NEWS
Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek on the occasion of laying the foundation stone for the construction of a mosque in Ljubljana “Today the battle for the rights of different-minded people and people with different religious beliefs was won.”
“After four decades of constant, peaceful and systematic efforts of Muslims living in Slovenia, today is a significant milestone for the Islamic Community in Slovenia and it is a great moment for all of Slovenia”, said Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek in her address on the occasion of laying the foundation stone for the construction of a mosque in Ljubljana. Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek on the occasion of laying the foundation stone for the construction of a mosque in Ljubljana stressed that every religious belief had the right to its place for offering prayers which the Islam Community had not had in our territory. “Today we can be assured since we have a proof that the state provides adequate support to the interreligious dialogue meaning a regulated legal status of different religious communities and established dialogue among state and religious representatives. In laying the foundation stone and constructing the mosque, our capital city is becoming an open and plural European city," said the Prime Minister adding that this was a step that proved we were capable of overcoming conflicts and that the battle for the rights of different-minded people and people with different religious beliefs had been won.
The Prime Minister further touched on the issue why we had waited so long for the present moment. In her view the social system after the Second World War was not in favour of dealing with religious topics and issues of religious communities and therefore, no great attention was paid to them. In the time following the Slovenia's independence, the opponents to the mosque construction wanted to prevent the construction by calling a referendum which “encroached upon the fundamental rights of the religious community”. The Prime Minister stressed that “different social powers were fighting for victory, using a mosque as a battleground, but finally reason won”. In the Prime Minister's opinion, the present moment is of special importance for Slovenia, since “it was about the symbol victory against any form of intolerance towards religious communities and concept of xenophobic politics".
After the ceremony, the Prime Minister met the member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bakir Izetbegović. They discussed the importance of good relations between the countries and committed to further strengthening economic relations.