Since Prague's central mosque was shut down last December following over 500 complaints from residents, the city's Muslims have had great difficulty finding a new space for worship in the city center.
00:00For Al Hasan, Fridays mean a tough choice between attending either medical classes or prayers at a mosque on the outskirts of the Czech capital, Prague.
00:09It takes him over two hours to travel from his home to the mosque and back.
00:13He's not alone. Many Muslims in Prague have faced a similar challenge ever since the central mosque was shut down last December.
00:21They blame anti-Muslim sentiment for its closure.
00:24The only remaining mosques in the capital are situated on the outskirts of the city.
00:29From my home to the centre or the periphery of the mosques that we have, if you say, of Prague, it's actually a bit distant.
00:35So given all the circumstances of how the traffic commutes in Prague, it's a bit difficult to go.
00:40So in certain cases, yes, I've had to miss my classes. In certain cases, I had to do my classes to not attend.
00:45So it is a bit of a tough situation to be in.
00:49There are an estimated 20,000 Muslims in the Czech Republic, most of whom live in Prague.
00:54The previous central mosque was located in this building, but it was shut down after over 500 complaints from residents.
01:01Lazar Mamri of the Islamic Foundation in Prague says locals objected to Muslims gathering outside the mosque.
01:07The foundation has since found at least ten suitable properties, but each time it has faced rejection.
01:13We find some places, but when they learn that the place, the owner will be the Islamic foundation is the Islamic foundation.
01:23No, no, directly no. They refuse the name of Islam.
01:30We, as Muslims here, we have the possibility to explain in the TV or radio.
01:39They don't give us the possibility to speak, to explain for them what means Islam.
01:46Lazar believes there is deep-rooted anti-Muslim sentiment in the country.
01:50He says that in 2019, extremists left a pig's head and entrails at the entrance to a Prague mosque.
01:56Experts say such hostility dates back to the 1980s and intensified after the 2015 refugee crisis,
02:02with right-wing groups linking Muslims to terrorism and cultural backwardness.
02:07Negative trends in anti-Muslim public opinion and politics did not begin in 2014-2015 here in Czechia.
02:16But what changed then was that for many Czechs, for the first time, Islamic fundamentalism, jihadism, Muslim migration
02:26became political issues that were urgent and could have an impact on them.
02:31But for many Czechs, expressing opposition to Islam or to Muslim migration
02:39became a symbolic and sort of socially acceptable way of expressing other positions
02:45regarding EU governance and national security and cultural identity.
02:53DW asked Prague City Hall to comment on the challenges Muslims face in finding a space for a central mosque.
02:59It declined to comment, saying that the matter is not the responsibility of the city.
03:04Al-Hasan says that Muslims in Prague built a community at the former mosque in the city centre.
03:10When it closed, that sense of community was lost.
03:15I used to go regularly for all the salas.
03:17So what happened was the brothers are not there anymore because the centre was the one closest to their homes.
03:22And the ones that we now go is very far, as I mentioned, for 45 to 50 minutes.
03:25So as a result, the harmony that we had established, that has been disrupted.
03:30Despite these challenges, Al-Hasan and many others like him remain hopeful that the people of Prague will come to understand them
03:37and that their community will soon once again have a central mosque in downtown Prague.
