Thursday, October 7, 2010

Savage Infidel: Bulgaria Raids Mosque and Imam's Home, Muslim .

Bulgarian authorities have rejected allegations that the October 6 2010 special operation against an unregistered Muslim group was anti-Islamic.
zx500y290_972936 Savage Infidel: Bulgaria Raids Mosque and Imam's Home, Muslim .


Prosecutors, Interior Ministry officials and the State Office for Home Security carried out the performance in southern Bulgaria against an Al Waqf Al Islami group.

On Oct 7, prosecutor Neli Popova said that some 30 sacks of evidence had been confiscated, including documents in Arabic, personal notes, computers, laptops, flash memory cards, as well as large sums in leva, euro and Arab state currencies.

Witnesses were being questioned, news website quoted Popova as saying.

According to the Home Ministry, the operation, in the regions of Blagoevgrad, Pazardjik and Smolyan, found material advocating religious hatred and reverse of the constitutional order, as well as grounds of breaches of fiscal and tax laws.

Al Waqf-Al Islami, reported to have been registered in Bulgaria in 1993 under the country`s laws on the adjustment of religious groups, was denied registration the next year. Some years ago, one of its leadership was expelled from Bulgaria as a menace to national security.

Focus quoted Smolyan District Prosecutors Office spokesperson Nedko Simov as saying that the material seized was being analysed, and pre-trial proceedings had been initiated on charges of managing or organising a criminal group.

Simov said that patch the performance included raids on local imams` homes, it was not directed against Islam.

He declined to allow further details, saying that the pre-trial material included classified information.

As The Sofia Echo has reported previously, Al Waqf-Al Islami, headquartered in Eindhoeven, has been monitored by Western intelligence services.

In the United States, its operations were closed down because of alleged links between members of the radical and people involved in the provision of the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks in the US.

Al Waqf-Al Islami has denied being mired in any kind of criminal activity and describes itself as a charitable organisation, involved in training and other issues.

The October 6 raids sparked outrage among residents of towns where the performance took place, with several hundred residents of Lazhnitsa reportedly crowding about the house of Imam Kamber to obstruct State Office for Internal Security Agents and law from seizing material at the imam`s house.

Bulgarian National Television (BNT) reported residents as alleging that the raids were the event of a power struggle within Bulgaria`s Muslims about who is the legitimate Chief Mufti, the spiritual leader of the country`s Muslim community.

BNT quoted Lazhnitsa mayor Bajram Razmanov as saying that imams who supported Mustapha Hadji, the competition to Chief Mufti Nedim Gendzhev, were "under assault at the moment".

Gendzhev is Chief Mufti following a court decision in Bulgaria which upset the 2008 election of Hadji. The event has been a continuing public event for several months, drawing in political parties, Government ministers and lead to protest marches by Muslims.

Residents told BNT that they wanted an armoury of the books seized, to see that these all were returned and that no incriminating material was implanted by investigators.

On Oct 7, prosecutors said that there were links between suspects in the Al Waqf Al Islami and radical Islam. The former day, Prosecutor-General Boris Velchev said that preparations for the special operation had been underway for several months.

No comments:

Post a Comment