Prague, Sept 11 (CTK) – The police dispersed a demonstration held by Martin Konvicka’s Initiative (IMK) anti-Islam group outside the Saudi Arabia embassy in Prague yesterday, due to defamation of religion, on call of the City Hall’s officials.
The clerks argued that the participants in the rally entitled “With Humour to Mecca” had downgraded religion and that they deviated from the originally announced programme.
A few dozen supporters of the Konvicka group refused to leave the street, but around 15:00 only a small circle of debating people stayed there.
The City Hall clerks left the rally with a police assistance, and some 20 police officers watching the rally left, too. No one was detained.
Konvicka’s supporters were disguised like Muslims and they placed a mobile toilet outside the embassy that should stand for Kaaba, the most sacred mosque in Mecca. They planned to “stone” it with crumpled pieces of newspaper to mock the ritual that Muslims consider holy.
Exactly this performance was qualified as defamation of religion, and this is why the meeting was dispersed.
The City Hall informed the organisers beforehand that their event would be dissolved in the case of downgrading religion.
“I think that a court should decide on this. If it is up to the Prague City Hall to solve whether some religion is defamed or not, I can remember five or ten pictures displayed in Prague galleries that are defaming religion in some way,” Konvicka told CTK before the meeting.
The Czech Foreign Ministry called Konvicka’s event provocative and a direct insult to a religious group.
“The Foreign Ministry strictly condemns any similar activity that is spreading religious hatred, brings hostility into Czech society, and thereby harms the picture of the Czech Republic in the world,” the ministry said on its website.
In his speech at the meeting, Konvicka called Saudi Arabia the world’s biggest exporter of terrorism and he called on the Czech government to expel its diplomats from the country.
Konvicka told reporters yesterday that he would discuss the City Hall’s steps with his lawyers. The clerks referred to an official statement by the City Hall’s spokesman.
Police spokesman Tomas Hulan told CTK that no one had been detained and that the police had acted only on the basis of the City Hall clerks’ request.
The City Hall did not ban the rally at first saying there was no reason to do so, though the group’s previous event in August when the IMK’s played arrival of IS militants including a vehicle with gunmen shooting dummy weapons had caused panic among people in Prague’s historical Old Town Square. It is being investigated on suspicion of rioting.
Prague Mayor Adriana Krnacova (ANO) then asked to punish the clerk who had permitted the ally.
The Interior Ministry said there was no reason to ban the event. However, the announcement of the demonstration should have provoked alert, the ministry added.
The organisers did not cancel or move yesterday’s event because of a sewage breakdown in the street either. Prague Deputy Mayor Petr Dolinek (Social Democrats, CSSD) called on the City Hall to cancel the rally due to it on Friday, but in vain. The IMK is considering filing a legal complaint against him.
The IMK announced to stage the rally outside the Saudi Arabia embassy in Prague-Bubenec on the day marking the 15th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the USA. Konvicka said the event would mock the culprits since mockery is what Islamists minded most of all.
The annual great pilgrimage started in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on Friday, with almost two million Muslims from 150 countries participating in it.
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