Conference on “Muslims in Bulgaria: Dynamics of attitudes” was held in the capital

On 4^th of May, 2017 (Thursday) in New Bulgarian University in Sofia was held a conference on the topic “Muslims in Bulgaria: Dynamics in attitudes”. It was related to the official presentation in the university of the results of the carried out study “Muslim Attitudes in Bulgaria: 2016”. The comparative study is a result of the joint work of “Alfa Research” Agency and NBU and was implemented with the financial support of Foundation “Konrad Adenauer”.

The conference which was held into two panels and lasted during the all day took part members of the research team that held the study among the Muslims in Bulgaria, academics and representatives of NGOs.

Among the delivered reports was that of Assoc. Prof. Mihail Ivanov on the topic “Touches of the image of the Muslims in Bulgaria – 2016”, “Radicalization of Islamism or Islamization of Radicalism: Bulgarian projections” – a report of Prof. Evgenia Ivanova who is a head of the research team. Assoc. Prof. Sonya Hinkova presented the topic about the “Foreign influences on the attitudes of the Muslims in Bulgaria: global and geopolitical context”.

The Muslim Denomination was presented at the conference by the Deputy Grand Mufti of Bulgaria Birali Myumyun and by Arif Abdullah – lecturer at the High Islamic Institute and in NBU. Arif Abdullah delivered a report focused on “Diachronic analysis of the concept of “jihad”.

The conference ended with a discussion on different topics, related to the presented results of the study and the delivered reports by the participants in the conference.

Soon on Grandmufti.bg will be published an interview with Assoc. Prof. Mihail Ivanov from NBU – one of the members of the research team, held the study “Muslim attitudes in Bulgaria – 2016”.

Author: L. Chausheva