The Grand Mufti Dr. Mustafa Hadzhi met with the Prime Minister Boyko Borisov

Photo: http://www.gov.bg/bg

On March 11 (Monday) this year the Grand Mufti of the Muslims in the Republic of Bulgaria Dr. Mustafa Hadzhi was at an official meeting to the Prime Minister  Boyko Borisov at the Council of Ministers. The Mufti was accompanied by the Secretary General of the Muslim Denomination Dzhelal Faik and the meeting was also attended by the Bulgarian Patriarch Neophyte and the Bishop Gerasim of Melnik – Secretary General of the Holy Synod.

The meeting was held on the occasion of the current and recently adopted amendments to the Law on the Religious Denominations, according to which debts relief of the religious institutions is foreseen. We would like to recall that on March 7 (Thursday) the Parliamentary Committee on Religious Denominations approved at first reading the amendments according to which all public debts of the Bulgarian religious denominations are relieved. The debts of Muslim Denomination to the state are at the amount of 8 109 999 BGN so far.

In the framework of the held meeting the Prime Minister Boyko Borisov explained that the aim of the foreseen and voted at first reading amendments, is the state to pay in order to avoid foreign funding of the religious denominations, as well as to have a guarantor for an united country with safety for the religious community and co-existence in respect and tolerance.

In his turn the Grand Mufti Dr. Mustafa Hadzhi expressed the opinion that the amendments to the Law on the Religious Denominations were delayed and that if they were resolved on time then the present financial problems most probably would have been avoided.    

After the end of the meeting the Grand Mufti in a statement to all representatives of the media explained that the debts of the Muslim Denomination have been accumulated since 2005 onwards and interest on them is accruing.

“If our incomes were enough, we would have, in any case, payed these debts.” – the Grand Mufti said.  However he explained that the incomes are far from sufficient and one of the reasons for this is that a major part of the waqf property of the Muslim Denomination in Bulgaria was transferred into public ownership during the communist regime and the most of them are not restored afterwards.

All participants in the meeting held on 2 Dondukov Blvd. united on the opinion that the most important thing is to preserve the unity of the state and the peace.