Islam portrayed as a threat to Europe

A right-wing pundit contends that all opposition parties from left to right, including Jobbik, are ‘helping Islam subjugate Europe’. A conservative critic of the government agrees that political Islam is a threat to European values, but cautions against what he calls ‘the government’s anti-Islamic rhetoric’.

In Magyar Idők, Bálint Botond accuses the opposition parties of submitting to Islam, and helping it to conquer Europe. The pro-government commentator recalls that last week, the LMP nominated an Afghan-born Hungarian citizen as an expert to sit on the House Committee on National Security. Botond thinks that the LMP is thus a threat to national security, because a ‘Muslim will fight for Islam’ and will put his religion before the national interest, even if he becomes a Hungarian citizen. He also mentions that Jobbik leader Gábor Vona in the past expressed his sympathy for Islam. All this, Botond concludes, indicates that the left-liberal opposition parties and Jobbik are facilitating the ‘infiltration of Islam’ into Hungary.

Magyar Nemzet’s Szabolcs Szerető believes that political Islam is antithetical to European individualism and Christian norms, but he cautions against what he calls anti-Islamic fear mongering. He recalls a speech made by PM Orbán in 2015, where the Prime Minister underscored that ‘Hungary considers Islam a great intellectual and spiritual achievement rather than a threat’, and ‘shows great respect towards Islam’. Szerető accuses the government of having abandoned its sober and balanced approach to Islam and of vilifying millions of Muslim believers.

Tags: Islam, islamism, Jobbik, liberals, LMP, migration, Orbán