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“Islam has no place in Slovakia." Slovakian PM Fico

1) The European Crusaders started the invasions, and History books say that they were extremely cruel to Muslims, so one should not blame The Muslims who believe in sympathy towards the children, women and the elderly during warfare, the Crusaders did shock the Muslims with their atrocities in the middle east, and the latter had no choice but to contain this savagery..
Slovakia was not a country during the crusades and even our overlords then - the Hungarians - pretty much ignored them as far as I know. I cannot recollect a single story of a Slovak-origin noble participating in a Crusade. At the time we actually had our hands full fighting the same Western Europe which organized the Crusades and then later the Mongols and eventually Ottomans came, keeping us "busy" for centuries. This is not an excuse. Just a mere fact we as an ething group did not fight you on your land.
2) there are no Muslims or other immigrants who want to live in Slovakia, they are all looking for some better life than their own countries, and Slovakia as such is not very attractive to them.. but since there are some 2000 Slovak Muslims, it will be important for them to have Mosques, since there are far more Christians living in most Muslim countries and there is no ban on them having their Churches, this is always proportional to the numbers.. of course.
I am not sure how the amount of Christians in some now majority-Muslim country relates to the law of Slovakia.
The only muslims (before couple decades ago) which historically lived in Slovakia were either invaders (The Ottomans), lone travelers or lately students on free Scholarships paid by the Czechoslovak state to help developing counttries like Syria or Lybia. We have nothing against those decent people, we invited them in the first place.
3) You have answered very nicely, but the title of the thread
“Islam has no place in Slovakia." is a bit too extremist for moderate Muslims minds ..especially when coming from the mouth of a country's prime minister..
I do have to agree on the surface.
But it is no more radical than statements of leaders of majority muslim countries when referring to other religions in internal speeches.
The fact is, in here that statement means the state security services will go after anyone breaking the laws with a particular attention to Islamists or radical immans.
It does *not* mean any normal Muslim would be criminalized or even harassed by thungs and this would be tollerated by the police. No. We have a freedom of religion for a couple hundred years in Slovakia by now and nothing is going to change that.
 
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The Slovak Republic has moved forward with coupling its electricity market with the Czech Republic's, and supports the construction of a North-South pipeline connection that would link planned LNG terminals in Croatia and Poland, including an interconnector to Hungary.
This is all linked to gas supplies to Ukraine .
Not really. Gas supplies are a pure economic question and have nothing to do with the fear of islamization.

EU nations do have a very strange policy. On one hand they degrade migrants from Asia and Africa even the legal ones and then talk about human rights and better lives.
You may not be aware but e.g. in UK the ordinary people look down more on Slovaks or Poles who came there *legally* courtesy of our membership in the EU than the Inds Pakistani or even illegal migrants are looked on.

Either way, one needs to distinguis:
- legal migrants, who went through the paperwork to get a visa
For those I would say they are actually more "accepted" by the regular society in Easter Europe than they ever were in Western one. This is because in E. Europe we do not have colonial or slavery past so any foreigner is looked up on as a person first and foremost. Not as cheap/slave labor.
- (true) refugees persecuted in home country or running from war
Those are now only people from Ukraine (as the only conflict country we have a border with) and those refugees which we agreed to accept directly from a conflict zone - mostly from Iraq.
- illegal migrants
These are treated for what they are - people who have wilfully broken the law. For those we have only jail and deportation as any sane country has.

Slovaks are the last to dispute the Hypocrisy of the Western countries, especialy France and UK though. Forked tongue was the name of the game in the West for so much time it will probably not go away anytime soon. It became an art in and of itself by now.
 
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Not really. Gas supplies are a pure economic question and have nothing to do with the fear of islamization.

Who are coming to which countries and earning millions all are well aware.

Majority of exports goes to EU nations from Turkey, India, Arab, Africa and India. This is reality of EU these days.


You may not be aware but e.g. in UK the ordinary people look down more on Slovaks or Poles who came there *legally* courtesy of our membership in the EU than the Inds Pakistani or even illegal migrants are looked on.

Either way, one needs to distinguis:
- legal migrants, who went through the paperwork to get a visa
For those I would say they are actually more "accepted" by the regular society in Easter Europe than they ever were in Western one. This is because in E. Europe we do not have colonial or slavery past so any foreigner is looked up on as a person first and foremost. Not as cheap/slave labor.
- (true) refugees persecuted in home country or running from war
Those are now only people from Ukraine (as the only conflict country we have a border with) and those refugees which we agreed to accept directly from a conflict zone - mostly from Iraq.
- illegal migrants
These are treated for what they are - people who have wilfully broken the law. For those we have only jail and deportation as any sane country has.

Slovaks are the last to dispute the Hypocrisy of the Western countries, especialy France and UK though. Forked tongue was the name of the game in the West for so much time it will probably not go away anytime soon. It became an art in and of itself by now.

All are aware who look down people of which nations and then try to talk about human rights.

Republic of India need to change its immigration policies and keep the EU citizens out of Republic of India.

Indians have done way more investment in EU and are giving employment to European citizens and they are the ones who never see Indians with respect.
 
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They cant also complain about Pakistan or Indonesia or any other muslim country if our minorities come under pressure if they are doing the same thing
Live and let live.

If we all followed the proverb there would be no issues with minorities or wars between religions.
Some minorities will surely disappear as they would merge into majority society, some would stay as they are, some would thrive. So is life.

That is what we should all aspire to. Not fight for whose god(s) is(are) the only "right" one(s) or whose culture is "superior" and "exceptional".

For Slovakia what created the back-pressure is us that a Saudi-funded imman preaching in a Saudi-funded mosque in Germany almost literally "death to the German state" is no joke but a real threat.
I do dare to say it is an even more a threat for normal Muslims living in Germany than for Germany itself. There were a couple million Jews in Germany in the 30s. They were very rich and powerfull. They were little Jews in Germany in 1945.

Republic of India need to change its immigration policies and keep the EU citizens out of Republic of India.
I am not sure of the details, but Slovaks need visa to travel to India and Indians need visa to travel to Slovakia. Seems a balanced state of affairs.


Who are coming to which countries and earning millions all are well aware.
Majority of exports goes to EU nations from Turkey, India, Arab, Africa and India. This is reality of EU these days.
Slovakia imports: 100% of gas from Russia. 100% of oil from Russia. 100% of nuclear fuel from Russia. 90%+ Iron ore from Ukraine. Rest raw resources we get from EU countries.
We import a lot from China, not much from Middle east. We pay for that by selling induistrial goods, mainly cars and electronics. I believe we can say our business relationships are as fair as they can be.
That said, business is business and it is allways a 2-way street. Unless one party holds a gun to the head of other - which we do not (and cannot to be frank) do.
 
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I am not sure of the details, but Slovaks need visa to travel to India and Indians need visa to travel to Slovakia. Seems a balanced state of affairs.

Well EU is one single union, if i am not wrong .

So this racial, religious and social discrimination inside EU is violation of the UN charter who claim themselves to be civilized and cultured.
 
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Well EU is one single union, if i am not wrong .
So this racial, religious and social discrimination inside EU is violation of the UN charter who claim themselves to be civilized and cultured.
It is and it is not. The EU is a very complex system of often independent treaties. You can probably compare it more to the Indian system before the Brits came than to the US system of today.

In any case, if an EU citizen is allowed in without a visa and some other still need it, the discrimination is done by the Indian Government. EU only decides on travel to EU. We cannot directly influence the policies of India. But this is a non-issue. Every Slovak understands that India wants to allow UK citizens in for historical reasons etc.
 
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Slovakia was not a country during the crusades and even our overlords then - the Hungarians - pretty much ignored them as far as I know. I cannot recollect a single story of a Slovak-origin noble participating in a Crusade. At the time we actually had our hands full fighting the same Western Europe which organized the Crusades and then later the Mongols and eventually Ottomans came, keeping us "busy" for centuries. This is not an excuse. Just a mere fact we as an ething group did not fight you on your land.
I am not sure how the amount of Christians in some now majority-Muslim country relates to the law of Slovakia.
The only muslims (before couple decades ago) which historically lived in Slovakia were either invaders (The Ottomans), lone travelers or lately students on free Scholarships paid by the Czechoslovak state to help developing counttries like Syria or Lybia. We have nothing against those decent people, we invited them in the first place.

I do have to agree on the surface.
But it is no more radical than statements of leaders of majority muslim countries when referring to other religions in internal speeches.
The fact is, in here that statement means the state security services will go after anyone breaking the laws with a particular attention to Islamists or radical immans.
It does *not* mean any normal Muslim would be criminalized or even harassed by thungs and this would be tollerated by the police. No. We have a freedom of religion for a couple hundred years in Slovakia by now and nothing is going to change that.
Examples will be appreciated..because I never heard any Muslim head of state saying that other official religions have no place in their land..
 
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Live and let live.

If we all followed the proverb there would be no issues with minorities or wars between religions.
Some minorities will surely disappear as they would merge into majority society, some would stay as they are, some would thrive. So is life.

That is what we should all aspire to. Not fight for whose god(s) is(are) the only "right" one(s) or whose culture is "superior" and "exceptional".

For Slovakia what created the back-pressure is us that a Saudi-funded imman preaching in a Saudi-funded mosque in Germany almost literally "death to the German state" is no joke but a real threat.
I do dare to say it is an even more a threat for normal Muslims living in Germany than for Germany itself. There were a couple million Jews in Germany in the 30s. They were very rich and powerfull. They were little Jews in Germany in 1945.


I am not sure of the details, but Slovaks need visa to travel to India and Indians need visa to travel to Slovakia. Seems a balanced state of affairs.


Slovakia imports: 100% of gas from Russia. 100% of oil from Russia. 100% of nuclear fuel from Russia. 90%+ Iron ore from Ukraine. Rest raw resources we get from EU countries.
We import a lot from China, not much from Middle east. We pay for that by selling induistrial goods, mainly cars and electronics. I believe we can say our business relationships are as fair as they can be.
That said, business is business and it is allways a 2-way street. Unless one party holds a gun to the head of other - which we do not (and cannot to be frank) do.

not so much live and let live

you want to have legalised bigotry and prejudice without any blow back and consequences

we have minorities too millions of Christian and other minorities exist throughout the muslim world

if countries eg Slovakia can justify prejudice towards muslims and other minorities why should we not do the same towards christian minorities or other minorities

The reality is the swing to the right in places such as Slovakia etc atleast partially justifies some of the bigotry our own right wing holds towards our minorities
 
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Examples will be appreciated..because I never heard any Muslim head of state saying that other official religions have no place in their land..
I did not want to nitpick, as it is not polite.
But lets make it clear that the quote was - as is normal by West media - professionaly removed from its context.
Here is the original interview:
"teraz<dot>sk<slash>slovensko<slash>exkluzivny-rozhovor-premier-fico<slash>198555-clanok<dot><hetemele>"

Unfortunately, I am not able to find any official authorized translation to English, not sure one was ever made. I will try my best to translate the key question/answer combo about the (illegal migrants) redistribution quotas here:
May 25 2016, Interview with Rober Fico by TASR (Just after forming a new coalition after elections)
Journalist:

Bude Slovensko pokračovať v odmietaní akýchkoľvek kvót?
Fico:
Bavíme sa o 120.000 až 160.000 ľuďoch, ktorí mali byť prerozdelení na základe kvót. Ja mám rád minimálne priamosť, korektnosť a čestnosť. My sme od začiatku povedali, že kvóty sú nezmysel, že ich nebudeme realizovať, celý čas tento postoj zastávame a podali sme proti kvótam aj žalobu. Keby som videl tie ostatné krajiny, ktoré tak veľmi za tie kvóty tak bojujú, že napĺňajú kvóty, tak by tá naša pozícia nebola taká silná. Ale my aspoň hovoríme, že nie a držíme sa svojich postojov. A niekto nás kritizuje, že sme si dovolili povedať nie, ale keď sa pozriete na to, koľko ľudí premiestnili na základe kvót, tak tam vidíte dve veľké nuly. Náš postoj je legitímny, budeme v ňom pokračovať. Zasa, ak teraz niečo poviem, možno to bude vyzerať čudne, ale prepáčte... Islam nemá priestor na Slovensku. Veď snáď sme krajina, ktorá nejako vznikla. Nerobme zo seba úplných idiotov. Ak mi tu chce niekto povedať, že Slovensko chce byť multikulturálne, že si tu každý bude robiť, čo chce, že sa tu budú meniť tradície a že sa Slovensko zmení, tak ide proti podstate tejto krajiny. Myslím si, že je povinnosťou politikov hovoriť o týchto veciach veľmi jasne a otvorene. Povedal som, že nechcem, aby na Slovensku vznikla ucelená moslimská komunita a hovorím to znova. Ja nechcem, aby tu bolo niekoľko desiatok tisícov moslimov, ktorí si postupne začnú presadzovať svoje veci. Ja som o tom hovoril niekoľkokrát s maltským premiérom, ktorý mi povedal, že problémom nie je to, že prichádzajú, ale že menia charakter krajiny. A my nechceme zmeniť tradície krajiny, ktorá je postavená na cyrilo-metodských tradíciách. Na niečom, čo je tu celé stáročia. Preto buďme ú primní a povedzme si, že to takto nemôže ísť. Ja sa v tomto cítim veľmi slobodný, taká suverénnosť a národná hrdosť musí byť súčasťou tejto vládnej koalície. Hoci to nebude vždy jednoduché, ale ja musím oceniť postoj koaličných partnerov, tá vláda funguje, fungujú dohody, to je veľmi dôležité. Ja som navyknutý, že keď podám ruku, tak platí a toto zatiaľ platí aj od mojich kolegov, čo je dobré pre fungovanie tejto vládnej koalície. A ja si myslím, že pokiaľ sa nestane niečo vonku, nejaký významný extrémny faktor, ktorý by rozhýbal politické systémy, táto vládna koalícia má bez problémov šancu vydržať celé štyri roky.

Journalist:
Will Slovakia continue to reject any (migrant) quotas?
Fico:
We are talking about 120.000 to 160.000 people, who should be divided up based on the quotas. As a minimum I prefer directness, correctness and honestness. We have said since the beginning that the quotas are a nonsense, that we will not apply them, this is our position all the time and we have brought a (legal) action even (due to the way they were approved). If I saw the other countries, which are so much fighting for the quotas, that they actually fulfill their quota obligations, our position would not be so strong. But we are at least consistent in our "no", sticking to our position throughout. And someone is criticizing us, that we dared say no, but when we look at how many were relocated on the basis of the quotas, then you see there two big zeroes. Our position is legitimate and we will continue with it. Well, if I say something now it may sound strange, but sorry...(pauses) Islam has no space (trans. comment: priestor == space, miesto == place, this was likely intentionally mistranslated..) in Slovakia. We should say that we are a country which came to be in some specific way. Lets not may complete idiots out of ourselves. If someone wants to tell me, that Slovakia wants to be multi-cultural, that everyone will do as he pleases, that the traditions will be changed and that "that Slovakia" will change, then he goes against the fundaments of this country. I believe it is the duty if politicians to talk about these matters clearly and openly. I have said, I do not want (trans: emphasis on "I" to indicate he is not speaking for the government in offcial capacity, he would us "we" when he does so), for that a coherent muslim community would come to exist in Slovakia and I am saying it again. I do not want (transl: again he emphasizes "I"), so that there come to be several tens of thousands of muslims, which will slowly start pushing their agenda. I have spoken about this a couple times with the prime minister of Malta, he told me: "The problem is not they come, but that they change the complexion of the country."(transl. this was a citation which was incorrectly attributed to Fico in most english translations it seems). And simply we do not want to change the character of a country which is built on the Cyril-Methodian tradition.(transl. St. Cyril and St. Methodius were Byzanthine priests who brought christianity to Slovakia in 9th century AC, they also created the Glagolic, the first alphabet of the Slavs which Cyrilic is based on) On something, what is here for centuries. So lets be sincere, and say it cannot go that way. I feel very free in this, such confidence and national pride must be part of this new coalition. Even though it will not be always simple, I must appreciate the position of the coalition partners, that the government is working, the agreements are working, that is very important. I am used to, when I give a hand(transl. make an agreement), then it holds and this holds so far also for my colleagues, which is good for the fucntioning of this coalition government. And I believe, unless somehing outside (the country) happens, some signifficant extreme event, which would get the political systems to shuffle, that this coalition can hold full four years without problems.



Reg. Gulf countries officials statements.
Here is an actual official policy signed by a head of state declaring "any other religion" bar those recognized by the Quran as terrorist:
"english<dot>aawsat<dot><kom><slash>2014<slash>03<slash>article55329804<slash>full-text-of-saudi-interior-ministry-statement-announcing-terrorist-list"

I would expect the King would have backed the law in one speech at least, but I do admit having to rely on translations and secondary sources thus unable to find one. Point taken.

In any case, apologies for using bold:
I personaly do respect the Saudi policy as their internal matter. I however ask ours respected in kind.

note: (I cannot post links, so you need to manual copy + paste those I wrote above)

I believe above full translation can help answer your concern.

You can call it bigotry that is fine. But the fact is Slovaks fought almost 200 years to get "our own" country. We simply do not want to be guests in our own home again as we were for 1000 years previous. This is not xenophobia. We do understand islam, we have very friendly relations with most muslim countries. But we simply want none of what we see happening in Western Europe metropolises these days. We do not want a shadow government and a shadow law system to exist. Why no space for "islam", well, no other religion but the one of the SA-supported fanatics in West Europe is so openly hostile to its host countries and their culture.

Come, visit, live in Slovakia. But when you try to push your worldview on us, we will push back. That is the message the PM was trying to make, and I personally agree with it as does the majority of Slovaks. You can call it bigotry. I would call it common sense.

EDIT: Grammar
 
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What is a Slovakia?
A small country on the western slopes of Carpathian mountains. Nothing less, nothing more.

Ah, also the place which stopped the Ottomans for good (with no small help of the Carpathian mountaints) and recently the biggest per-capita car producer in the world.
None of which matters in this context, except maybe for the fact we have nothing to apologize for through last millenia of our existance as an ethnic group. In turn this allows our politicians be much more frank than is normal in the West.
 
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Registered just to note that I see a lot of misundestandings here comming from not knowing what Slovakia is - and what it is not.

Firstly, Slovakia is NOT part of the historical Western cultural space. It never was. As such, we do *not* go preaching around the world how others should live. Specifically the current PM quoted gets a lot of flak from West Europe politicians for criticizing openly most western "adventures" including the late Libya and Syria ones.

Secondly, we are a trully young nation - having attained statehood again only in 1993, after spending almost 1000 years under some other nation rule. For this we value our own culture a lot and do not want it changed or dilluted.

Third. Slovakia was the de-facto border beween Christian Europe and Ottoman Empire for almost 5 _centuries_. We got attacted countless times by the Turks (which happened to be muslims, but you can imagine how nuanced the interpretation was back then) and each single time we had to - and did - beat them back at a great cost. About 1/3 of our folk tales and songs are about this period of "evil muslims" attacking "us". Also, during those hundreds of year, we rarely had to fight anyone else again creating a very deep mistrust of anything "muslim", before a politician says a word or before the first headchopper decides to go boom. This is a historical lesson, and given the current climate, no one reading the news feels like changing the viewin the earnest.

Lastly. The statement by the PM is _not_ directed at any individual person. We welcome anyone, and do not discriminate. I come from a Spa city that has a couple thousand muslims from GCC come each summer, some even living here long term. No issues. But those are all visitors who do not come preaching to us how to live, we preach not to them and everyone is happy so to speak.

So, to the point:
What the statement and law change is directed at is the organized and often state-sponsored push to create self-governed muslim communities which would then ignore and challenge the laws of the host country using the hospitality and various human right privileges people of the country shed blood for against them. It is vile, dishonest and nothing but cultural warfare. We now see the west fell for this - they had lot of sins to make up from their colonial era after all. And we want none of it. We never had colonies, did not start a war with anyone for 1000 years and thus we see no moral obligation to anyone to let him destroy or dilute our culture. Nor we see ourselves superior to tell anyone how he should live.

Maybe this seems a very non-Western position. It is not. We are not the West the same way Turkey is not he West. Even if now joined in NATO, which, BTW had to make a soft version of a "color" revolution in 1998 to to get us join in the first place.
EDIT: grammar
Thank you.
I have an Iranian friend who studied in Slovakia and still goes back there. He truly loves the place and the people!

Slovakia was never part of the historical west. Maybe so, maybe not, but if you want to really preserve your culture, Slovakia MUST get out of NATO and the EU, as currently she is part of the Modern West. If you do not, then what the Ottomans tried to do in five centuries, the EU and NATO will do in five decades.

Not really. Gas supplies are a pure economic question and have nothing to do with the fear of islamization.


You may not be aware but e.g. in UK the ordinary people look down more on Slovaks or Poles who came there *legally* courtesy of our membership in the EU than the Inds Pakistani or even illegal migrants are looked on.

Either way, one needs to distinguis:
- legal migrants, who went through the paperwork to get a visa
For those I would say they are actually more "accepted" by the regular society in Easter Europe than they ever were in Western one. This is because in E. Europe we do not have colonial or slavery past so any foreigner is looked up on as a person first and foremost. Not as cheap/slave labor.
- (true) refugees persecuted in home country or running from war
Those are now only people from Ukraine (as the only conflict country we have a border with) and those refugees which we agreed to accept directly from a conflict zone - mostly from Iraq.
- illegal migrants
These are treated for what they are - people who have wilfully broken the law. For those we have only jail and deportation as any sane country has.

Slovaks are the last to dispute the Hypocrisy of the Western countries, especialy France and UK though. Forked tongue was the name of the game in the West for so much time it will probably not go away anytime soon. It became an art in and of itself by now.
The people in the UK mistake gypsies of mixed racial backgrounds for "true" Slovaks and other eastern Europeans. My "true" Romanian friend finds this extremely irritating.
I am sure if the native Briton knew the difference, they may look upon Slovaks and Romanians more favorably, instead they see them as cunning con artists who try to make a quick buck. (Of course not all Gypsies are like this, but this is the general sentiment that people speak under their breath).
 
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Slovakia was never part of the historical west. Maybe so, maybe not, but if you want to really preserve your culture, Slovakia MUST get out of NATO and the EU, as currently she is part of the Modern West. If you do not, then what the Ottomans tried to do in five centuries, the EU and NATO will do in five decades.
True words.
Unfortunately we are too small to choose our own destiny. The west-orchestrated "shift" in 1998 was the only thing which avoided a "Serbia" to be pulled on us then by NATO. We have managed to avoid a US military base on our soil - so far - but you can imagine it is not easy. We are the last 2 NATO members to manage that, along with the Czech Republic.

Time will tell, but for now when the enemy is bigger than you by an order of magnitude, fighting him is simply futile while "joining" him may be a way to survive. Please note the quotes are not accidental.
Cheers to your friend!
I had a lady friend which moved to Iran recently, learning farsi beforehand (!). Maybe they were even related in some way ... Slovakia is a small place after all.
 
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brexit win and trump win were not landslides
brexit was a 52% to 48% majority and Trump lost the popular vote

What? Brexit would have been termed landslide had it been a general election. 70% of the population voted, and of that Brexit took 17.4 million votes, compared to 16.1 million for remain, that's a clear comfortable win on the popular vote. As for the number of constituencies Brexit won 424 out of the 571 available.

Overall the Leave campaign came top in nine of the UK's nations and regions, with the Remain campaign coming top in just three. The West Midlands had the highest vote share for Leave, with Scotland highest for Remain.

263 voting areas voting to "Leave the European Union" to 119 voting areas who voted to "Remain a member of the European Union".

It wasn't close, not by any measure. If you count in all the expats who voted remain, Irish, Cypriot etc remain voters the results are even more in favour for Brexit.
 
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