The group We Do Not Want Islam in the Czech Republic has collected more than 10,000 signatures on a petition against granting more rights to Czech Muslims, the server Echo24.cz writes today.
After Sept. 17, 10 years will have elapsed since their registration as a religious community. Thanks to this, they can ask for instruction of Islam at public schools, the establishment of religious schools, sending of imams to prisons and the military and recognition of Muslim marriages.
However, the Muslim community has not fulfilled some conditions for the granting of higher rights, Echo24.cz writes.
The organizers want to pass the petition onto the Culture Ministry on Monday and initiate a public hearing in the Chamber of Deputies.
“We have nothing against individual Muslims, but we are against the Association of Muslim Communities (UMO) representing Islam’s most fundamentalist branch,” organizer Jiří Barták told the server.
He pointed out some questionable sermons in Czech mosques in which some Arab scholars who approve of violence against children if they do not want to pray and the application of Sharia in the Czech Republic were quoted.
The Culture Ministry is of the view the petition is irrelevant.
“As the conditions were not fulfilled, it is impossible to grant higher rights,” ministerial spokeswoman Helena Markusová told the server.
The UMO does not fulfill a number of conditions. Islam was claimed by 3,358 people in the latest census taken in 2011, while at least one per 1,000 of the total population, roughly 10,400 persons, are needed.
The server writes the real number of Muslims in the Czech Republic is several times higher, but for various reasons, they do not want to have themselves registered.
In addition, the UMO has failed to publish its annual report.
UMO head Muneeb Hassan Alrawi has not commented on the potential application for higher rights for Muslims.