A day after the shocking threat from the head of the Islamic Community in Macedonia that he will re-open the mosques and call the faithful to ignore epidemic curfew rules unless he is paid damages, the Government has approved a payment to the main Christian and Islamic theology faculties.

The Islamic faculty will be paid 49.000 EUR, and the Christian seminary will receive 73.000 EUR. Islamic Community head reis Sulejman efendi Rexhepi made a shocking threat on TV that, if his organization is not compensated, he will call that the curfew regime is violated, and gleefully added that “there will be no force on earth able to stop the virus then”.

if, God forbid, we give up and withdraw our decisions there will be no force alive that can defeat the epidemic. I guarantee you that. This place will become Bangladesh, reis Rexhepi threatened.

The Government tweeted that its move to approve the payments was not in response to the threat but that it was a “prior decision” to support several faculties.