A broad-format meeting is underway in Sofia discussing measures against radical Islam penetrating into Bulgaria.

Cabinet ministers, deputy ministers and experts from the Ministries of Interior, Defense, Finance, Education and Science, representatives of the Prosecutor’s Office, the State Agency on National Security, the State Intelligence Agency, and of the Religious Affairs directorate of the Council of Ministers have joined the meeting.

Deputy Prime Minister Krasimir Karakachanov said that indiscriminate financing of religious communities in Bulgaria which promotes non-traditional religious practices and political influences should be restricted and subsequently terminated.

The laws in force are extremely liberal and allow using the form of private religious schools, training courses, and private kindergartens as a way to promote a version of Islam that is not traditional for Bulgaria, according to the words of the deputy PM, quoted by the Bulgarian National Radio.

After the meeting, Karakachanov said that things that "have long been spoken in Bulgarian society, problems that we observe as problems in a number of European countries" are reported to exist in Bulgaria. "Namely: Funding by suspicious private structures or foundations by public organizations to fund religious communities through which radical religious ideas are being pursued and also attempts are being made or attempts to realize political influence in the country," said the minister, giving data ,according to which by 2010 there is no single case of radical Islam, and from 2010 until 2017 they are 50, BGNES reported. 

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