BT Staff, *Mosque in Northern Bulgaria Torched* - Balkan Travellers - Sofia, Bulgaria
Thursday, October 8, 2009
A hundred-year-old mosque of high historical and architectural value in the town of Nikopol in northern Bulgaria was torched in the early morning hours of Wednesday.
Fire-fighters went to the scene immediately but the flames enveloped the building quickly and 100 squere metres of it burned down. None was injured as the building was not inhabited and the material damages remain to be assessed.
The mosque of Nikopol is one of northern Bulgaria’s cultural monuments of high historical and architectural value. Built during the first years of the last century as a dervish centre, it had separate rooms for the practice of Sufism.
There are various theories on the cause of the incident. Some, such as the town’s mayor, Valeri Zheliazkov, claimed the fire was an accident. “There is no ethnic tension in Nikopol, and there never was. People here get on with their daily lives, and religion here is not an issue, I don’t believe that this was perpetrated with any sinister motive, I think it was an accident,” he explained, quoted by national media.
Other, however, say it was politically-motivated. The town’s imam Gyursel Mimishev, who also claimed Nikopol did not suffer from ethnic tension, told national media that the fire was an act of arson by local activists from the Movement of Rights and Freedoms, the party mainly led and supported by Bulgarians of ethnic Turkish descent, because the imam was a supporter of the newly elected Prime Minister Boiko Borisov and his ruling party GERB.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
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Saturday, October 17, 2009
Not An Issue
Thursday, October 8, 2009
A hundred-year-old mosque of high historical and architectural value in the town of Nikopol in northern Bulgaria was torched in the early morning hours of Wednesday.
Fire-fighters went to the scene immediately but the flames enveloped the building quickly and 100 squere metres of it burned down. None was injured as the building was not inhabited and the material damages remain to be assessed.
The mosque of Nikopol is one of northern Bulgaria’s cultural monuments of high historical and architectural value. Built during the first years of the last century as a dervish centre, it had separate rooms for the practice of Sufism.
There are various theories on the cause of the incident. Some, such as the town’s mayor, Valeri Zheliazkov, claimed the fire was an accident. “There is no ethnic tension in Nikopol, and there never was. People here get on with their daily lives, and religion here is not an issue, I don’t believe that this was perpetrated with any sinister motive, I think it was an accident,” he explained, quoted by national media.
Other, however, say it was politically-motivated. The town’s imam Gyursel Mimishev, who also claimed Nikopol did not suffer from ethnic tension, told national media that the fire was an act of arson by local activists from the Movement of Rights and Freedoms, the party mainly led and supported by Bulgarians of ethnic Turkish descent, because the imam was a supporter of the newly elected Prime Minister Boiko Borisov and his ruling party GERB.
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BT Staff, *Mosque in Northern Bulgaria Torched* - Balkan Travellers - Sofia, BulgariaThursday, October 8, 2009
A hundred-year-old mosque of high historical and architectural value in the town of Nikopol in northern Bulgaria was torched in the early morning hours of Wednesday.
Fire-fighters went to the scene immediately but the flames enveloped the building quickly and 100 squere metres of it burned down. None was injured as the building was not inhabited and the material damages remain to be assessed.
The mosque of Nikopol is one of northern Bulgaria’s cultural monuments of high historical and architectural value. Built during the first years of the last century as a dervish centre, it had separate rooms for the practice of Sufism.
There are various theories on the cause of the incident. Some, such as the town’s mayor, Valeri Zheliazkov, claimed the fire was an accident. “There is no ethnic tension in Nikopol, and there never was. People here get on with their daily lives, and religion here is not an issue, I don’t believe that this was perpetrated with any sinister motive, I think it was an accident,” he explained, quoted by national media.
Other, however, say it was politically-motivated. The town’s imam Gyursel Mimishev, who also claimed Nikopol did not suffer from ethnic tension, told national media that the fire was an act of arson by local activists from the Movement of Rights and Freedoms, the party mainly led and supported by Bulgarians of ethnic Turkish descent, because the imam was a supporter of the newly elected Prime Minister Boiko Borisov and his ruling party GERB.
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