Following another desecration of a Muslim building the institutions remain silent Hussein Hafyzov, the Chief Secretary of the Chief Mufti’s Office in Bulgaria, was born in 1976. He graduated from the ·Newvaab” Secondary Theological School and then majored in Bulgarian philology. He worked as a clergyman in the village of Topolitsa, Aitos municipality, and taught Islamic religion to pupils in the elementary school and a Qur’an course in Topolitsa. - Mr. Hafyzov, a few days ago it was discovered that the freshly painted walls of the building of the Chief Mufti’s Office were covered with offensive inscriptions. When did you find them and can you tell us who committed this act? - We cannot even assume who the perpetrators of this disagreeable act are since they haven’t been identified by the investigating authorities. - Has anything like this occurred before? Are you often paid such ·visits”? - Unfortunately, it is a disturbing fact that our sites - not only administrative buildings, but also shrines and mosques are very often desecrated in a similar manner. It has happened many times in Kazanlak, Pleven, and Varna. Our statistics reveal that our buildings - administrative ones and mosques in all 12 regional Mufti’s Offices - have been desecrated over 50 times in the last ten years. We should also focus on the moral aspect of the issue. The Muslim community in Bulgaria is the second largest after the Bulgarian-Orthodox. So now we are not talking about ethnicity, but about something deeply cherished - the Muslim community. Islam is all about tolerance and we, as Muslims, have always taught tolerance to our young generation. But we are offended when we don’t see tolerance being demonstrated by the other side. But I would like to make it clear that I believe in the tolerance of the Christian community towards the other minority communities in the country. I absolutely believe that these acts do not result from the value system of the Bulgarian citizen in general. I am certain about that. In this case it is the attitude of the authorities that is offensive. Because one can see from the statistics that the perpetrators were almost never caught. - What actions do the police and prosecution authorities take to investigate and prevent such acts? - I’ve no idea what they do, but I do know what they don’t. The perpetrators were caught in only two or three occasions. Moreover, the very few perpetrators who were caught were not convicted. This propagates in the Bulgarian society the opinion that such acts are unpunishable, that our society silently tolerates such acts, that these acts are not that dangerous, and that their investigation and exposure and the punishment of the perpetrators are not worth the effort and the time. Even more disturbing is the fact that when the desecrated
building of the Chief Mufti’s Office appeared in the media, only a few institutions issued their opinion or criticized the act. Nobody condemned these actions in public. This may lead to the suggestion that maybe, when the institutions - both governmental and nongovernmental - remain silent, they agree with such phenomena. Both institutions and media only noted the desecration of our building, but there was no discussion on topics such as why the building was desecrated, who is to blame, what actions should be taken to prevent such acts and so on. No one asks how it is possible to offend an entire community consisting of over a million Bulgarian citizens without any further serious discussion taking place in Bulgarian society. - Is the Chief Mufti’s Office thinking of bringing up this issue more widely? - Yes, we are. We use every opportunity to voice our pain and make our position clear. Furthermore, very often the foreign missions in the country express their interest in these cases. We always add that, as a whole, the climate of tolerance is preserved. But obviously, a small xenophobic part of Bulgarian society cannot accept the fact that the Bulgarian Muslims are and will be tolerant towards the other religions and within their own community; that they are honest and hardworking people; that they contribute to the public well-being, because we follow the humane values and respect the Bulgarian laws. This is eloquent testimony to the fact that we are not a problematic community, but an oasis on the Balkans, very different from the other knotty points in this region. It seems that all this prompts some people to think that the integration which takes place within the Bulgarian society, the synchronous coexistence is not acceptable since it means lack of conflicts and when there are conflicts certain groups benefit from them. - Can you be more specific? Which groups are you referring to? - We are not the ones to name these groups. Their actions should be monitored strictly and they should not be allowed to offend publicly the Muslim community and the other minorities and demonstrate disparaging attitudes towards them. These insulting acts, these inscriptions and attacks present a problem not only for the Muslim community. They present a problem for the entire society. Interview by Emil COHEN
OBEKTIV 1