Bulgarian police said on Tuesday they had arrested four people for publishing two internet sites used to preach radical, violent Islam and call for the overthrow of the state.

"The texts published on the sites are preaching the radical form of jihad, the holy war against all non-Muslims," the interior ministry said in a statement.

It said they were also urging "Muslims around the world to assist the war against the unbelievers physically, with money and weapons".

The sites also "propagated a change of the constitutional order in the country and its substitution for the so-called sharia state".

The two men and two women arrested were part of the "Union of Muslims in Bulgaria" founded in 2006.

The authorities are investigating the sources of funding of the group and possible ties with other Islamic radicals.

Some 800 000 Muslims live in Bulgaria but most follow a moderate version of Islam.

AFP

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