Prague, Sept 12 (CTK) – Opponents of immigration from Islamic countries and critics of xenophobia held parallel demonstrations in Prague’s central Wenceslas Square Saturday, each attended by hundreds of people.
The meetings were held separate by a bustling motorway and also a police unit.
A total of about 1,000 people took part in both events. No serious incident occurred during the rallies or the demonstrators’ subsequent march through Prague, police spokesman Tomas Hulan told CTK.
Far more participants, an estimated 800 people, attended the rally of the critics of Islamism. They chanted slogans about the preservation of Czech culture, sovereignty and independence.
One of the speakers said those criticising the opponents of Islam are “hypocritical blind multicultural fools.”
He said the instinct of self-preservation has been denied by both the U.N. and the EU, which criticises the rejection of the compulsory quotas for the acceptance of refugees by Prague.
“The current behaviour of the EU is a worse equivalent of the Munich Agreement,” said Martin Konvicka, leader of the Bloc Against Islam non-parliamentary movement.
The Munich Agreement that Britain and France signed with Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy in September 1938, forced Czechoslovakia to cede its border areas (mostly German-inhabited Sudetenland) to the Nazi Germany.
Islam is repugnant and bad, Konvicka said.
Tomio Okamura, a lower house deputy who heads the Freedom and Direct Democracy movement, said it is necessary to close the borders and expel all migrants.
Some 300 to 500 people took part in the pro-refugee demonstration staged by the Against Displays of Hatred group together with Young Greens.
They carried banners reading “Hatred is no solution,” “Movement is no crime,” and “Stop fascist masquerades in Czech Republic.”
The rally’s organiser Jakub Hein said the opponents of migration are seeking own political rise fuelled by the migration crisis.
“These people are hyenas and they want to benefit from the suffering of others,” Hein said.
Later in the afternoon, the rally, chanting the slogan “Our weapon is solidarity,” walked through the centre of Prague.
They formed a live image “The Raft of the Medusa,” inspired by the famous French Romantic painting and hinting at the danger the refugees face on their way to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea.
The anti-Islamists were louder than the opponents of xenophobia, also thanks to more efficient loudspeakers.
The former were also backed by participants in the Bikers Against Islam event involving a group of motor bikers whose noisy ride across the upper part of the square lasted several minutes.
The anti-Islamists, too, set out for a march through Prague. Chanting “Czech Lands to the Czechs,” “Outlaw Islam” and other slogans, they arrived in front of the Government Office seat.
They loudly called on the cabinet to resign and applauded President Milos Zeman’s approach to refugees.
Zeman recently told the Frekvence 1 radio that most immigrants are in the Czech Republic illegally, and as they violated law, they should be promptly returned, not placed into various accommodation facilities.
The wave of immigrants poses three risks to the Czech Republic, Zeman said, mentioning the creation of excluded zones, the spread of infectious diseases and a possible establishment of sleeper cells by IS, which could develop into terrorist organisations.
