"I do not understand that manner of speech. What I said about inequality in law-regulated solutions I can present arguments for it. I have never and nowhere talked in a disparaging manner about Muslims, but I have spoken about some new streams which are not in spirit with our Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina and are not in accordance with the culture of this country. I have also spoken about figures and that the number of Catholics in Bosnia has halved, which is the truth," the Bosnian Catholic news agency KTA quoted Cardinal Vinko Puljic as saying on Thursday.
Puljic thus responded to a speech which Reis-ul-Ulema Mustafa Ceric gave in Mostar accusing the Sarajevo Archbishop of giving "immoral, unacceptable and untrue statements" about Bosnia and local Muslims while he had been visiting the United States last week,
Puljic said he was sorry to hear what Ceric said.
In response to Ceric's threats that he would reconsider the relations with the Catholic Church, the Sarajevo Archbishop said that one should treat the matter in a sober way.
"We should live together here. It is more prudent for us to find a way of cooperation rather than allowing others to teach us about it. We have lived on this soil as different (ethnic and religious groups) for long time," Puljic added.