Džafer-beg Kulenović

Dr. Džafer beg Kulenović (1891 - 1956) was a the Vice President of the Independent State of Croatia during World War II. He also became President of Yugoslav Muslim Party, the largest Bosniak Muslim political party, following the death of Dr. Mehmed Spaho in 1939.

Kulenović was born in Rajnovići on February 17 1891. He served as president of the Yugoslav Moslem Organization and was a minister in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia's government before the Second World War.

He became the vice-president of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) on November 7, 1941 and held the position to war's end. He had actually succeeded his older brother Osman Kulenović in this position.

After the fall of the NDH, Kulenović immigrated to Syria. He lived there until his death on October 3 1956 in Damascus. While in Syria the Croats in Argentina published a collection of his journalistic writings. In 1950 the Moslem in Chicago published a speech he wrote for a Muslim Congress following World War Two in Lahire he was unable to attend as a twenty-two page pamphlet entitled "A Message of Croat Moslems to Their Religious Brethren in the World." The pamphlet detailed Serb aggression against Bosnian Muslims and promoted the idea of Croat-Bosnian unity. Only a few months before his death the Croatian Liberation Movement had been formed, with Kulenović being one of the founders and signatories. His son Nihad continued working with the Movement, but was assassinated by the Yugoslav secret police, UDBA, in Munich.

Kulenović was one of the highest ranking Muslim Croats in the NDH. He continued his call for unity between Catholic and Muslim Croats until the very end of his life. His grandson also named Dzafer, is now one of the main Bosniak leaders in North America serving as the Vice President of the North American Congress of Bosniaks, the largest Bosnian organization in the USA, the President of the Islamic Cultural Center in Northbrook, Illinois(the oldest Bosniak mosque in North America), and as a member of the Governing Board of the Democratic Action Party in Sarajevo.