Macedonian Carnival Sparks New Religious Tension

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) — Vandals have targeted an Orthodox church and a historic mosque in Macedonia, the latest in a string of incidents after carnival-goers mocked Muslims.

Police said Wednesday a church in Tetovo, an ethnic Albanian Muslim town west of the capital Skopje, suffered minor damage in an overnight arson attack.

In the country’s second-largest city of Bitola, which is mostly inhabited by majority Orthodox Christian Macedonians, offensive graffiti was painted on the walls of a 16th- century mosque.

Police made no arrests over either incident.

The tension follows a Jan. 13 carnival in the village of Vevcani in which Orthodox Christian men dressed as women in burqas and mocked the Quran.

The incident has provoked angry demonstrations by Muslims, who belong to the country’s ethnic Albanian minority.