Prague, Dec 26 (CTK) – The anti-European and anti-Islamist Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) party has presented an amendment to the Penal Code suggesting that support for and promotion of an ideology suppressing the rights and freedoms or proclaiming hatred should be punishable.
At present, only the support for and promotion of such a movement is punishable.
The SPD suggested this last year already, but the Chamber of Deputies did not approve the proposal.
Like at that time, the drafters of the legislation argue with the case of former Prague Muslim community chairman Vladimir Sanka.
Last September, Prague Municipal Court annulled the acquitting verdict given to former Prague Muslim community chairman Vladimir Sanka for spreading a radical Islamic book.
The municipal court returned the case to a lower-level court for reappraisal for formal mistakes and a one-sided assessment of evidence in Sanka’s favour. The Prague 1 District Court will have to complete the evidence in a new trial.
The case relates to the Czech edition of The Fundamentals of Tawheed by Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips, a Muslim militant. In some countries, the book is banned and Philips must not enter several Western countries.
The Czech annual report on extremism said the book promoted the ultra-conservative Salafist version of Islam that preaches intolerance and hatred of other religions.
The drafters of the legislation say that the trial showed a gap in the law.
“This can be interpreted as only punishing the promotion of a specific movement that proclaims the suppression of freedoms, not the ideology itself that constitutes and promotes the hatred for and elimination of human rights,” the report on the bill said.
The legislation is first to be reviewed by the government.
The previous government rejected it, arguing that it is unprepared and that it had not been preceded by a debate on the expert level.