US state department gives mixed review of religious freedom in Bulgaria
Bulgaria’s constitution provides for freedom of religion and prohibits religious discrimination but designates Eastern Orthodox Christianity as the country"s "traditional" religion.
Intolerance by Bulgarian local authorities of non-Orthodox Christian religious groups and anti-Semitic messages by Volen Siderov’s Ataka party are among issues raised in the US state department’s annual International Religious Freedom Report, released on October 26 2009.
The report said that Bulgaria’s constitution provides for freedom of religion and prohibits religious discrimination but designates Eastern Orthodox Christianity as the "traditional" religion.
"Laws executing these provisions are ambiguous, giving scope to arbitrary decisions with respect to public practice of religion by unregistered groups," the report said.
The Government generally respected the religious freedom of registered religious groups, according to the report.
There were some concerns regarding government registration of religious groups and interference with religious disputes. There were also continuing reports of intolerance from local authorities during the reporting period, it said.
"There were ongoing reports of societal abuses or discrimination based on religious affiliation, belief, or practice. Discrimination, harassment, and general public intolerance, particularly in the media, of some religious groups remained an intermittent problem."
The Government generally respected religious freedom in practice; however, it did not apply existing laws on religious issues consistently, according to the report.
On January 22 2009, the Sofia City Court rejected the Jewish Centre Chabad Lubavitch"s application for registration.
The court consulted with the Religious Confessions Directorate, which cited opposition from the registered Jewish denomination.
Article 27 of the Denominations Act requires all non-profit legal entities seeking to promote an already registered denomination to receive the consent of that denomination.
The court stated that the Jewish Centre Chabad Lubavitch had violated this provision by operating a synagogue and a kindergarten. Shalom, the administrative organization of Jews in the country, also submitted opinions to the court opposing the registration.
On April 21 2008, the court registered Mustafa Alish Hadji as Chief Mufti after he was re-elected at a Muslim conference convened by more than 1000 members of the community"s local branches.
The conference followed competing court decisions, which ultimately reinstated rival Islamic leader Nedim Gendzhev. Gendzhev appealed the 2008 registration, alleging judicial corruption and document forgery. The court decision on this case was pending, as well as another case against him alleging embezzlement of about 800 000 leva when the court temporarily reinstated him to the Chief Mufti"s Office.
The report said that some "nontraditional" groups continued to face discrimination and prejudice from local authorities in certain localities, despite obtaining a national registration from the Sofia City Court. Article 19 of the 2002 Denominations Act states that nationally registered religious groups may have local branches.
The law requires notification, although some municipalities claimed it requires formal local registration. Some municipal regulations prohibited the distribution of religious literature by groups that were not locally registered.
There report said that there were renewed reports of enforcement of these local regulations in Bourgas, Gabrovo, Plovdiv, and Pleven.
On October 8 2008, the Plovdiv municipal police stopped a member of Jehovah"s Witnesses and issued her a warning not to distribute religious literature.
On November 3 2008, the Bourgas Administrative Court rejected a complaint filed by the Jehovah"s Witnesses against the Bourgas municipality. In April 2008 the municipality sent a letter to all Bourgas schools instructing them to alert students to the mobilisation of nontraditional religious groups such as Jehovah"s Witnesses, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), and Evangelical and Pentecostal churches, which the city described as the most prominent and dangerous sects.
In the letter, authorities claimed these groups attracted followers through manipulation, offers of money, clothing, and food, as well as free movie screenings. They said that the activities of these groups threatened the unity of the nation and exposed it to religious confrontations.
"Both Jehovah"s Witnesses and Mormons reported increased hostility, including public insults and stones thrown at their places of worship, following the distribution of the letter," according to the state department report.
The court dismissed the case, claiming it was unable to verify that the identity of the claimant (officially registered as Jehovah"s Witnesses in Bulgaria) matched that of the Jehovah"s Witnesses referred to in the letter. In November 2008 the denomination filed a second complaint, which was pending at the end of the reporting period. In December 2008 a school teacher read the same municipal letter to her class as a warning before the Christmas holidays.
Some local governments restricted certain forms of proselytizing.
In March 2008 the Mormons complained to the Ombudsman of reoccurring hostility from local authorities in Pleven and Plovdiv.
After submitting repeated reminders of their letter, the Mormons received a formal answer from the Ombudsman in April 2009 that cited the Government"s obligations to ensure respect for religious freedom but did not address substantively the specific situation.
The Mormons reported a number of incidents in different localities, including Rousse and Varna where the missionaries were banned from engaging in conversations about their religion and distributing materials in public places.
In January 2009, the Religious Confessions Directorate warned the Jehovah"s Witnesses of re-occurring complaints against them for engaging minors in religious conversations without their parents" consent.
The Jehovah"s Witnesses rejected the allegations, saying their missionaries were entrapped. The group issued internal guidelines explaining the law"s prohibition against including minors in religious activities without parental approval.
On March 20 2009, the Supreme Administrative Prosecution Service issued a ruling stating current city zoning plans did not permit the construction of a second mosque in Sofia.
The Service acted on a complaint received by a Member of Parliament alleging illegal financing of the construction project.
The Chief Mufti"s Office rejected the allegations and complained that the construction of an Islamic Centre, comprising a complex of buildings for administrative, educational, and religious purposes, had been stalled by the municipal authorities on different procedural grounds since 2002.
The Mufti"s Office also asserted the land had been rezoned several times during this time, leading to an inexplicable decrease in the area of the titled land and the portion available for construction.
On March 19 2009, the Bourgas municipality overruled its previous decision and banned the construction of a mosque, citing concerns for public peace and order.
The municipality had initially allowed the construction in response to the local Muslim community"s outcry sparked by the December 2008 demolition of an illegally built mosque.
Again in March 2009, the Bourgas municipal authorities halted the construction of another mosque in the town, insisting that a separate permit was required for the mosque"s minaret.
On February 26 2009, the Orthodox bishop of Veliko Turnovo led a protest march and presented a petition to the mayor of Gabrovo signed by 5000 city residents opposing the construction of a Jehovah"s Witnesses prayer house in Gabrovo.
The municipal authorities had issued a building permit for the prayer house in January 2009 but stopped the construction in February claiming that the Jehovah"s Witnesses illegally had erected a concrete wall at the site.
The Jehovah"s Witnesses demolished the wall on March 24 2009, and were awaiting a municipal permit to resume construction at the end of the reporting period.
Jehovah"s Witnesses said that local authorities in Varna continued to obstruct their efforts to build a meeting hall.
In June 2007, after a long battle, they gained permission to begin construction. However, the mayor ordered a stop to construction in July 2007. On July 16 2008, the Supreme Administrative Court confirmed the November 2007 decision of the Varna Administrative Court, which ruled the mayor"s order was legal because the construction foreman, a member of Jehovah"s Witnesses, lacked a legitimate labour contract. All criminal charges against the foreman were ultimately dropped after a series of police interrogations and reported police harassment.
In January 2009, the Bourgas Free University expelled a student after she refused to take off her headscarf at an exam.
The student had already paid tuition and completed the semester but was required to remove her headscarf in order to take the test.
The university cited its internal rules, which prohibit wearing of hats, headscarves, and official uniforms during lectures or exams.
In Kurdzhali, a student was refused practical training required for graduation after attending school for four years because of her headscarf.
The state department report said that there were no indications that the Government discriminated against members of any religious group in restitution of properties that were nationalised during the communist period.
However, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Catholic Church, Muslim community, Jewish community, and several Protestant denominations complained a number of their confiscated properties had not been returned.
Despite a decade-old court decision in its favor, the Jewish community was unable to regain possession of a state-run hospital in central Sofia until May 2009, when the Ministry of Health made premises available and the hospital was relocated to another building.
Prior to the relocation, the hospital"s management had contested in court the Jewish community"s ownership over the building.
On March 5 2009, the court terminated the case based on a letter by the Health Ministry confirming the relocation, but the hospital management"s appeal of the court decision was pending at the end of the reporting period.
This paved the way for Shalom to take physical possession of the building, although its ownership remained contested.
The report said that on January 22 2009, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued a ruling on the case filed by the Alternative Orthodox Synod after the 2004 forceful expulsion of its members from their parishes.
The ECHR held that the Bulgarian Government had violated the religious rights of the claimants and gave the parties three months to negotiate mutually agreeable compensation.
The leadership of the Orthodox Church disputed the ruling and called on the claimants to repent for what it viewed as illegal occupation of church property and false representation of the denomination.
The parties did not reach an agreement within the deadline, and the Government appealed against the decision in the ECHR"s Grand Chamber.
On June 5 2009, the Grand Chamber rejected review of the appeal, and the court gave the parties a further three months to settle on the amount of compensation due from the state to the claimants.
There were some reports of societal abuses or discrimination based on religious affiliation, belief, or practice, the state department report said.
Relations between religious groups generally remained civil and tolerant; however, discrimination, harassment, and public intolerance of some religious groups remained an intermittent problem.
There were renewed reports of societal discrimination against "nontraditional" religious groups as well as negative and derogatory media stories about such groups.
"The Mormons and the Jehovah"s Witnesses continued to report numerous print and broadcast media stories with negative, derogatory, and sometimes slanderous information about their activities and beliefs," the report said.
On June 28 2009, Mormon missionaries were attacked by a group of agitated youths who were coming back from a soccer game. The youths, reportedly associated with a nationalistic movement, pushed the missionaries to the ground and beat them. Police opened an investigation into the incident.
The Chief Mufti"s Office continued to report cases of mosque desecrations, the state department report said.
On March 3 2009, three Molotov cocktails were thrown at the mosque in Varna that had been vandalised with graffiti in May 2008. There were no reports of prosecutions in these incidents, and the Chief Mufti"s Office expressed concern that the responsible parties went unpunished.
"The extreme nationalist political party Ataka continued to publish anti-Semitic material in its newspaper, on its website, and on its cable television channel Skat," the report said.
Protestants asserted heavily Muslim areas with a majority ethnic Turkish population sometimes place restrictions on their worship.
