ZAGREB, April 28, 2018 - The first Islamic Cultural Centre in Istria, for which the foundation stone was laid in Umag on 15 March 2014, was inaugurated in the coastal town on Saturday.

The Centre has outstanding importance as it will provide a place for services, have classrooms for children, a library and a multi-functional hall for cultural events, it was said.

Construction, estimated to coast one million euro, was financed by the Islamic Community in Croatia, which thanked Umag's town officials, as well as by expatriates and believers.

This once again confirms that Umag is "an example of multi-ethnic co-existence, tolerance and multiculturalism," Mayor Vili Bassanese said at a ceremony attended, among others, by Croatian Justice Minister Dražen Bošnjaković, Social Democratic Party (SDP) president Davor Bernardić, local imam Elvedin Posavljak, and mufti Aziz Hasanović.

"To live in a community is a civilised achievement and need, but to live in a community in which our actions show that our diversity is our wealth is a reality of which Umag is proud," said the mayor.

Imam Posavljak thanked everyone who helped to build the Centre, saying that with its activities, "this Centre wishes to draw people closer."

Speaking to the press, Bernardić said the opposition SDP was the only party that did not just pay lip service to but actually fought for the protection of all minorities in Croatia and that it lived multiculturalism, multiconfessionalism and multi-ethnicity.