CR: Muslims complain of a steep increase in islamophobia

In a report from 2005.

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Muslims living in the Czech Republic complain about a "steep increase in islamophobia, anti-Arabism and anti-Muslim moods" in the Czech Republic like in other western countries after terrorist attacks on the USA in 2001, the Libertas Independent Agency says in a report given to CTK Monday.

The society has published the report on its website.

However, Czech government's commissioner for human rights Jan Litomisky said Monday he did not consider the Czech society's allegedly negative attitude to Muslins a serious problem.

"The situation of the growing hatred and xenophobia has escalated to such an extent that it is necessary to launch a national debate on the phenomenon," Lukas Lhotjan from Libertas Independent Agency says.

He says that anti-Arab moods in western societies have fully replaced the former hatred towards Jews.

"I don't think that we should consider it a serious problem," Litomisky, deputy chairman of the government's Council for ethnic minorities and human rights commissioner, said.

"I am afraid that they sometimes provoke these moods themselves by issuing, for instance, anti-Semitic statements," he said.

Czech Minister for ethnic minorities and human rights Dzamila Stehlikova (junior government Green Party, SZ) said Monday she was surprised at the report.

"We do not perceive this as an existing problem at present," she told CTK.

The Interior Ministry's current statistics has not registered any attacks on Muslims in the Czech Republic, Stehlikova said.

The published information on the Czech society's negative position towards Muslims in 2005 is not topical. The authors published their report only after three years because they say they wanted to better analyse the consequences of the cases and incidents.

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Source: Prague Monitor (English)

See also: CR: TV station fined for Islamophobia