A few days ago, the Prosecutor’s Office, the State Agency for National Security and the Interior Ministry of Bulgaria launched an unprecedented, sweeping raid in five towns against the propagation of radical Islam, mostly in Roma neighbourhoods. Illegal schools preaching radical Islam were searched, large amounts of literature seized and information about alleged Islamic State supporters – checked. The State Agency for National Security reassured the public that there existed no direct terrorist threat in the country; however the threat of radical Islam did exist. As the investigation must remain confidential, the particulars were not disclosed, even by the head of the National Security Agency at a hearing in parliament. But the operation’s political and public repercussions have been immense. At the National Assembly, MPs raised the question of setting up an Islamic institute in Bulgaria, so as to avoid having Bulgarian Muslims go to Islamic universities in countries professing a different, untraditional for Bulgaria kind of Islam. This idea was approved even by the nationalist party VMRO, though another nationalist party, Ataka vehemently condemned it. Reportedly, proposals have been made for legislative amendments authorizing the conviction of persons detained for propagating radical Islam and they are expected to be adopted by the end of January. The steps taken by the authorities are understandable and only logical. Bulgaria is politically committed to the anti-Islamic State coalition and has been sending weapons to the Kurdish resistance in Northern Iraq. There is a UN resolution on the problem and many countries went ahead and took similar steps before Bulgaria did. Including in the Balkans – Kosovo and Macedonia for example where the problem of radical Islam is similar though different. The difference is that for the time being there is no confirmed case of any Bulgarian citizen having been killed or fighting for the Islamic State, whereas there are such cases in Kosovo and Macedonia. But unless the steps against radical Islam, which has been proved to be using the Islamic State as a role model on Bulgarian territory continue, such cases are bound to appear.
