Diplomatic representatives from Islamic countries in the Czech Republic said today they are concerned about mounting Islamophobia in the country after the terrorist attacks on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and by the anti-Islam statements by the Dawn head Tomio Okamura.
In their statement, members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Prague Group (OICPG) strongly condemned the “brutal terrorist attacks” in Paris.
They called for “concerted global efforts and actions against terrorism and extremism to ensure the restoration of world peace.”
“The OICPG ... expresses concerns over the amalgams of Islam with terrorism and the rising trend of Islamophobia in the Czech Republic in the wake of the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo and remarks made by Tomio Okamura, a Dawn member,” some 20 diplomats said in their statement.
The Czech News Agency received the document from the Pakistani Embassy, which presides over the group at present.
The text does not say which remarks by Okamura the diplomats had in mind. According to the Pakistani Embassy, they were mainly his controversial calls for walking dogs and pigs outside mosques, which he presented online.
Dawn is a very small opposition party in parliament.
The diplomats denounced the attacks in France, in which three terrorists murdered 17 people and said there is no place for such crimes anywhere in the world, in no religion, culture or social environment.
They also criticized the anti-Islam demonstrations in Germany organized by the Pegida movement as a manifestation of mounting Islamophobia in Europe.
“It is high time to fulfill our collective obligations to stop negative stereotyping and stigmatization against Islam, the increasing acts of Islamophobia, defamation of Islam, discrimination, combining Islam with violence and terrorism, as well as the growing trend of intolerance and hatred toward Muslims,” the diplomats wrote.
The group also commended Czech authorities and civic societies’ efforts at inter-faith dialogue for promoting understanding in society and for helping fighting extremism and terrorism.