Muslim leaders in the Czech Republic have voiced deep concerns over a police raid that targeted worshippers during Friday prayers at Islamic institutions in Prague over the weekend, warning that such raids could fuel anti-Muslim sentiments in the European country.

“We had no idea why the police came,” Wahono Yulianto, an Indonesian diplomat who was present during the raid at the mosque, was quoted by the New York Times on Tuesday, April 29.

Yulianto was at the headquarters of the Islamic Foundation, a community center in Prague, the Czech capital, last Friday to attend congregational prayers.

Suddenly, police forces raided the Islamic center on the city’s outskirts during Friday prayers, detaining 20 people and arresting a 55-year-old publisher of a book following accusations of inciting Xenophobia and violence.

“They made us put up our hands and told us to lie on the floor,” he said.

“They walked in the prayer room with their shoes on and were shouting,” Yulianto added, asserting that the Indonesian Embassy in Prague had lodged an official complaint with the Czech Foreign Ministry after he was detained by the police for 90 minutes.

The police said the publisher was a 55-year-old Czech citizen who had “The Fundamentals of Tawheed” book translated into Czech.

The publisher faces charges of promoting hate speech, a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The book is written by Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips, a Jamaican-born imam.

Threats

Muneeb Hassan Alrawi, the head of the Association of Czech Muslim Religious Communities, said that several copies of the book had been confiscated by the police during Friday’s raid.

Alrawi, who represents Muslim organizations in the Czech Republic, said the Czech edition of “The Fundamentals of Tawheed,” which was first published in 2012, had been overseen by a small group of people and had not been sufficiently vetted.

“We made a mistake of not having thoroughly overseen the publication of the book,” he said.

“We were not aware that some of its passages could be in breach of Czech law. Our association certainly does not hold any extremist views.”

Despite Muslims’ assurances, some analysts warned that the raids might fuel anti-Muslim sentiments in the country at a time when the far right is gaining ground.

Zdenek Vojtisek, an expert on religious extremism at Charles University in Prague, added that there was no evident that the Muslim small population in the Czech Republic has become radicalized.

The Czech Republic, which has a population of more than 10 million people, is home to around 15,000 Muslims.

In 2004, Prague acknowledged Islam as an official religion, giving Muslims rights on equal footing to Christians and Jews.

http://www.onislam.net/english/news/europe/471921-mosque-raids-anger-czech-muslims.html

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