Abstract
According to available studies intolerance towards Muslims in general and Arabs in particular is prominent in the Czech Republic. The longitudinal study found that Islamophobia is on the rise, becoming stronger over the years.
This phenomenon is closely related to the strong anti-immigrant sentiments of the Czech voters and the corresponding policies of accepting not a single refugee. Since 2015, in the Czech Republic, we have witnessed the full normalization of Islamophobia in public discourse, in media, in the Parliament, the Office of the President and Prime Minister and, most notably on the Internet.
The content that would be considered extreme or fringe a couple of years ago is now given a platform in the Czech Senate and other public spaces. The monitoring exercise carried out by ROMEA found that incidents of xenophobia, including anti-migrant hate, followed by Islamophobia are the most frequent types of illegal hate speech on the Czech Internet.
The proliferation of fake news and hoaxes related to Muslims is on the rise. It leads to the radicalization of individuals.
That is what contributed to the first case in the Czech Republic of a person being convicted of terrorism for chopping down trees which fell onto train lines while spreading flyers in poor Czech so as to fake a Muslim terrorist attack. The election success of the Party of Direct Democracy led by one of the most prominent figures in the Islamophobia network, Tomio Okamura, opened space for the full-blown mainstreaming of Islamophobia through announced initiatives to ban Islam as a non-religion.
On the front of combating xenophobia and Islamophobia we find NGOs that are often exposed to the same degree of hate as the groups whose rights they try to uphold. The existence of a voluntary informal network of citizens who help refugees (often seen as Muslims only) is encouraging.
So is the only party in the Parliament with a moderate view of the issue of tolerance to different groups and cultures, the Pirate Party.