In a statement sent to the local media this weekend, the Syrian, nicknamed Abu Hamza, said he sought forgiveness from Bosnia's Islamic community, Muslim dignitaries and all Bosnian Muslims who considered his statement an insult.
The statement came after Abu Hamza's meeting with the head of the Islamic community, Mustafa Ceric.
Commenting on the meeting, Abu Hamza said that he fully supported efforts by the Islamic community to preserve the unity of the Muslims in the country and condemned inappropriate conduct or physical conflicts among Muslims.
The comment was a direct response to a resolution adopted last week by the leadership of the country's Islamic community which condemned the imposing of aggressive Islam and warned that attempts to threaten Bosnia's centuries-old tradition of practicing Islam would not be tolerated.
The resolution did not name any individual or group, but it was clear that the criticism was directed at the so-called Wahhabis, an 18th century movement from Saudi Arabia, which started spreading in Bosnia-Herzegovina after the arrival of the mujahedeen fighters during the 1990s war.
The advocates of the return to the original Islam that was practiced in ancient times have brought into question most customs of the Bosnian Muslims - from their clothing and the way they pray, which culminated with the challenging of the authority of the Islamic community and its leaders. In imposing their views, they did not hesitate to use force.
The resolution adopted by the leadership of the Islamic community was prompted by physical conflicts among Muslims living in the southwestern Serbian region of Sandzak, which were incited by the Wahhabis.
Ceric said that there was still no danger of such incidents occurring in Bosnia-Herzegovina and he described the resolution as a timely and well-intended warning to those who did not want to understand the needs of Bosnian Muslims.
Some media in the country and prominent Muslim intellectuals believe, however, that the warnings have come too late because the Wahhabi movement in the country is much stronger than it can be concluded from the recent reports.
The Dani weekly wondered why Ceric and the Islamic leadership did not respond when Wahhabi Muamer Topalovic, out of religious hatred, killed almost all members of a Croat family near Konjic on Christmas Eve in 2002.
There was also no response when 23-year-old Vedad Hafizovic, also a follower of the Wahhabis, at the start of this year cut his mother's throat because she refused to perform the morning prayer the way he did it.
Jusuf Ramic, a professor at the Faculty of Islamic Studies in Sarajevo, told the local media that the Wahhabis had taken root and that apart from openly promoting their views they were sometimes attacking the faithful whose conduct differed from theirs.
Another professor at the Faculty of Islamic Studies, Adnan Silajdzic, believes also that the Wahhabis would only grow stronger and more aggressive. He described them as a retrograde movement incapable of facing the challenges of modern Islam and one that was causing rifts in Bosnia's Muslim community.
"The statement that our Muslims practice heretic Islam is insolent and utterly irritating," Silajdzic said, warning, however, that the Islamic community was partially responsible for the current situation because it was unable to give answers to many questions of modern life, particularly those important for young people.
If the Islamic community does not reform its educational institutions, the Wahhabis will grow even stronger and more aggressive, Silajdzic concluded.