Muslims attending prayers at Hungary’s largest mosque have been physically abused, had their cars set alight and been the targets of anti-migration protests. They expect things to get worse.
In the run-up to April national elections, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has ramped up his rhetoric for a campaign set to be dominated by migration - and Hungary’s tiny Muslim population is feeling the backlash.
Critics believe that Mr Orban is playing an anti-migrant card to tap the insecurities of Hungarians after centuries of history marked by invasion and occupation to win a third consecutive term in office. He has become notorious throughout Europe – and feted by the far-right – for building a border fence along the country’s southern borders to keep the migrants out.
“He [Orban] thinks it’s just a game but we’re the ones that are suffering from it,” said Sultan Bolek, a Hungarian historian.
The concerns are no more keenly felt than in this Budapest suburb where some 500 people gather for Friday prayers at the anonymous former offices of an executive toy maker that were converted into a mosque in 2011.
Some of those who turn up expect “pogroms and killings” before the country’s leadership reacts to increasing anti-Muslim sentiment, said Sultan Sulok, the president of the Organisation of Muslims in Hungary.
Mr Orban’s increasingly hostile stance against Muslims followed the 2015 migration crisis when hundreds of thousands of people passed through the central European nation and headed to countries such as Germany, Sweden and the UK.
Mr Orban – who has been premier since 2010 - has previously described the arrival of asylum seekers in Europe as a “poison” with every migrant posing a “public security and terror risk”.
His administration has pushed back against European Union plans for countries to take in a quota of migrants to relieve the pressure on Italy and Greece.
The government’s campaign to oppose the plan led to an uptick of violence against the estimated 40,000 Muslim population, though no official figures have been compiled.
"The political rhetoric was focussed against Muslims and that's when the incidents increased and the beatings happened," Mr Sulok told The National in his office at the Mosque of Muslims in Hungary.
Trouble started soon after it was built in 2011 when four men stoned and torched cars outside during Ramadan prayers.
One man was arrested and claimed he reacted to hearing people inside the mosque say that Hungary was created for the Arabs, said Mr Sulok based on his conversations with police. He said the incident was treated as vandalism and largely ignored by the media.
Since then, demonstrators placed signs on the walls of the mosque with anti-migrant slogans. Neighbours have also complained about noise from the building, despite the mosque being just a few yards from a busy railway line.
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Read more:
Hungary's prime minister ramps up anti-migrant rhetoric in fight for third term
Hungarian PM positions himself as Christian saviour of Europe
Islamophobia has complex roots in history and culture
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In one of the rare incidents reported to police, attackers in 2016 tore off a woman’s hijab and shook her by the hair at a petrol station in the town of Orbottyan about 25 miles northeast of Budapest, according to campaigners.
The attack prompted Mr Bolek, who is also president of the Hungarian Islamic Community, to write to Mr Orban to demand better protection for Muslims. Mr Bolek blamed the "irresponsibility" of politicians and journalists for the increased threats, according to the letter seen by The National. He has not received a reply.
Mr Bolek said he personally collected 15-20 reports of anti-Muslim crimes every year in the absence of official recording of hate crimes by the authorities. “There was the case of one girl who was threatened with a knife and told to get off a tram in Budapest because she was Muslim,” said Mr Bolek.
“The problem is once something big happens - if they burned down a mosque - then there might not be a way back. What’s he going to say then?”
Mr Orban’s closest opponents for next month’s elections is from Jobbik, a far-right group that has raised the prospect of increasing the size of the barrier fence that has defined Mr Orban’s leadership.
The party’s vice-president passed a local law banning burkhas and minarets from his hometown, despite there being no mosque and, according to reporters who visited, only two Muslims living there.
“Only successful and flourishing countries can integrate we are not one of them unfortunately,” Marton Gyongyosi, the party’s foreign policy expert, said in an interview.
Many of Hungary’s Muslims are from Arab countries who travelled to Hungary to study during the 40 years of communism and remaining.
“We have the fewest Muslims in Europe but the biggest hatred and the biggest campaign against them,” said Anna Lénárd, the managing director of Budapest Walkshop who runs a Muslim-themed sightseeing tour.
A survey in 2016 by a thinktank Nezopont Institute found that newly two-thirds of those surveyed believed that Islam was a threat to European societies.
“Most people have never met a Muslim in their life so they don’t know what they are afraid of,” said Ms Lénárd. “To be a Muslim in Hungary was like being a Martian.”
Joker: Folie a Deux
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson
Director: Todd Phillips
Rating: 2/5
Building boom turning to bust as Turkey's economy slows
Deep in a provincial region of northwestern Turkey, it looks like a mirage - hundreds of luxury houses built in neat rows, their pointed towers somewhere between French chateau and Disney castle.
Meant to provide luxurious accommodations for foreign buyers, the houses are however standing empty in what is anything but a fairytale for their investors.
The ambitious development has been hit by regional turmoil as well as the slump in the Turkish construction industry - a key sector - as the country's economy heads towards what could be a hard landing in an intensifying downturn.
After a long period of solid growth, Turkey's economy contracted 1.1 per cent in the third quarter, and many economists expect it will enter into recession this year.
The country has been hit by high inflation and a currency crisis in August. The lira lost 28 per cent of its value against the dollar in 2018 and markets are still unconvinced by the readiness of the government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to tackle underlying economic issues.
The villas close to the town centre of Mudurnu in the Bolu region are intended to resemble European architecture and are part of the Sarot Group's Burj Al Babas project.
But the development of 732 villas and a shopping centre - which began in 2014 - is now in limbo as Sarot Group has sought bankruptcy protection.
It is one of hundreds of Turkish companies that have done so as they seek cover from creditors and to restructure their debts.
UAE jiu-jitsu squad
Men: Hamad Nawad and Khalid Al Balushi (56kg), Omar Al Fadhli and Saeed Al Mazroui (62kg), Taleb Al Kirbi and Humaid Al Kaabi (69kg), Mohammed Al Qubaisi and Saud Al Hammadi (70kg), Khalfan Belhol and Mohammad Haitham Radhi (85kg), Faisal Al Ketbi and Zayed Al Kaabi (94kg)
Women: Wadima Al Yafei and Mahra Al Hanaei (49kg), Bashayer Al Matrooshi and Hessa Al Shamsi (62kg)
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Company%20Profile
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Company%20profile
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Jigra
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
Company%20Profile
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Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
Our Time Has Come
Alyssa Ayres, Oxford University Press
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
BORDERLANDS
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: Eli Roth
Rating: 0/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
Virtual banks explained
What is a virtual bank?
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority defines it as a bank that delivers services through the internet or other electronic channels instead of physical branches. That means not only facilitating payments but accepting deposits and making loans, just like traditional ones. Other terms used interchangeably include digital or digital-only banks or neobanks. By contrast, so-called digital wallets or e-wallets such as Apple Pay, PayPal or Google Pay usually serve as intermediaries between a consumer’s traditional account or credit card and a merchant, usually via a smartphone or computer.
What’s the draw in Asia?
Hundreds of millions of people under-served by traditional institutions, for one thing. In China, India and elsewhere, digital wallets such as Alipay, WeChat Pay and Paytm have already become ubiquitous, offering millions of people an easy way to store and spend their money via mobile phone. Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines are also among the world’s biggest under-banked countries; together they have almost half a billion people.
Is Hong Kong short of banks?
No, but the city is among the most cash-reliant major economies, leaving room for newcomers to disrupt the entrenched industry. Ant Financial, an Alibaba Group Holding affiliate that runs Alipay and MYBank, and Tencent Holdings, the company behind WeBank and WeChat Pay, are among the owners of the eight ventures licensed to create virtual banks in Hong Kong, with operations expected to start as early as the end of the year.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
Thank You for Banking with Us
Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol
Power: 154bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Transmission: 7-speed automatic with 8-speed sports option
Price: From Dh79,600
On sale: Now
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
SANCTIONED
- Kirill Shamalov, Russia's youngest billionaire and previously married to Putin's daughter Katarina
- Petr Fradkov, head of recently sanctioned Promsvyazbank and son of former head of Russian Foreign Intelligence, the FSB.
- Denis Bortnikov, Deputy President of Russia's largest bank VTB. He is the son of Alexander Bortnikov, head of the FSB which was responsible for the poisoning of political activist Alexey Navalny in August 2020 with banned chemical agent novichok.
- Yury Slyusar, director of United Aircraft Corporation, a major aircraft manufacturer for the Russian military.
- Elena Aleksandrovna Georgieva, chair of the board of Novikombank, a state-owned defence conglomerate.
FORSPOKEN
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Diablo%20IV
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Marvel's%20Spider-Man%202
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Assassin's%20Creed%20Mirage
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Starfield
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COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
ADCC AFC Women’s Champions League Group A fixtures
October 3: v Wuhan Jiangda Women’s FC
October 6: v Hyundai Steel Red Angels Women’s FC
October 9: v Sabah FA
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