"My Czech kebab shop is an embassy for a positive image of Islam"
Chez Amis is an Arab-Oriental grocery store that also doubles as a fast food establishment selling kebabs, falafel, hummus, couscous and other such delicacies. Situated on Spálená street in the centre of Prague, it is owned and operated by Algerian-born Amis Boussad. He agreed to talk with me in his store, among other things, about life for Muslims in the Czech Republic.
In the same place? It has always been here?
“Yes. Eleven years in this business and 21 years in the Czech Republic.”
I suppose at the time when you first came to the Czech Republic, having been a closed communist society, someone from Algeria selling kebabs must have been quite an unusual sight for Czechs.
“You are right. When I first started this business, I was initially a little pessimistic as people didn’t know my food, or my store, or my personality. It took time – one and-a-half to two years – to find enough customers and to teach them about our food. After three or four years, besides selling the food, which I cooked, I also started selling oriental goods.”
Looking around I can see many kinds of rice, many varieties of tea, big bags of various nuts, chickpeas, sauces, Indian items too...
“Eggplant paste!”
You have been here for 21 years, so have you established a solid customer base?
How come you left Algeria, and why did you decide to come to the Czech Republic?
“It is just by pure chance that I am in the Czech Republic. But chance sometimes makes good sense. In fact, I was on my way to return to Canada to study, but in the end I remained here.”
European post-communist countries are not the most multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-religious countries...
“Hopefully in the future this will change.”
So you don’t feel like an outsider or a curiosity, or anything like that?
“Personally, I love Prague and the Czech Republic. Sometimes I even feel like I am a Czech citizen. I haven’t found any barriers, nor do I have any sorrows or problems that might make me afraid to be here, or anything like that.”
You have largely been warmly welcomed.
“Absolutely. Yes. You can say that. I am happy here.”
Have you ever experienced any kind of xenophobia as an Algerian or as a Muslim in this country?
I’m not sure if you are aware of a Czech fringe politician, Tomio Okamura, who not long ago stated that Islam needed to be fought against, and one way was to boycott kebab stores.
“Believe me, I just don’t listen to those kinds of people. They have the right to say what they think, but I don’t want to use the same methods they use. So I just keep silent. I try to behave better towards him than he behaves towards you. So Okamura is free to say what he wants, but this doesn’t mean that Czech people will listen to him. And it doesn’t mean that what he says is really true. I am not going to condemn a group of people if they go for [anti-Islam] demonstrations. They have the right to do what they want. In my opinion, everyone is free to do what they want. But I don’t think that Czech people will want to follow such extremist ideology.”
When you see groups of several hundred Czechs demonstrating, literally against Islam, how does that make you feel?
“I will tell you: last Saturday, a group of nine or ten people came into my shop and they all ordered kebabs. I said to them, ‘Why are you all ordering just kebabs?’. They said to me, ‘Well, there is a demonstration in the Old Town Square, about “Islam Nechceme (We Don’t Want Islam)”’. And so they had come to my shop to stage their own demonstration against that demonstration. I was really...it was amazing! People had come from 40 kilometres away in the cold in order to defend the idea that, in fact, the Czech Republic is a country which accepts all cultures. That was a very important gesture.
So you view this store as a kind of embassy, in a way, for that idea? That people can come in and have a positive experience of Islam.
“I will tell you one thing, this is good publicity for Islam, in fact. They said ‘Stop eating kebabs’ and that very day we did very good business.”
Because there were Facebook groups and so on set up in solidarity, whereby Czechs would deliberately go out and eat kebabs.
“Yes, they say ‘Stop eating kebabs’ and now we are selling more kebabs! ‘Stop going to Muslim shops’ and now Muslim shops are making a good turnover.”
Publicity, I guess? In an odd kind of way...
“I think Okamura has to think about what he says. He has to review his way of thinking about Islam and Muslims. Don’t worry, we didn’t come here to take the jobs of Czech people. We are doing what Czechs don’t want to do. And I think that the fact that we are selling kebabs here is a good thing. Ten, fourteen years ago, we didn’t have that, or falafel, or hummus. Twenty years ago, we were dying of hunger here! I was just eating cheese and vegetables.”
Because it was difficult to get those kinds of foods here.
The diversity...
“We have to take on-board the example of the success of the Anglo-Saxons...God created us to love each other, and to live together. Christians, Catholics, Jews, Muslims. He didn’t create us to fight each other.”
Would you say from the experiences of your fellow Muslims that they are also happy and contended in Prague and across the Czech Republic?
“I haven’t heard any stories of harassment or provocation. We feel like we are secure. Even though some people talk, and we hear things about Muslims said in the mass media. But we actually have not had any cases of being attacked, or humiliated.”
You are saying you find it to basically be a tolerant society.
“Personally, I think that [extremism] is like a sickness that eventually will go away.”
It is also said that there is no extreme element of Muslims in the Czech Republic, as opposed to a country like Germany where such extremist minorities can be found within the Muslim community. Is there any reason, would you say, for this not to exist in the Czech Republic? Is it about a lack of discontentment within the community, or young Muslims here not suffering from a sense of disillusionment?
“Those extremists will exist in all countries. Even in Muslim countries, we have those people. So this is a common problem. In my opinion, we now all have to learn how to understand the other; how to live with one another.”
It is often said that the immigrant work ethic is harder-working, longer hours...
“Yeah! You think that Czech people work as hard as immigrants work? They don’t want to. They will never work that hard; they would never accept our jobs. The jobs which Czech people don’t want, we do them. And we are glad; we are happy.”
“Yes, it is a home-made kebab.”
Because there are companies now that supply these in this country.
“Yes, but I buy fresh meat and I make all the spices, and marinate it overnight. The following day, we pile it up in the machine and turn on the heat, and it will be...”
It is raw now and beginning to turn, so will it take one or two hours to cook?
“More like half an hour.”
That is quite quick. Thank you for allowing me to visit.
“You are welcome.”
