Bulgaria: Imam shortage forces 200 mosques to close
October 2, 2008 by ImanK
I found this article to be quite interesting considering I didn’t even know there were that many mosques in Bulgaria to begin with!
Source: Adnkronos.com
Published Date: September 24, 2008
Bulgaria’s highest Muslim authority has announced the closure of 200 mosques due to a lack of religious leaders or imams to lead prayers.
“Although the number of faithful has grown, we are forced to close the mosques due to a lack of religious leaders,” said Bulgaria’s Grand Mufti, Mustafa Haji.
“Many years of Communist rule and a lack of funds are the reasons for this crisis,” he said.
Bulgaria has 1,500 mosques, but only 900 are currently open to the faithful and 200 of those are likely to be shut down indefinitely.
Bulgaria has 8.7 million inhabitants, of whom 12 percent are Muslim. The country joined the European Union in January last year.
Most Muslims in the country are Bulgarians of Turkish origin that have been living in the area since the time of Ottoman rule from the late 14th until the late 19th century.
This is soo sad!!
What saddens me even more is my ignorance of that region
Jazakillahu khairan for pointing this out…
I’m still amazed by the “200″ figure!
Yes, subhan Allah it is very sad.
The situation of the Balkan countries (i.e. Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania etc.) is very similar in that there are remnants of Muslims living in these countries dating back hundreds of years ago from the Ottoman empire. Unfortunately, nationalism has been pretty much overrided Islam in the Balkans and unfortunately many of these Muslims lose their faith or even knowledge of Islam.
Generally speaking, not that many Muslims are aware of this.