Photo: Dabiq Journal

Preachers of radical Islam in Bulgaria face up to three years in prison and fines of up to 5,000 leva [around 2500 euros], under changes to the penal code adopted on a first reading by MPs on Thursday.

The proposal to criminalize radical Islamic preaching, proposed by the nationalistic coalition Patriotic Front, PF, was approved by a majority of 106 votes.

Only three deputies voted against while ten abstained. MPs from the ethnic-Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms party, MRF, left the plenary session before the vote.

“The problem with radical Islam is already a fact in Bulgaria. Such acts and structures are funded by external factors and the penal code has to clearly define and incriminate them,” Krasimir Karakachakov, one of the leaders of PF, told journalists before the vote.

The adopted amendments stipulate six hypotheses of preaching an ideology that could be qualified as “radical”.

Among them are agitating for the creation of an Islamic state or Caliphate, calling for the enforcement of Sharia law and calling for jihad against non-Muslims.

Recruiting followers, agitating for or collecting funds for terror organizations, “whose ideology is based on the Islam”, will also be considered a crime if the legal changes make it past the second reading.

During the debates, the MRF’s vice-chair, Aliosman Imamov, called the draft law an unsuccessful attempt to draw a line between religion and radicalization.

“We are against radicalization but I… deem it profane for someone from this tribune to try to convince me that my religion creates terrorists,” he said, warning that the text will “affect millions [of people]”.

Imamov protested that the draft law targets Muslims alone and not radicalization in other religious communities, accusing some of his fellow MPs of Islamophobia.

He added that his party would support the legal initiative if it covered radicalization in all religious ideologies in Bulgaria, because “that would be the right approach”.

In response, the second co-chair of the Patriotic Front, Valeri Simeonov backed the new law as a move to prevent an invasion of radical Islam.

He also accused the MRF of being the only party in Bulgaria to exploit religion for political purposes.

The criminalization of radical Islamic agitation comes just a week after MPs gave broad support to a new bill banning the wearing of garments covering the face in public, which is known as “the burqa ban”.

The Muslim veil has already been banned on a local level in several other towns and cities, including Pazardjik, Sliven, Burgas and Stara Zagora.

No Bulgarian citizens are known to have joined the ISIS as foreign fighters.

However, in July 2015, prosecutors charged 14 Muslims – including the controversial imam Ahmed Moussa – from Pazardjik and nearby Plovdiv, Asenovgrad and Startsevo, with inciting religious hatred through their preaching and with promoting ISIS propaganda.