BULGARIA PRESIDENT HOSTS MUSLIMS IFTAR

Sofia, 7 Ramadan 1435/5 July 2014 (MINA) – Bulgaria President Rosen Plevneliev has hosted, for the first time, an iftar meal for the Muslim community who are observing the holy fasting month of Ramadan in a landmark move in the former Communist country,

“Regardless of their religion and language, our ancestors lived on the same land and drank the same water,” Bulgarian’s Grand Mufti Alis Haji said at the occasion,on Thursday (3/7).

“Like this, our neighborly relations and unity has been preserved until today,” he said. According to Onislam quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

Hosted at the presidential residence in Boyana, the feast marked a change in attitude for the country’s 1.5 million native Muslims 25 years after the Communist regime collapsed in 1989.

President Plevneliev praised the Muslim community for their prayers and opening their hearts alongside the Orthodox Church during Bulgaria’s recent flooding crisis.

Mutual feeling of appreciation was shared by the Mufti who praised the ruling regime in Bulgaria for offering religious freedoms to all Bulgarian people, regardless of their faith.

He also appealed for more Muslim places of worship in the capital Sofia, as the only mosque does not cater for the large congregation.

According to official figures, Muslims, mostly ethnic Turkish descendants of the Ottoman Empire’s reach into Europe, make up more than 12 percent of Bulgaria’s 7.8 million population.

They coexist with Christian compatriots in a culture known as “komshuluk”, or neighborly relations.(T/Nidiya/P04)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)