[LINK] "Amid refugee crisis, Hungary prime minister says Muslims not welcome"

Sep 04, 2015 15:18

Al Jazeera reports on the official stance of the Hungarian prime minister. I would note that Orban is apparently rejecting the basic thesis of pan-Turanism, a movement popular in Hungary that talked of that country's historic ties with--among others--the mainly Muslim Turkic nations of Eurasia.

[Viktor] Orban spoke in Brussels at meetings between European Union leaders and Hungary's prime minister after images of a drowned Syrian child on a Turkish beach grabbed world attention this week and said that it was not a moral argument for opening Europe's doors.

"If we would create ... an impression that 'just come because we are ready to accept everybody,' that would be a moral failure. The moral, human thing is to make clear: 'Please don't come,'" Orban told reporters.

In a later news conference, Orban said the history of Ottoman rule meant Hungarians would not accept large-scale Muslim immigration, a point made recently by neighboring Slovakia.

"We don't want to, and I think we have a right to decide that we do not want a large number of Muslim people in our country," Orban said. "We do not like the consequences of having a large number of Muslim communities that we see in other countries, and I do not see any reason for anyone else to force us to create ways of living together in Hungary that we do not want to see. That is a historical experience for us."

syria, turkey, refugees, history, middle east, migration, central europe, links, hungary

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