By IINA,
Sofia : Despite a growing interest in the Muslim faith, many mosques across the central European country of Bulgaria remain closed during the holy fasting month of Ramadan over the lack of imams to lead the worshippers. “Two major factors are leading to this problem,” IslamOnline.net reported quoting Mustafa Haci, Bulgaria’s Grand Mufti. “The first goes back a long time ago, during the communist rule, when Islamic schooling was forbidden, and this has led to the current severe shortage of imams,” he explained. “The other factor is the limited resources of the Fatwa House to pay imams’ salaries.”There are more than 1500 mosques in Bulgaria. There are only 900 imams employed by the Fatwa House, the highest Muslim religious authority in Bulgaria.
The scarcity of imams is leaving nearly two hundred mosques across Bulgaria closed during the holy month. Haci says the problem obliged Muslim communities to find solutions on their own. “In some cases, imams get their salaries from the donations of Muslims in their areas,” he said. “But in other cases, imams just stop working due to the lack of income, or prefer mosques in rich areas and abandon those in poor villages.” The Fatwa House has tried to fill the imams’ gap during Ramadan by assigning students of the Sofia-based Islamic Institute with the mission of leading the prayers. In other mosques, the House helped a number of Muslims who have a good grounding in Islamic sciences in return of a modest compensation.
The lack of imams and the closure of mosques come at a time Bulgaria is seeing a growing interest in Islam from both Muslims and non-Muslims. “Bulgarian Muslim youth are noticeably returning to the fold of their religion,” notes Haci. “The number of worshippers attending prayers in mosques grows by the day, especially during the holy fasting month of Ramadan.” The grand mufti also cited a growing interest in Islam among non-Muslims. “Many of them end up embracing Islam.” Haci cited efforts being exerted to raise Islam awareness among Bulgarians. “We are now seeking to translate many Arabic and Turkish Islamic books into the Bulgarian language to help people better understand Islam.” Bulgaria is the only EU state where Muslims are not recent immigrants but a centuries-old local community. Mostly ethnic Turkish descendants of the Ottoman Empire’s reach into Europe, Muslims make up 12 percent of Bulgaria’s 7.8 million population, according to official estimates.