Refugee crisisCzech president says integrating Muslims into Europe is “impossible”
Czech president Milos Zeman, who gained a name for his ardent anti-immigration stance, asserted on Sunday that it was “practically impossible” to integrate the Muslim community into European society. Zeman last week claimed that the influx of migrants into Europe was orchestrated by Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, and that he Islamist group was receiving money from several states to finance a Muslim effort to “gradually control Europe.”
Miloš Zeman, Czech Republic president // Source: commons.wikimedia.org
Czech president Milos Zeman, who gained a name for his ardent anti-immigration stance, asserted on Sunday that it was “practically impossible” to integrate the Muslim community into European society.
“The experience of western European countries which have ghettos and excluded localities shows that the integration of the Muslim community is practically impossible,” Zeman said in a televised interview.
“Let them have their culture in their countries and not take it to Europe, otherwise it will end up like Cologne,” he added, referring to the New Year’s mass assault on women in Germany and elsewhere.
“Integration is possible with cultures that are similar, and the similarities may vary,” pointing out that the Vietnamese and Ukrainian communities had been able to integrate into Czech society.
Yahoo News reports that Zeman, 71, is a left-winger who is the first president of the Czech Republic to be directly elected. He has been outspoken in his criticism if the surge of migrants and refugees arriving in Europe.
Zeman also has a penchant for conspiratorial musings. Last week he claimed that the influx of migrants into Europe was orchestrated by Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, and that he Islamist group was receiving money from several states to finance a Muslim effort to “gradually control Europe.”
In November, Zeman described the refugees arriving in Europe as “an organized invasion” – and called on young men from Iraq and Syria to “take up arms” against the ISIS rather than run away.
The Czech Republic has so far not faced a refugee crisis of its own because few asylum seekers have chosen to stay in the country of 10.5 million people, with the majority of asylum seekers preferring to go to Germany and the Scandinavian states.
