Some local authorities in Bulgaria are putting up obstacles to religious freedom in the country, according to the annual US state department report on religious freedom.

In Bulgaria, where nominally at least about 85 per cent of the population are self-described Orthodox Christians, there were reports of followers of other religions and denominations encountering problems.

Bulgaria's Government generally respected religious freedom in practice, the report said, but there were increased reports of intolerance from local authorities.

"Some local branches of nationally registered denominations continued to experience problems with local authorities who insisted that the branches be registered locally, despite the fact that the 2002 Denominations Act does not require local formal registration of denominations," according to the report, released on September 19 2008.

It said that some "nontraditional" groups faced increased discrimination and prejudice from local authorities in certain localities, despite successfully registering through the Sofia City Court.

Article 19 of the 2002 Denominations Act states that nationally registered religious groups may have local branches. The law requires notification, although some municipalities claimed that it requires formal local registration.

Some municipal regulations, although softened, prohibited distribution of religious literature by groups that were not locally registered. There were renewed reports of actual enforcement of these rules in Pleven and Plovdiv, the report said.

It said that in April 2008, the Blagoevgrad District court had revoked the Ahmadi Muslim Organisation's registration as a nongovernmental organisation (NGO). The group resorted to registering as an NGO after it was denied national registration as a religious group in 2005. The prosecution challenged the group's NGO status, claiming that the Ahmadis went beyond NGO boundaries by proselytising and holding religious meetings.

On November 21 2007, the Sofia appellate court upheld the city court's decision rejecting the Ahmadi community's re-application for national registration under the name "Ahmadiyya Muslim Community".

In rendering its decision, the Sofia City Court requested the opinion of the Religious Confessions Directorate, which consulted with the Chief Mufti's office. The Muftiship seemingly would not consent to any outside group registering as Muslims.

The Directorate's expert statement held that registration of the Ahmadis would "lead to the rise and institutionalisation of a very serious dissent in the Muslim community," and to the spread of an interpretation of Islam that is not traditional in the country.

The appellate court's decision precluded further recourse in domestic courts and the group planned to file a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights.

Separately, the US state department said that on April 9 2008, the city of Bourgas sent a letter to all Bourgas schools instructing them to warn students to be alert to the mobilising of nontraditional religious groups such as Jehovah's Witnesses, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), and Evangelical Pentecostal Churches, which the city described as "the most prominent and dangerous sects".

In the letter, authorities claimed that these groups attracted followers through manipulation, offers of money, clothing and food, as well as free movie screenings. They further maintained that the activity of these groups threatened the unity of the Bulgarian nation and exposed it to religious confrontation.

The Jehovah's Witnesses' Kingdom Hall in Bourgas was vandalised on two occasions during the same week. The Mormons also reported facing hostility, including public insults and stones thrown at their place of worship, following the distribution of the letter.

Some local governments restricted certain forms of proselytising.

On March 17 2008, the Mormons complained to the Ombudsman of reoccurring hostility from local authorities in Pleven and Plovdiv. The Mormons reported a number of incidents where the missionaries were banned from engaging in conversations about their religion and distributing materials in public places, the report said.

On August 29 2007, Blagoevgrad police detained five Jehovah's Witnesses for questioning. Police issued the five written warnings not to preach from house to house, which was considered a disturbance of public order.

In 2007 Jehovah's Witnesses faced limitations on their proselytising activity in Plovdiv, where regulations forbid public preaching, and Veliko Turnovo, where police required two missionaries to present proof of registration before they could preach publicly. The police officers issued a written citation and warned the two to discontinue their public preaching or face serious consequences.

In May 2007, police stopped and questioned a 14-year-old Jehovah's Witness preaching with an adult companion in Gorna Oryahovitsa.

Representatives of some evangelical Protestant churches reported obstruction to holding public meetings from the local authorities in the Dobrich and Varna municipalities. No missionaries reported being arrested or fined for proselytising.

In July 2007, the Sofia City Council published its unanimous decision to support the residents of the Mladost neighbourhood in opposing the construction of a meeting hall for the Jehovah's Witnesses and urging the Government to legislate stricter control of nontraditional religious groups.

Jehovah's Witnesses reported that local authorities obstructed the construction of a meeting house in Varna; after a long battle, they gained permission to begin construction in June 2007. After construction began, city officials issued three citations halting all work. The Jehovah's Witnesses claimed compliance with the requirements, but the city refused to allow work to resume and levied an additional fine.

In November 2007, the Varna Administrative Court ruled that the work stoppage by the City of Varna was legal because the foreman, a Jehovah's Witness, lacked a legitimate
labour contract. All charges against the foreman were ultimately dropped, after a series of police interrogations and reported police harassment. The Jehovah's Witnesses appealed against the Varna Administrative Court decision to the Supreme Court and are waiting for communication of the court's ruling from April 22 2008.

On February 15 2008, two Mormon missionaries were attacked in Sofia reportedly by the relatives of a boy who was invited to attend the Sunday Mormon church service. One missionary was injured in the head and hand. Police identified one of the perpetrators and the investigation against him was ongoing at the end of the reporting period, the state department report said.

The report said that Protestants had alleged that heavily Muslim areas with a majority ethnic Turkish population sometimes placed restrictions on their worship. A Protestant
church in Djebel, which failed to apply for a tax declaration in time, was closed in 2007 by the local court reportedly in an excessive action by local authorities against the church.

The Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses continued to report numerous print and broadcast media stories with negative, derogatory, and sometimes slanderous information about their activities and beliefs.

The Chief Mufti's Office continued to report cases of mosque desecrations. The office expressed concern that, while the vandals were usually apprehended, they rarely received legal penalties or punishments.

The report said that VMRO, which it described as a fringe political party, attempted unsuccessfully to disrupt a large gathering of Jehovah's Witnesses on April 28 and 29 2007, in the city of Dobrich, and the municipality allowed the organisation to go on with the event. A few weeks prior, on April 2 2007, VMRO succeeded in preventing a religious gathering of Jehovah's Witnesses in Varna, forcing cancellation of their contract with the Palace Cinema.

The extreme nationalist political party Ataka continued to publish anti-Semitic material in its newspaper, on its website, and on its cable television mouthpiece Skat.

In January 2007, Ataka's deputy chair and Member of the European Parliament Dimitar Stoyanov stated that he opposed the "Jewish establishment" and accused "powerful Jews" of "paying the media to form the social awareness of the people".