Publication details
Perception of Islam and Muslims in the Czech Society: The Criticism of Islam in the Public Sphere in Two Examples
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| Year of publication | 2016 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
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| Description | Miloš Zeman’s comments on Islam as well as the criticism of Islam on the page of IVCRN and the analysis of the content and the context of criticizing Islam and Muslims reveal that the perception of Islam and Muslims is connected to the process of defining and understanding Czech national, cultural and social identity. This identity is defined as the opposite of Islamic socio-cultural features which are depicted rather negatively. In this stereotypical and homogenizing perspective Islam and Muslims represent “anti-civilization” (as expressed by Miloš Zeman). From this perspective, the Huntingtonian “culture clash” is inevitable. The connection of criticism of Islam and Muslims to the understanding of Czech socio-cultural identity can be seen as a key to the political potential of this criticism: we will probably see more examples of this criticism in the near future in connection with political competition in the public sphere of the Czech society. |