Deadly threat or Unique Opportunity? Images of Islam in Czech Republic's Conservative Catholic Discourse
Abstrakt
Thanks to the vast medialization of the so-called "migration crisis" in 2015, debates about nature of Islam and its compatibility with respective societies arose across the East Central European region. In overwhelmingly secular Czech Republic, some leading figures of the local Catholic Church including the archbishop of Prague Dominik Duka entered this debate, portraying Islamic faith in terms hostile to the native Czech culture and society, instead promoting their "original" Christian roots.
This presentation seeks to explore their construction of Islamic "Other" in contrast with the conservative Catholic vision of ideal Czech society, defined by its imagined Christian culture and history, and their attempt to reconcile this construct with competing secular tradition. It is based on critical discourse analysis of public statements by archbishop Dominik Duka, and of RC Monitor, conservative Catholic magazine sanctioned by the archdiocese of Prague, since 2015.