Grand Mufti's Office

Bulgaria's Grand Mufti's Office called on the police on Friday to investigate an attack on its office in the capital, Sofia, as a "hate crime".

The windows of the building in central Sofia were smashed with stones by an unknown person on Thursday, three days after swastikas and other hate symbols were scratched onto a mosque in the central town of Karlovo on July 2.

There will be no amnesty for the debts of the religious denominations. They will be rescheduled. The news was announced by the head of GERB Parliamentary Group Tsvetan Tsvetanov and the Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov on 13th of March.

MPs on 8th of March voted to approve an amnesty of overdue liabilities incurred by religious denominations. The debt is to be written off through amendments to the Religious Faiths Act, which were approved at first reading by votes from GERB and MRF. United Patriots were against, reports BNT. 

Since March, funding for Bulgaria's Islamic schools, previously provided by the Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs, or Diyanet, has been blocked, forcing the Bulgarian Grand Mufti's office to freeze the salaries of hundreds of imams, Grand Mufti spokesperson Jelal Faik told BIRN on Thursday.