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The mayor of the country’s second city, Brno, Petr Vokrál and other members of the city council are the subject of anonymous threats over plans to convert premises in the Královo Pole district into a prayer room for Moslems. The anonymous threats warn that if the city council members do not block the plans by a local Moslem businessperson, who has lived in the city for 20 years, then she will. Police are investigating the threats.

Facebook has blocked the page of the group Block Against Islam, the group's representatives said on Monday, protesting against what they call censorship and an attack on freedom of speech. The group has been accused of extremism and xenophobia. Its leader Martin Konvička was charged with hate speech late last year on the grounds of statements made on Facebook in 2011 and 2014. The Block Against Islam claims the charges are politically motivated.

According to Czech President Miloš Zeman, the mass migration of refugees to Europe has been organized by the Muslim Brotherhood. In an interview for Czech Radio Plus on Monday, the head of state suggested that the Sunni Islamist organisation could not declare war, so it was trying to gain an upper hand through the migrant crisis. As in his recent Christmas address, the president referred to the influx of refugees as an “invasion”. Mr Zeman cited two sources as having apparently confirmed his view: Morocco’s foreign minister and the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates. The former, he said, recently told him that the Muslim Brotherhood had ambitions of ruling not only the Muslim world but the entire globe.

Ever since the terrorist attacks in Paris, security issues have been at the forefront of public and media attention in the Czech Republic. Although the country’s intelligence says it has no indication of an imminent threat, security has been tightened around key institutions and will remain so at least until the end of the year. The need to consider security is affecting things like the traditional lighting of the Christmas tree on Old Town Square as well as people’s travel plans for the holidays. For this edition of Panorama I spoke to former military

Unknown perpetrators vandalized the Brno mosque on Thursday night pouring motor oil on the façade and doors of the building, the CTK news agency reports. Security cameras reportedly show two persons, a man and a woman, pouring something on the walls and door of the mosque before making off. The incident is being investigated by the police.

It’s 9am on Sunday morning in late October and I’m in Studio Alta – a kind of artistic studio space – in Prague’s Holešovice district. I’m visiting an “Open Breakfast” or “Hate-free Breakfast” designed to bring together people of all kinds of faiths and backgrounds.

In this special programme on Czech Independence Day I am joined by noted historian Jan Rychlík, and we will also be hearing from Jan Hartl of the STEM polling agency. We will examine the influence of foreigners and minority groups in the Czech lands throughout history and try to gain a greater understanding of contemporary Czech attitudes in this regard.

Attacks targeted against Moslems in the Czech Republic have increased to 23 this year compared to 10 in 2014, the legal organisation In Iustitia has reported. Most of the recent attacks have taken place since the start of the immigrant crisis in June. Many of the attacks have been verbal or physical attacks on women wearing shawls over their heads. The organisation said there were three anti-Semitic attacks so far this year, the same as throughout the whole of 2014.

Senator Hassan Mezian, who was born in Damascus but has spent most of his life in the Czech Republic, says he welcomes the solidarity now being shown by some Czechs to Syrian refugees. But the country’s only Muslim lawmaker strongly condemns efforts, including on the part of the president, to stir up anti-migrant feeling.

On Tuesday, around thirty members of various religious denominations – including Muslims, Jews and Christians – sat down for a joint breakfast event in Studio Alta in Prague’s Holešovice district. The event, attended by community representatives, the South African and Kuwaiti ambassadors to the Czech Republic, and many ordinary members of the public, was organized by the Hate Free Culture Project. The breakfast is part of a wider effort by this organisation to foster greater understanding in the Czech Republic amidst heightened tensions over the