Vstal jako křesťan, ale šel spát jako muslim/ They woke up Christian, but went to sleep Muslim

Brno – V době, kdy většina obyvatel Západu spojuje islám s terorismem a sebevražednými útoky, existuje nejméně pět set Čechů (z toho několik desítek přímo v Brně), kteří se rozhodli změnit své náboženství a přestoupit k islámu. Co lidi k takovému rozhodnutí vede? A jak se jim s novou vírou žije? Na to se snaží najít odpověď článek nazvaný “They woke up Christian, but went to sleep Muslim”.

Martina Dočkalová
uzn@mail.muni.cz

It is a Friday evening and the Muslims of Brno are gathered for the week’s most important prayers. The imam’s voice resonates from a room covered with oriental carpets, whose eastern wall is lined with Koranic verses. His voice is so strong, that it carries to the street outside.
But who expects Arabic language is wrong. The prayer is in Czech. As the services take place in the Czech Republic ’s first mosque, here to serve the Muslims of Brno, including the Czech converts to Islam. “Czech Muslims don’t speak Arabic at all, but everyone has a right to understand words of the prophet Muhammad,” explains Jalal Atassi, vice-chairman of the Islamic Foundation of Brno.

Increasing phenomenon
In an era when many in the West connect Islam with negative phenomena such as terrorism, among the thousands of foreign-born Muslims living in the Czech Republic, there are at least 500 Czech converts, dozens of them in Brno . “No one knows the exact numbers,” says Atassi. “We can just guess for example according to how many people come into the mosque.”
Overall, the number of Muslims in Brno – now estimated at 700 to 800 – is increasing, says, Atassi, with many of them from the Middle East, Bosnia and elsewhere. “Most of them are students,” he says.
According to the Islamic foundation chairman Hassan Muneeb, at the same time increase also number of the Czech converts. “The Czechs convert to Islam much more frequently than they used to, because they are now more in touch with Islamic culture and native born Muslims,” he says.
Interestingly, among the converts, women outnumber men four to one. Milan Válek, 38, who converted to Islam three years ago, has a theory for why some women convert. “The Muslim men are good looking; good smelling and they even don’t drink. I understand that for many Czech women this is like a dream,” he says, laughing.
His words confirms also covert Helena Kubrová, who met Islam for the first time, when a Muslim doctor came to a hospital, where she worked as a nurse. “He was so different than other men: so cultivated, proud, and high-principled,” she says. Kubrová was so bewitched by this man, that she became interested in Islam and the Muslim way of life. She spoke with other Muslims, visited a mosque and discovered that this religion is closer to her than Christianity. Finally she decided to convert.

There is no God, but Allah
Asked why they changed their religious beliefs, the question seems hard to answer. Even some experts don’t have a clear idea.
“The people can convert from many reasons,” says a Masaryk University professor of psychology Vladimír Smékal, who teaches psychology of religion. “They can yearn for a new lifestyle, for clearly defined rules. Some of them can search for meaning of life, while others could convert simply because they want to differ from their parents.”
People can convert to Islam at the moment when they present shahada – a declaration of faith – in front of two Muslim witnesses. “But in fact,” says Atassi, “a Muslim is anyone who believes that there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet.”
Valek, for example, converted because; he admired oriental culture and the Muslim way of life. “Since I lived very busy and stressful life, I admired that the Muslims are never in rush. One day, I woke up and took a call in a mosque. I told them I would like to become a Muslim. I went there, presented shahada and returned home as a Muslim,” he says.
However, Muneeb, the Islamic foundation chairman, says intentions of the converts are not always pure. “Once a man came to the mosque and cried that he is ready for a suicide mission in Palestine or Iraq ,” he says. “So I instantly threw him out. We are not interested in such people.”

As the Koran wishes
Czech Muslims say they live as other Czechs, but with some unique aspects.
While thousands of other 20-year-olds are enjoying life in the pubs all around the city, Lukáš Větrovec’s is on his way to mosque. He converted to Islam when he was 15. “Do I live differently now than I lived before? I don’t think so,” he says. “I just don’t eat pork, I don’t drink alcohol and I try to pray five times per day.”
But not all Czechs are tolerant of such differences. When the Muslim community of Brno first proposed building the mosque here 10 years ago, there was a strong resistance before it succeeded. “Life here always has flown between pork feasts and beer – the Muslims refuse both,” read one of the anti-mosque petitions at the time.
“To reduce the Czechs to pork-eating alcoholics doesn’t seem right,” says Atassi. “There are nondrinkers and veterinarians even among the Christians – are they then not Czechs?”
While Czech men who convert to Islam can walk the streets in anonymity, more religious women stand out – if they decide to wear the Muslim head-scarf, known as a hijab. An expression of faith, wearing a scarf in the Czech Republic is sometimes not an easy thing to do, says Kubrová.
She says she had serious problems in her job when she started to wear one. “You are here to do your work. Do not bring us here any kind of religion,” she says the boss told her. Although she worked in health services for 25 years, the hospital didn’t extend her contract, so she had to leave. She blames it on discrimination.
A Czech journalist in Brno, Hana Černohorská, wanted answer her question: how does it really feel to wear a head-scarf in Brno ? So she spent a day wearing a hijab. She attracted many long stares. “I felt like I was naked,” says Černohorská.
Smékal, of Masaryk University , says it has something to do with human fear. “Some people do not have a sense for diversity understanding,” says Smékal. “They are not used to deal with extraordinary things. If someone feels insecure, he can react aggressively. It might also correspond with a fact that the Czech people are not used to deal with strangers.”
The man, who decided to convert, actually made this decision also for their children. Because according to Islam, the children of a Muslim man (even if he is a convert) are Muslims too.
“When I decided to convert, my family respected my choice,” says Větrovec, the 20-year-old. However, “If any of my children wished not to be a Muslim, I would not be too happy. But I shall respect a right of the free choice. Just like it is written in Koran.”