Czechs protest plans to build mosque
8/6/2004, 10:39 a.m. ET
The Associated Press
PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) — Investors canceled plans to build a mosque in a Czech spa after residents protested, saying they feared a terrorist attack, the mayor said Friday.
A firm representing Dubai investors withdrew from the project earlier this week, said Jaroslav Kubera, the mayor of Teplice, 50 miles northwest of Prague.
Kubera said plans to build the mosque and a hotel were scrapped after some 5,000 citizens signed a petition, protesting construction of the mosque. They claimed it could attract terrorists, the mayor said.
The mosque and the hotel were designed to serve some of several thousands of Muslims from many countries who come to Teplice for treatment of arthritis and related joint diseases each summer.
Kubera said the city has not had negative experience with patients from the Muslim countries so far.
In the Czech Republic, mosques have already been built in the capital, Prague, and in the second largest city, Brno.
The Czechs are onto something. Think this would work in the US? (We'd probably get sued...)