Czech Muslims Unlikely To Violently React To Mocking Posters
Despite bin Laden's threat, BIS firmly believes Czech Muslims will not take any aggressive, violent action, Subert said.
"The Muslims who have lived in our country for a long time are not militant. They are not radicals, but reasonable people," he said.
The Brno Town Hall had the posters removed. The illegal posters feature Muhammad with a bomb in his turban and a detonator. The caption says "Freedom is not free" and the posters are signed Friends of the Freedom of Speech.
Brno police investigate the case, Subert said.
Members of the Islamic community said they were surprised at the movie posters, but were not preparing any steps against them.
"The people who posted them probably want to outrage us. But we will keep quiet," Hani Baloush, from the Islamic Foundation in charge of the Brno mosque, said on Wednesday.
Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg condemned the posters which he said were "a symptom of intolerance and aggression of those who have posted them."
Subert admitted a potential attack from abroad was possible, but he said the risk was not higher than that permanently threatening the country.
He added there was no immediate danger of an extremist terrorist attack. "Such action would require careful preparation," Subert noted.
Twelve cartoons of Muhammad were published by Danish daily Jyllands Posten in 2005. This sparked off a wave of worldwide protests that claimed about 150 lives. The mob attacked the Danish embassies and everything embodying Western culture.
This February, the Danish police arrested some people who may have prepared the murder of one of the drafters of the cartoons.
Radical Muslims consider the cartoons an obvious attack on Islam.
March 20, 2008
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