https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EKkgsAez1w

Lawsuits based on Muslim discrimination are on the rise in Europe.

That’s what Jean-Paul Costa, president of the European Court of Human Rights, pointed out when Press TV asked him about the spreading of crimes triggered by religious and ethnic hatred.

Costa was on an official visit to Bulgaria and state authorities declared before him that they intend to impose a special law to compensate victims of human rights violations, as well as to establish a governmental unit to enforce more effectively convictions toward Bulgaria.

The European Court of Human Rights has sentenced Bulgaria 63 times in 2010 alone. This makes it the 6th most convicted country among 47 members of the Council of Europe – and in the lead of the most convicted in the EU-27.

The most recent and brutal act of human rights violations in Bulgaria took place here, at Sofia Grand Mosque, where Muslim worshippers were attacked by far-right activists during a peaceful Friday prayer.

A month after the incident, the Parliament issued a declaration, condemning such provocations as threats to the ethnic peace and the national security. However, many Muslims say they still do not feel safe as the declaration has done little to protect them.

The demand was raised after a Muslim worshipper was beaten on his way to a morning prayer. His attackers also tried to break into the Mosque.

Ibrahim tells us he would gladly join any type of citizen patrols, he’s not afraid of attacks and won’t stop coming here for prayers.

Press TV, 17 June 2011

Ataka leader Volen Siderov heads the protest against Sofia mosque on 20 May

Part of the Bulgarian society is plagued with Islamophobia, the Bulgarian Chief Mufti’s Office has declared in a special statement urging the Bulgarian Muslims to take measures to defend themselves against attacks.

Monday’s statement of the Chief Mufti’s Office comes a day after on Sunday the warden of the main mosque in downtown Sofia suffered a brutal assault at the hands of unidentified attackers just minutes before the start of the morning prayer on Sunday.

In it, the Chief Mufti’s Office refers to the incident of May 20, 2011, when extremists from the nationalist and far-right party Ataka assaulted praying Muslims outside the Sofia Mosque Banya Bashi when an Ataka rally against the loudspeakers of the mosque got out of hand.

The Chief Mufti’s Office, however, complains that numerous similar incidents have followed ever since, and that the Bulgarian state institutions have failed to protect the Muslims in Bulgaria and their temples.

“After this next case of violence against a Muslim and the desecration of a mosque, the Bulgarian Muslim community has received a clear message that the state is either unable to protect us, or doesn’t want to do that, which leaves us in a very hard situation as citizens of the EU who were still hoping that there are sufficiently good democratic mechanisms for preventing repressions against us,” reads the statement of the religious leadership of the Bulgarian Muslims.

“Unfortunately, our hope turned out to be illusionary, our expectations were not met, and we are now aware that we have to provide for our own security and rights. Nnumerous cases, some of them rather shocking, in the recent years lead us to assume that Muslims are unwanted in this country, and that pressure against us will continue… [They] show that part of the Bulgarian society is hostile and aggressive against Islam, Islamic values, and the Muslim community,” the Chief Mufti’s Office says stressing that the above-described incidents should not be treated as hooliganism or criminal acts “but as a common strategy and intolerance against the Muslims, which could probably lead to more large-scale operations.”

“This kind of islamophobia and pressure expressed as threats, insults, restricting religious rights, and physical violence should be treated as an attempt to instigate inter-religious conflicts, a civil war, and a threat to the national security,” the Chief Mufti’s Office declares.

The statement further explains that even though after the attack on the Banya Bashi mosque on May 20, 2011, the Bulgarian Muslims “received the support of the politicians, the intelligentsia, and part of the society”, similar incidents have continued to occur.

The Chief Mufti’s Office says that on May 30, 2011, it alerted Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov about several more cases of physical assaults on praying Muslims but that it did not see any reaction from human rights organizations, the government, the civil society, the political parties.

“Why? Probably because we are now used to such incidents and because some circles acquiesce to the violence against us?.. The National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria adopted a declaration stating that the Muslims do not need to defend themselves because the authorities can do that. It turns out that this is not really true, and it is an attempt to put out the problem, to win time, and to blunt our feelings,” says the office of the Bulgarian Chief Mufti.

It further calls upon the Muslims in the country to organize day and night guards as volunteers “in order to protect what the state fails to protect – the honor and dignity of Islam and Muslims.”

“These steps are the beginning of a self-protection campaign. We are going to inform you of your next steps depending on the development of the problems and the desires of the community. In conclusion, we turn to our state leaders, institutions, and authorities, to all evil-minded people, to all Islamophobes, to all attackers – do you think that we love Bulgaria less than you?”, concludes the Chief Mufti’s Office.

Novinite, 13 June 2011