The Future Of Muslims In Slovakia

In November 2016, the anti-Islam party, Slovenská Národná Strana (SNS) successfully passed a law that would block the registration of Islam as an officially recognized religion in Slovakia but to their dismay, a month later in December 2016 the President, Andrej Kiska vetoed the law on the grounds that it was a violation of the human right to religious freedom. The law seeks that no religion having a followership of less than 50,000 of 18 years and above should be recognized within Slovakia while the current figure stipulated by the government is 20,000. In 2010 there were an estimated 5,000 Muslims living in Slovakia which is likely to increase as more asylum seekers arrive in Europe. Religions that do not meet the government threshold are not allowed to build elaborate religious places of worship and do not get funding from the government. The SNS has denied that the law targets Muslims but not too many people believe them as the Chairman of the party, Andrej Danko had previous called for a ban on Mosques and the Burka. The SNS which was able to garner a two-third majority in parliament to get the law passed in November 2016 have hinted that they will continue to push for the law to take effect before March 2017. The Czech Republic is planning to pass a similar bill which will increase the threshold for religions from 10,000 to 50,000. Slovakia is the last European Country without a Mosque even though the first Muslims arrived in the 17th century.