Βουλγαρία: Καταδίκη 13 ιμάμηδων για «διάδοση ριζοσπαστικού Ισλάμ»

epa01301119 Bulgarian Muslim believer waits for Friday prayer at the yard of the city's mosque in the town of Kardzali, Bulgaria, 28 March 2008. The Muslim population of Bulgaria, including Turks, Muslim Bulgarians, Pomaks, Roma, and Tatars, lives mainly in northeastern Bulgaria and in the Rhodope Mountains. Most of the Bulgarian Muslims are Sunni Muslims as Sunni Islam was the form of Islam promoted by the Ottoman Turks during their five-century rule of Bulgaria. Like the practitioners of other beliefs including Orthodox Christians, Muslims suffered under the restriction of religious freedom by the former communist leader Todor Zhivkov regime which favoured atheism and suppressed religious communities. The Bulgarian communist regimes declared traditional Muslim beliefs to be diametrically opposed to secular communist ideology. After the breakdown of communism, Muslims in Bulgaria again enjoyed greater religious freedom. EPA/VASSIL DONEV