مقدونيا: استياء لنصب صليب ضخم أمام مناطق المسلمين

- خبر من مصادر إنجليزية.

أعرب العديد من المسلمين المقيمين بالعاصمة المقدونية "سكوبي" عن استيائهم من قرار بلدية "أريودروم" بنصب صليب يبلغ طوله 33 مترًا في مواجهة المناطق ذات الغالبية المسلمة، وهو الأمر الذي أثار استنكار بعض السكان الذين أعربوا عن عدم ضرورة نصبه.

وردًّا على ذلك أشارت جمعية المؤتمر المقدوني العالمي - المشرفة على نصب الصليب - إلى أنه لا يُعد استفزازًا للمسلمين، ولكنه تأكيد على الهوية والثقافة الأرثوذكسية التي تعتبر ثقافة الغالبية بـ"مقدونيا"، والتي تعتبر مركزًا للنصرانية في أوروبا، بالرغم من تشكيل المسلمين 33% من السكان البالغين 2 مليون؛ المصدر: شبكة الألوكة.

يرجى الإشارة إلى المصدر عند نقل الخبر - شبكة الألوكة.

الخبر من مصدره الأصلي:

Giant Cross Angers Macedonia Muslims

A decision by Aerodrom municipality to erect a 33-metre-tall Christian cross in the Macedonian capital, to be viewed by the predominantly Muslim parts in Skopje, is raising criticism from both Muslims and non-Muslims as ignoring their needs.

“There are enough churches and mosques,” Adem Ahmet, an elderly ethnic Albanian resident of Skopje’s Albanian-dominated Cair municipality told BIRN (Balkan Investigative Reporting Network) on Monday, November 11.

“There is no need for such monuments,” he added.

The plan to build the tall cross in the Aerodrom municipality of the Macedonian capital was announced recently.

The cross, with its 33 meters symbolizing Jesus’s age, should be built within a year and will be financed by donations.

According to the project’s initiator, the pan-Macedonian non-profit organization, the World Macedonian Congress, the cross will be visible in the Albanian predominantly Muslim parts of Skopje.

The congress added that the cross in Aerodrom, a municipality dominated by Macedonians who are mainly Orthodox Christians, is not intended to offend Muslims.

“The cross is neither a conspiracy nor a provocation, but a cultural affirmation. It is not an anti-Islamic symbol but an integral part of the Macedonian culture,” the World Macedonian Congress said in a statement.

The cross construction was approved last week following a vote by the municipal council in Aerodrom, the vote supported by the main ruling centre-right VMRO DPMNE party.

With the decision, the municipality gave the land to the Congress for the construction of “a temporary object of cultural and religious character”.

The Congress, seen as a conservative organization close to VMRO DPMNE, describes Macedonia as “the basis of Christianity in Europe”.

It followed rumors that a nearby Turkish investment project would build four skyscrapers that could invite an influx of Muslim buyers in the ethnically and religiously homogenous municipality.

The building of the giant cross was announced just as the Turkish investors denied rumors that they planned to build a mosque there.