Bulgarian Council of Religious Communities backs Muslims in controversy over prosecutor’s statement
The National Council of Religious Communities in Bulgaria, which includes representatives of all major faiths, has come out in support of the Muslim community by expressing indignation at a reported statement by a prosecutor that if the proportion of Muslims in the country reaches 30 per cent, this would be the end of the state.
“The National Council of Religious Communities in Bulgaria (NSROB) expresses its indignation at the statement by prosecutor Nedyalka Popova, expressing its disagreement and condemning this type of speech about a religious community as unacceptable and scandalous,” the council said.
Popova reportedly made the statement while being interviewed in connection with the trial of a number of Bulgarian Muslims charged with seeking to overthrow the state and replace it with a radical Islamic theocracy.
The religious communities council called on the responsible institutions to take appropriate measures against speech propagating religious intolerance in Bulgaria.
“Bulgaria is a sovereign state, made up of people with different ethnicities and religions born and living in it. None of the ethnicities and religions can be a threat to the national security of our country,” the council said.
Meanwhile, Bulgaria’s Commission for Protection against Discrimination is investigating the matter.
Earlier, Bulgarian Prosecutor-General Sotir Tsatsarov described Popova’s reported statement as inappropriate and said that the inspectorate at his office was to investigate.
Bulgarian National Radio reported Popova as saying that she had not been talking about the Muslim community in Bulgaria, but only the accused in the trial from the towns of Pazardzhik, Smolyan and Blagoevgrad.
(Photo, of the Banya Bashi Mosque in Sofia: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)
