Grand Mufti of Muslims in Bulgaria Mustafa Hadzhi has recently declared that over 600 imams hadn’t received their salaries for 5consecutive months which resulted in their mass migration abroad. The others have been preparing protests amidst sharp social tension, the Grand Mufti claims. A week later, a former wannabe president by the name of Kemil Ramadan, claiming to be a friend of high ranking Arab persons, launched the idea for the construction of a mosque on one of the historical spots downtown Sofia, called the Tsar’s Stables, in case the municipality agrees. One of the sheikhs of Abu Dhabi Investments promised some USD 50 – 60 mln. for the purpose. Ramadan hasn’t consulted the Grand Mufti, but sources close to the institution claim that it agrees as a whole, if the issue goes through the Muslim community and in a dialogue with the Sofia Municipality. The nationalist VMORO party, part of the ruling coalition declared that the idea of Ramadan itself showed disrespect even towards Muslims in Bulgaria, whose traditional Islam is quite different from the one of the emirates. Due to the summer holiday or another reason things didn’t get too political, but recalled the alarming issue with the funding of the Muslim denomination in Bulgaria.

It was announced in the spring that there was no contract now between the Bulgarian Directorate on Religions and the Diyanet Directorate of Religious Affairs for financial assistance for the Muslims here, coming from our southern neighbor Turkey. In June the government informed that even if such a document existed, it would be a private legislative one and the BDR knew nothing about it. In fact we are talking here about support by the Diyanet, aimed mainly at students at religious high schools. It is to the tune of EUR 1 mln. and has nothing to do with imams’ salaries. In the meantime the caretaker cabinet between the Borissov 2 and 3 governments had prepared a draft bill, envisaging the banning of funding from abroad to any religion, but it never reached the parliament.

The reasons for the funding’s interruption on the part of Turkey remain vague, but they might be political somewhere in the back. According to sources from the Mufti, the Diyanet did that due to the bilateral tension during the referendum in Turkey and the latest parliamentary elections in Bulgaria. Sofia had to remind them that according to the Constitution religions cannot get involved in politics.

On the other hand the number of the foreign employees, residing in this country on the invitation of different religions, outnumbers hundreds across various religious institutions, official sources say. Those are the Catholic Church, the Jewish one, the Armenian, Muslim, Evangelist, the Mormons etc denominations. This definitely comes to show that the issue cannot be solved only within the bilateral relations with Turkey – a law is needed, regulating things for all religions simultaneously.

And while the official institutions of Bulgaria and Turkey keep silence of the matter, experts comment that both countries are interested in its solving. Some of them believe that it would be good if Bulgaria turned to certain commitments to Muslims on its territory with the understanding that investing in a peaceful inter-religious environment is investing in security. All who defend that stance say that negligence towards the problems of Muslims in regards to the European war with terror would not only be silly, but also irresponsible.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev