Will Czech Ban Islam?

PRAGUE – Leading election results in the Czech Republic, a far-right party whose leader has called for banning Islam is expected to form the government, bringing bad news for the country’s religious minority.

“We want to stop any Islamization of the Czech Republic; we push for zero tolerance of migration,” Tomio Okamura, the leader of the Freedom and Direct Democracy Party (SPD), told reporters after the election results were released, Newsweek reported on Tuesday, October 24.

While the centrist ANO movement—led by the billionaire media mogul Andrej Babis, whom some have compared to Donald Trump—won easily with 29.6 percent of the vote, three parties were close to tying for second place, including the SPD.

While it is unlikely that Babis might form a government with Okamura or go as far as banning Islam outright, many critics said that the SPD’s Islamophobic rhetoric has pushed ANO to take a tougher stance against immigrants and refugees.

“SPD’s rhetoric does influence ANO, or rather, ANO has capitalized on the same fears that Okamura’s party has: namely the fear of the unknown,” said Zselyke Csaky, a senior researcher with Freedom House.

“Central Europe has little experience with immigration, and recent terror attacks in Western Europe could easily be used by politicians to whip up negative feelings. ANO is not alone in approaching the question very cynically and seeing it as an opportunity to increase support for the party.”

Czech’s Trump

Compared to Trump, the billionaire media mogul Babis has promised to cut back on immigration and to run his country like a business.

The businessman has suggested that Czechs stop eating kebabs and begin walking pigs outside of mosques. He has also called Islam “an ideology” rather than a religion.

Though Czech has only 11,000 Muslims, less than 0.1 percent of the population, Dr. Jan Čulík, a lecturer in Czech studies at the University of Glasgow, sees that “historical hang-ups” make the Czech population susceptible to xenophobic messages.

“The small and the middle-sized Central European nations have never been able to rid themselves of their fear that they could be annihilated or that their national community could cease to exist,” Čulík wrote in a recent article titled “Why Is the Czech Republic So Hostile to Muslims and Refugees?”.

“These historical hang-ups seem to have played an important role in contemporary politics in the Czech Republic.”