Aqila Mumthaz
The Slovakian Government has approved a law effectively preventing Islam from becoming a state religion. Muslims in Slovakia are currently registered as a civic association.
The Bill was proposed by the Slovak National Party (SNP) and was approved by a two-thirds majority; the Bill requires a religion to have at least 50,000 followers before it qualifies for state subsidies. According to the latest census, there are about 2,000 Muslims in Slovakia and no registered mosques.
Slovakia is the only EU member state without an official Mosque. The Islamic Centre of Cordoba had tried to attain an official permit from the Government in 2017 but had its proposal rejected.
Milan Krajniak an MP of the Sme Rodina Party, proposed a bill in 2017 to officially ban mosques in Slovakia noting, “Mosques serve as recruitment centres for Islamic terrorists. And we cannot differentiate between radical and moderate ones or those that are moderate today only to become radicalised tomorrow.” MPs however, did not support his draft bill to amend the act on religious freedom and the bill was rejected.
A spokesman of the Islamic Foundation in Bratislava, Slovakia, told The Muslim News that Muslims in Slovakia “can mostly follow all of the basic requirements of their faith.”
“We can meet for prayers, hold Friday sermons and are not forbidden from wearing clothes like the hijabs. However, due to the fact that the state does not recognize Islam as a religion, our religious marriages are not legally recognized (we need to have civil marriage), we do not have the right for Islam to be taught in state schools (all recognised religions have this right), we cannot employ Imams and there is no legal way for us to perform funeral in accordance with our traditions (we can do it unofficially via agreement with the head of the cemetery).”
“Islamisation starts with a kebab and it’s already underway in Bratislava, let’s realise what we will face in five to 10 years,” said SNP Chairman, Andrej Danko in an interview with Reuters. “We must do everything we can so that no mosque is built in the future.”
Over 62 per cent of the population in Slovakia are said to be Roman Catholic, and since Slovakia took over the Presidency of the EU Council in July, the state has resisted allowing refugees into the country since the European refugee crisis began.
Deputy Chairman of the nationalist SNP, Anton Hrnko, likened the refugee crisis to the expansion of Islam. “Slovakia and the neighbouring countries have experience with Islamic expansion,” Hrnko wrote on his Facebook page on June 23 last year. “For over 150 years we had them at the borders, and we know how much blood and sweat it took to send them back to where they came from,” he added.
In August this year, Slovakia presented a plan to allow countries to spend more money to enforce external borders or deport people, instead of taking in their share of migrants. They also suggested EU member states agree to emergency measures “on a voluntary basis” in response to peak refugee arrivals.