The Sofia mosque will reduce noise levels during Friday prayers from now on, so that it does disturb the surrounding community, the Muslim leadership announced on June 2 2011, reported by the private television channel bTV.
Two loudspeakers have been dismounted completely while the others will be turned down. The statement was made during a meeting between Sofia mayor Yordanka Fandukova, Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov and the chief mufti, Mustafa Hadji, the report said.
The chief mufti also promised that those worshippers who cannot find room in the mosque during Friday prayers will no longer be allowed to pray on pavements outside the temple, a bone of contention in the past.
Tensions in the community resurfaced a fortnight ago when three Ataka supporters were arrested and one of the party’s MPs, Denitsa Gadzheva, was injured in the incident at the Banya Bashi mosque. The violence followed a protest by Ataka against the use of loudspeakers to broadcast the call to prayer on Friday May 20.
This was the latest in a series of protests which started some years ago against the loudspeakers, but Ataka has revived its campaign in the run-up to Bulgaria’s autumn 2011 municipal and presidential elections, in which Siderov has said he will stand as a presidential candidate.
Scuffles broke out after one of the Ataka protesters tried to steer a column towards Muslims taking part in Friday prayers.
On May 27, the leadership of Sofia’s mosque said that the temple is now too small to hold the capital’s Muslim community during Friday prayers and that the authorities should authorise construction of a second mosque.