Group opposing a Muslim gathering space received backing with taxpayer money

Posted: July 27, 2011
By Benjamin Cunningham - Staff Writer
Islam in Czech Republic - Tensions despite low Muslim population
The twin terror attacks in Norway have refocused attention on Islamophobia in Europe and closer to home are sparking questions about a recent decision to use taxpayer money to fund an anti-Islamic campaign group.
"I can confirm it," said Imrich Dioszegi, a spokesman for the Hradec Králové Regional Authority.
"The council supports two [campaign] groups of a similar name with a total amount of 15,000 Kč."
Those groups, both going by the name AntiMešita, or anti-mosque, are headed by Valentin Kusák, who said their goal is to "fight against the Islamization of the Czech Republic."
"A month ago, we got a financial gift for our activities from the Hradec Králové region, which really delighted us," he added. "This gift will help us to cover our expenses."
The groups were formed in response to what Kusák said were plans to create a mosque in the city of Hradec Králové. The project he originally opposed has turned out to be an already-existing 50-square-meter building where members of the local Muslim community - many of them students at the nearby university - gather. The building was purchased by the Organization of Muslim Communities in the Czech Republic (UMO-ČR), and leaders of that group term it "a small house for worship."
"Islam is in its nature aggressive, and it tries to be dominant everywhere it enters," Kusák said. "Muslims are lying to us about their intentions; after all, that is what the Koran orders them to do in relationships with 'infidels.' The mosque is for me one the elements of Islamization, and that is why I oppose it.
"I am for religious freedom. ... But Islam - as preached by Muslim representatives and lecturers around the world as well as in the Czech Republic - is incompatible with democracy."
While large numbers of Muslims have emigrated to, and then started families in, several European countries in recent decades, the Czech Republic has remained relatively immune to this trend. The Czech Statistical Office has no official numbers on the country's Muslim population, but estimates put it at around 15,000, a number that would account for just more than 0.1 percent of the population, as compared with an estimated 8 percent in France, Germany's 5.4 percent and Norway's 3.4 percent.
"The fact that a council supports the activities of AntiMešita is totally not right, but others are to judge such actions," said UMO-ČR Chairman Muneeb Hassan Al Rawi. "I compare such initiatives to fascism. Especially after Friday in Norway, everyone should clear up their perspective, because it came to light that not only Muslims have a patent on terrorism."
The July 22 events in Norway are refocusing attention on anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic sentiments throughout Europe. Right-wing extremist groups in the Czech Republic have made headlines in recent years and drawn increased attention from law enforcement, but the relatively low Muslim population had seen much extremist rhetoric directed against the Roma minority.
A study by the Berlin-based Friedrich Ebert Stiftung released in March found that "Europeans are conspicuously united in their rejection of immigrants and Muslims."
The study examined attitudes in eight European countries, and while the Czech Republic was not a part of the study, nearby Germany, Hungary and Poland were.
"Hungary and Poland stand out for their strong rejection of all the studied minorities," the report said.
The report also found discrimination extended beyond Islam as some 70 percent of respondents in Poland believed Jews were seeking to benefit from their ancestors' suffering during the Nazi era, and 88 percent of Poles opposed equal rights for homosexuals.
Researchers further concluded such attitudes often translate into actions.
"Those who are prejudiced against immigrants are more likely to oppose their integration, to refuse them equal political participation, to be willing to discriminate against them and to respond to them with violence," the report said.
Asked if he was worried about Islamophobia in Europe and the Czech Republic, Al Rawi said: "Of course, the concerns are growing."
"People like Kusák are fools who don't have enough work," Al Rawi said. "I invited him for a grilling party in Hradec Králové; perhaps he is not a mean person."
For their part, the Hradec Králové authorities insist their financial support for AntiMešita should not be mistaken as an endorsement of the cause.
"By no means is it possible to understand this support as an official view. It is financial support," Dioszegi said.
But financial support is seen by others as reinforcing an existing and troubling attitude.
"I am a Czech citizen. I have lived here for 25 years, and still every time I return from abroad I get stopped at the airports by customs officers," Al Rawi said.
"Now, after Norway, when a guy does it to his own people and he is not Muslim, basically anything can happen. We knew this a long time ago, but if I said this a week ago you would have considered me a fool."
- Filip Šenk and Klára Jiřičná contributed to this report.