Here is an article in a Czech ‘Parliament sheets’ publication that a couple friends forwarded me, wondering if it is worth translating.
Hell yes!
Here is the full translation (by me – so, for errors or inaccuracies, you know whom to blame!).
Photo credit: Daniela Cerna
Description: President Milos Zeman and Mayor of the Zlin region, Stanislav Misak.
President Milos Zeman, while visiting the Zlin region, reacted to the accusation that he is an inslamophobe. He is apparently surprised, because he himself does not know what that “islamophobia” actually is. “The term islamophobia has never been properly defined. I speak against Islamic radicalism,” he explained during a visit to the company Kovarna Viva in Zlin.
“So, for the authors of this information, I have just one wish: that somebody will not cut their heads off [while they are] alive,” the President ended his speech.
This was a reaction to the assertion, which was found in a report if the Commission of the Council of Europe. The full name of this [organization] is European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance and, on Wednesday, it released a report sharply critical of Czech politicians.
“ECRI was informed by numerous sources that political expressions of intolerance are not rare features, especially in times near elections. The most common targets are the Roma and immigrants, lately, however, Muslims have become vicims of increased Islamophobia,” is, among other things, written in the report.
As the largest Islamophobes in the Czech political arena, the report named Tomio Okamura and also President Milos Zeman. Regarding them, the commission raised its eyebrows over some of their statements, including some older ones. “Even the President himself is considered to be an open holder of anti-Islamic views; in the year 2011, reportedly in an interview with a magazine, he stated that ‘moderate Muslim’ is contradicto in adjecto, or a self-contradiction, in the same way as ‘moderate Nazi’ is a contradicto in adjecto,” is an example of what is written in the report.
“He also declared that Islam is not a religion of peace and much less so of tolerance, but a religion of hatred”, is written in the report. The report was brought to attention in Czech mainly by a non-profit organization ‘Clovek v tisni [People in Need]’.
H/T: Vlad Tepes, Baron Bodissey