate for mayor of Novi Pazar and was defeated in the first round, finishing third. The overall results were mixed: Ugljanin was elected as mayor, but the SDA did not win a majority of seats in the municipal assembly, and the SDP was able to form a coalition government with parties representing Novi Pazar's Serb community. The SZS won three seats and participated in the SDP-led administration, and Murić was appointed as a member of the municipal council in early 2005. In April 2005, he accused Ugljanin and his associates of having damaged the municipality by several million Euros during the previous administration."Pokradeni milioni evra", Glas javnosti, 1 April 2005, accessed 17 November 2022.