Moscow, February 10, 2017
The southern Hungary village of Ásotthalom, near the border with Serbia, has banned public displays of both Islam and homosexuality. Specifically, Muslim headdresses and public calls to prayer have been forbidden. Signs have appeared in the streets with images of mosques crossed-out. Local authorities have declared that they are openly waging “war with Muslim culture.”
Manifestations of homosexuality have also been banned in the village of less than 5,000 people, according to MIGnews.
The decision was made at the height of the migration crisis in 2016 when up to 10,000 refugees a day, twice the size of the village, were flooding across the border near Ásotthalom.
However, Mayor Laszlo Torikago has stated the measure is not about creating a town only for white people. “I didn’t use the word ‘white.’ But as we’re all white European Christians here, we want to stay that way,” he said. “If we were black it would stay black,” he noted.
The local official also stated that if a large influx of Muslims were to come to Ásotthalom, they simply wouldn’t be able to integrate into a Christian society. “We are glad to have guests from Western Europe—people who don’t want to live in a multi-cultural society,” Torikago said.
“We wouldn’t want to attract Muslims… I would like that Europe belonged to Europeans,” Mayor Torikago said in summary.