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Internet platform for studying Xenophobia, Radicalism and Problems of Intercultural communication.

Vandalism

Vandalism A defileed mosque in the city of Brno.

Most such cases were anti-Semitic. In 2011, there were 5 incidents, in 2012 - 6, in 2013 - 3, in 2014 - 6. In addition, one case of vandalism against the Islamic religious institutions was reported in 2013. In Brno during the night of the 19th of December someone had left a pile of pig bones in front of the mosque. The vandal hung a piece of pork on the doorknob. Those who committed the act obviously wanted to offend Muslims, whose religion strictly forbids eating pork. This is not the first attack on a mosque on Videnska street in Brno. In the past, an unknown assailant has broken windows and doors, as well as painted its walls with paint from spray cans.

The following characteristic cases were recorded in 2014: Anti-Roma graffiti was found in Pribram on February 15, Ostrava and Pilsen on March 1.

Anti-Semitic graffiti was found on the walls of a New Jewish Cemetery in Prague on July 24.

On August 1, a swastika was found at a synagogue in Prague.

On August 22, pro-Palestinian leaflets appeared on the monuments of a Jewish cemetery in Teplice.

On August 22, anti-Semitic graffiti was drawn on a Jewish community building in the town of Mikulov. The inscription read, “Hitler did not manage to destroy Jews, but this time nobody will help them, including Golem.

On August 24, unidentified persons drew a Star of David with a swastika and wrote “Gaza” on rabbi’s mailbox in Prague.

In June, a swastika and symbols of the SS were found in Litvinov. Such type of vandalism is common in the Czech Republic.

Unfortunately, this level of vandalism is “traditional” for the Czech Republic - the exception was 2013, when there were only three such cases.

In October 2015, vandals toppled at least 20 headstones on Jewish cemetery in Shafov. Jaroslav Klenovsky, who oversees Jewish heritage sites in Moravia, told local media that he discovered the vandalism when he visited a cemetery listed as a cultural landmark. The cemetery dates back to the 17th century and has over 900 tombstones, the earliest of which dates back to 1720.

In 2018, the Federation of Jewish Communities of the Czech Republic recorded 3 cases of vandalism of Jewish property through anti-Semitic graffiti.

In early August 2019, a Jewish cemetery was vandalized in the village of Osoboblach in the Czech Republic, where unknown perpetrators smashed at least one tombstone and engraved obscene designs on several others.

In June 2020, an act of vandalism was recorded at a mosque in the city of Brno. Local police said the place of worship, reportedly the first in the country to open, was covered in graffiti threatening to kill Muslims. “Don't spread Islam in the Czech Republic! Otherwise, we will kill you,” reads the phrase painted on the walls of the mosque. Authorities have said they have been investigating the heinous incident since Friday, but not for hate crime charges. The ongoing interrogations are currently subject to "property damage" rules, police spokesman Bogumil Malasek told AFP. A person convicted on such a charge can face no more than a year in prison.

The head of the Center for Muslim Communities of the Czech Republic, Munib Hassan Alrawi, strongly condemned the latest hate crime. “We take this seriously as a direct threat, this is not an anonymous call on the Internet. We must also consider this in light of the attacks on mosques around the world and the repressive mood and atmosphere in the Czech Republic,” he said, speaking to local news outlets.

Just a few days after the incident in Brno, the pedestal statue of Winston Churchill in Prague was targeted by Black Lives Matter supporters who desecrated the monument by writing "was a racist" and "Black Lives Matter" on the plinth. The incident caused outrage among many Czechs, and leading politicians called this act an attempt to desecrate a historical monument.

“We must see historical figures in the context of the time in which they lived. To condemn them without understanding the context is stupid and leads to such a stupid act,” said Prime Minister Andrei Babish. The police immediately launched an investigation into the incident at Winston Churchill Square, where there is a monument to this British politician. “Officers will document the entire incident on the spot by collecting evidence,” said Jan Rybansky, a spokesman for the Prague police department. In addition, the municipality of Prague 3, which owns the statue, sent an anti-graffiti team to erase the slogans.

“For us, this is a form of vandalism. We are not considering dismantling the statue,” said Lucy Bukovanska, a spokeswoman for the Prague 3 city hall. The defacement of the Prague statue drew strong condemnation from across the Czech political spectrum, with Czech politicians from the opposition, the office of the president and the ruling government condemning the act.

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