The ambitious xenophobes in the group called "We Don’t Want Islam in the Czech Republic" use an intellectual perspective and language of manipulative half-truths and would-be humorous, unctuous servility toward the stereotypical lack of thought here about immigrants, intellectuals, minorities, multiculturalism, nonprofits – and, naturally, Muslims. It is an open question whether there is any point in dealing with them or responding to them.
Intuition tells us that there probably is not. However, it is another matter when we consider that the group has more than 100 000 fans on Facebook, which means it is likely to grow into a political movement or party that could flood the public space with its rampant primitivism to an even greater extent.
We will, therefore, respond in part to one sample of the ideological work of these leading Czech manipulators against Islam. On the group’s website, ivcrn.cz, we can read the following in a report posted yesterday: "In Britainistan a little Nazi-Muslim family is protesting against the burial of a non-Muslim ROMANI MAN (!!!) next to their own funny relative. All of this is at a multi-culti cemetery."
This post features all of the indicators we described above: The suggestive, "joking" term "Britainistan", the phrase "little Nazi-Muslim family", which is a simple insult, and lastly, the manipulative half-truth of the emphasized "ROMANI MAN". What is it that has actually happened in Britain?
Local officials in Leicester have indeed handled a complaint from a Muslim family who protested that a CATHOLIC was buried next to their family plot, a man who from their perspective is a non-believer. The fact that this person happened to be Romani is not important to the dissatisfied Muslims.
The local bureaucrats did not rule out the option of exhuming and relocating the body of the Catholic man and sent the complaint to the only entity competent to make such a decision, the Justice Ministry. Yesterday the ministry decided that there will be no exhumation and that the graves of the Catholic man and the Muslim will remain side by side.
In other words, there was indeed an unpleasant clash on the basis of a strict interpretation of Islam by one Muslim family who wanted everyone else to adopt their interpretation of that religion. No one else did, and the authorities have confirmed that no one else has to.
It is more than likely that the fact that the buried Catholic man is also Romani played no role in this entire matter. What’s more, Islam generally does not require that Muslims be buried separately from others: "There is nothing in the Koran saying you have to be buried separately," The Telegraph quotes Dr Sheik Howjat Ramzy, Director of the Oxford Islamic Information Centre and an adviser to the Muslim Council of Britain,as saying.
It is more than likely that the fact that the buried Catholic man is also Romani played no role in this entire matter. Lastly, Islam generally does not require that Muslims be buried separately from others: "There is nothing in the Koran saying you must be buried separately from non-Muslims," The Telegraph quotes Dr Sheik Howjat Ramzy, Director of the Oxford Islamic Information Centre and an adviser to the Muslim Council of Britain, as saying.
Ramzy went on to say that in some Muslim countries. segregated burial away from non-Muslims is requested by some people, but it is not based on any binding interpretation of Islamic law and is a practice that varies from place to place. So: May the Catholics and the Muslims at the cemetery in Leicester rest in peace.
