Serbia: Villagers 'threaten Islam conversion' for church

The damaged church had its bells removed in September to prepare it for demolition

Residents in a Serbian village have threatened to convert to Islam if no action is taken to save their storm-damaged church, it's reported.

Parish members in Sopic, near the capital Belgrade, made the warning in a letter to the head of Serbia's Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irinej, according to the Alo news website. Asking him to back their campaign for the building to be restored and not demolished, the congregation said: "If we do not receive your support, we will be forced to collectively go over to Islam in order to get better protection for our facilities under Serbian law". It goes on to compare the step to "martyrdom", although it stresses that the converts would "keep Jesus Christ in their heart".

The row began last July, when an unusually powerful storm blew the roof off the 150-year-old church tower. The local priest, Mirko Tesic, believes the old church should be pulled down and replaced with a new building, as its foundations are threatened by a landslip. But the man who penned the letter, Predrag Lazarevic, tells Radio Sarajevo that as a professional geologist, he knows there's no landslip. Mr Lazarevic - a descendant of one of the church's founders - adds that the villagers are not against building a new church, as long as the old one is preserved. "If we can, by all means build five more, but let us first protect what we used to have," he says.

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