Reply from the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker to the SMC open letter

Тhe President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker sent a reply to the open letter of the Supreme Muslim Council on the occasion of the racist, Islamophobic and discriminatory statements of Prosecutor Nedyalka Popova.

We would like to recall that on March 21 this year Mrs. Nedyalka Popova, who is a prosecutor in the case against Ahmed Musa and the 12 preachers for preaching religious hatred, described the Muslims in Bulgaria as a threat to the national security, saying that the future of the country is threatened because of the increase of the Muslim and the Turkish population. Parts of the statement of Prosecutor Popova were:

 “According to the statistics the Muslims in Bulgaria currently are 10-12 %.  And we have no reason to think that they will become less. Just the opposite. And with the arrival in Bulgaria of Muslims from abroad, and with the return of some of the displaced people from Turkey, with the promoting of childbirth, the percentage will continue to increase. When it becomes 30 %, our state will already be threatened. They are monolithic mass, and are easy manipulated during elections. They are almost like a militarized structure. When they are told to go and vote, they go… And there will come a time when we will see how more than 50 % in the Parliament are with other religion, our President will be with other religion, the Prime-Minister, the mayor will be with other religion. Do you know how many mayors there are with other religion in the old Christian Europe?  And these Christian European values which we have adopted, do you think that we will be able to stand them? And then exactly what we appreciate in ourselves, exactly it will kill us. This is a signal to the sensible people. How many people now realize and think about these questions? We follow only the legal way so far. It will get bad when it goes outside the law... I think that sometimes the public opinion and the citizens are engaged with much more insignificant issues and problems. And when it comes to the national security and to important issues, everyone is silent and lurking. They abstain from opinions and from expressing statement. As if the path of least resistance is followed. We are supposed tohave citizenship, we are supposed to want our voice to be heard, but at the same time everyone looks if by expressing some opinion this will affect his life, objectives, and ambitions. In fact the really important issues are not debated” (all national media on March 23, 2018).

The Muslim Ddenomination reacted sharply to this statement and the Supreme Muslim Council with a Decision № 844 from April 3, 2018 sent an open letter to all national institutions and international organizations, including the European ones.

“Many crimes under the Criminal Code and the Law on Protection against Discrimination can be seen in this speech,such as preaching and incitement to hatred against Muslims and Turks, religious and ethnic discrimination, xenophobia, Islamophobia, hatred speech, etc. This even is an incitement to actions towards the limitation of the number of the Muslim population. This statement of Prosecutor Popova is a suggestion of a non-existent threat – that the Muslim community in Bulgaria is a threat to the national security of the country…This statement categorically is not fitting conduct for a prosecutor of a democratic state, which nowadays chairs the Council of the European Union. The actions are a contradiction of an official who supervise the case for “preaching religious hatred through speech, press or other media” to preach hatred on religious base…”, is said in the open letter.

The President of the European Commission assures the Muslim Denomination that will take under consideration the case, and the raised question is even forwarded to the Commissioner for Justice Věra Jourová who will be engaged with this issue.

The Commission for Protection against Discrimination initiated proceedings against the prosecutor and the Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov announced that the Inspectorate at the Prosecutor’s Office will also investigate the case.

It is already May but there is still no information about concrete results of the proceedings and the investigations. But the Muslim community expects development of the case and is already holding the Muslim Denomination to account.

Photo: www.debati.bg