 |
A file photo of mosques praying in a Sofia mosque. |
SOFIA — Bulgarian lawmakers branded on Thursday, July 27, a mosque attack as a vicious attempt to undermine religious and social harmony in the southeastern European country.
"Parliament condemns this brutal provocation against the ethnic and religious tolerance that are characteristic of Bulgarian society," the legislature said in a declaration, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The declaration was endorsed by all 159 lawmakers present in the Thursday's session of the 240-seat parliament.
A fire broke out at the Kazanlak mosque after a bottle of inflammable liquid was thrown against one of its windows late on Tuesday, July 25.
Only swift action by fire fighters prevented the fire from spreading, according to the initial investigation.
Muslims make up more than 12 percent of the country's 7.4 million population, according to the online FIA World Factbook.
They are represented in parliament by the Movement for Rights and Freedoms party, which holds 34 seats and has three ministers in the three-party coalition government.
The MRF was created during the communist rule in response to the regime's brutal assimilation campaign against the Muslim minority.
It commands support from the 800,000-strong ethnic Turk community in Bulgaria as well as from the so-called Pomacs -- Slavs who embraced Islam during the Ottoman rule -- and a small group of Muslim Gypsies.
United
The MPs said they were "determined not to allow Bulgaria to be led astray from the road of accession to the European Union, which is a community of peoples with different religions and cultures."
The 14-member parliamentary bloc of the ultra nationalist Ataka party also voted in favor of the motion.
In a separate statement, Ataka stressed it "never had and will not have anything to do with such acts of vandalism."
Ataka opposes "Bulgaria being governed by Turks."
A parliamentary anti-discrimination commission is due to rule shortly on the unprecedented case of two Muslim schoolgirls in the southern town of Kardzhali who insist on wearing hijab to school.
School authorities stand vehemently against their decision.
France has triggered an international controversy by adopting a bill banning hijab in state schools, a move blasted as "discriminatory" by the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one’s affiliations. |
