Forum 18 News: Bulgaria
27 February 2007
Bulgaria: Legal problems continue for Ahmadi Muslims and Alternative Orthodox
Bulgaria's Ahmadi Muslim community is still fending off attempts by a regional public prosecutor Ð supported by the state Religious Affairs Directorate Ð to strip them of legal status, Forum 18 News Service has been told. A final hearing of the case is due on 6 March. But community member Muhamad Ashraf stressed to Forum 18 that the community's religious work has not been restricted. Also, public prosecutors have failed thus far to convince two courts to convict members of the so-called "Alternative Orthodox" Synod as "imposters." In one of the two November 2006 cases, a definitive court ruling is still awaited and in the other case, prosecutors have yet to announce whether they will appeal against losing their case. Following the state's 2004 violent expulsion of the Alternative Orthodox from their parishes, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has yet to decide whether or not to admit a case brought by the Alternative Orthodox against Bulgaria.
27 February 2007
Bulgaria: Protestant Chaplaincy Association gains legal status
A Protestant group, the Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association, has gained legal status. But it remains unclear how armed forces chaplaincy work will be conducted. Lieutenant-Colonel Sevastian Dobrev of the Defence Ministry told Forum 18 News Service that no faith is currently can currently conduct this activity, in a hangover from Communist times, "but military personnel are perfectly free to attend religious events outside their barracks." Metropolitan Grigory of the Orthodox Church told Forum 18 that, unofficially, Orthodox priests are invited to conduct liturgies on holy days and even to build churches in barracks. He would welcome a law establishing a military chaplaincy service, adding that contacts with Catholics, Protestants and Muslims had begin about this. But a Justice Ministry official attempted to interfere with the founding of the Chaplaincy Association, and Lt.-Col. Dobrev stated that the state Religious Affairs Directorate will decide who will take part in chaplaincy work. "They have a list of which faiths are recognised and which are banned."
Source: <http://www.forum18.org>