INTIMIDATION, RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE AND VIOLENCE ARE UNACCEPTABLE

SARAJEVO, OCTOBER 2 /SRNA/ – The United Kingdom considers intimidation, religious intolerance, and violence unacceptable, and stressed that competent authorities must take measures to prevent such incidents, the British Embassy in BiH told SRNA.

Asked to comment on the threatening letter sent to Serbs and the Serbian Orthodox Church /SOC/ in Tuzla, the Embassy said that the competent institutions should investigate every incident quickly and thoroughly. "A stable, peaceful, and prosperous BiH can only be built on mutual respect, cooperation, and shared values," the diplomatic mission added. Dževad Hasić, already known for threats and vandalistic incursions into Orthodox churches, sent the threatening letter from Tuzla prison, in which he announced that he would "switch the church bell to vibration". He threatened that he would "convert the priest with the church lamp to Islam so that he could recite the ezan five times a day with the greatest pleasure," and that he would "replace the cross with the crescent and star like in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, with the greeting `Allahu Akbar`".