About a decade ago, I watched an eye-opening documentary (on the internet, of course), mad by a courageous young Czech man who went into a mosque located in Prague, Czech Republic’s capital, and documented what he had experienced there, what was being preached there, how women (including his girlfriend, who attended the mosque with him) were treated.
It was, to say the least, Earth-shattering!!!
OK – for those who blame ‘Western Imperialists’ for any Islamic backlash, please, let it be known that Czechs had NEVER EVER been part of any ‘ Western imperialism’ or any kind of European ‘imperialism’ at all.
Not even a little bit.
And when it came to the crusades – a few were launched against the Czechs themselves, as we had kicked off the Protestant movement 100 (or so) years ahead of Martin Luther – who was an ardent (though post-humous) disciple of the Czech cleric Jan Hus.
It is also worth a mention that, during the times of religious civil wars in Europe, many Czech Protestant nobles sought an alliance with Muslims against the hated Catholics – only to learn, at great cost of life and blood, that Muslims do not regard treaties with non-Muslims as binding…
While this may be lost on the ‘average’ Western citizen, this is well imprinted on the Czech psyche, from childhood stories on to true history that had been taught in schools (before political correctness, circa 2003, re-wrote the textbooks).
Did I mention that in Czech religious wars, women have traditionally been seen as acting equally to their male counterparts? Perhaps this is more myth than history, but, tradition has it that in the Hussite wars, women were warriors equal to men. This, too, is part of the Czech psyche!
Now that the background had been, very roughly, sketched, in comes this documentary.
A young man and his girlfriend try to attend a mosque in Prague, called the ‘Black Bridge’ Mosque.
Of course, right at the beginning, they are separated.
And then come the teachings….
Soon after I saw the documentary, I could no longer find it: it was taken down from the source through which I had found it and it seemed that Google (as well as every other search engine I could think of) had never heard of it.
Well – colour me surprised when I came across this interview: with the author of the documentary – 10 years after having made it!!!
Without much ado – and before it, too, disappears – here is the interview (note – I did not do the translation and consider it to be somewhat ‘muted down’):
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