The mosque management reported the case to the police, who arrived at the scene and documented the evidence. This is not the first case of vandalism at the Brno mosque. Photo: TD / Brno Daily.
Brno, Jan 4 (BD) – According to the Slovak Islamonline.sk, the mosque has been closed frequently recently, so the managers of the mosque are not sure exactly when the hate graffiti appeared, but it was sometime between the weekly Friday prayer and Saturday morning. The slogan, written in Czech, reads: “Do not spread Islam in the Czech Republic, or else, we will kill you.”
Police Investigate Islamophobic Vandalism Written On Wall of Brno Mosque pic.twitter.com/G8DzmPcDqd
— Brno Daily (@BrnoDaily) January 4, 2020
The case is under investigation. “Since Friday afternoon we have been investigating the damage to the mosque facade with a threatening message. We have documented the case and are inquiring for information that could lead us to the perpetrator,” said police spokesman Bohumil Malášek on Saturday morning.
Not the first time
In recent years, the mosque has repeatedly become a target for vandals. In December 2013, someone hung a piece of pork on the front door and scattered pig bones at the entrance of the mosque. In August 2015, someone smashed the windows of the mosque, and three months later someone sprayed the entire door and front wall with engine oil, according to reports in Czech media outlets.
There have been several openly xenophobic protests organized by the Workers’ Party of Social Justice (DSSS), a militant far-right party. In 2015, party members gathered in front of the mosque, stuck the signs of their party on the door, and verbally attacked people present.
One DSSS event from 2016, posted in a video on YouTube, consisted of a protest in the park in front of the mosque, featuring a fashion show in which young women, some in lingerie, “depict the western values to muslims”. According to Czech media, people at the protest were eating pork goulash and they burnt pages from the Koran.
The mosque, the first built in the Czech Republic, commemorated 20 years since its opening in summer 2018. The inconspicuous building, which merges with the surrounding housing development, was completed in 1998 on Vídeňská in Brno.
Other spiritual sites for Muslims can be found in the Czech Republic, in Prague, Teplice, Hradec Králové, and in Kolová near Karlovy Vary. In the 2011 census, 3,358 people named Islam as their religion, but the number of Muslims in the Czech Republic is estimated to be between 10,000 and 20,000, according to the Czech media website iDnes.cz.
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