A television documentary has enraged Muslims in the Czech Republic by taking a hidden camera into a mosque and filming the real opinions of the local Muslim community: CTV documentary angers Muslims. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

Ambassadors to the Czech Republic from Arab nations and members of the Czech Muslim community say they are outraged by a documentary aired on CTV last fall that used hidden camera footage of conversations in a Prague mosque and spliced it — they say unfairly — with images of terrorism.

“The reaction is usually immediate, while in this case it took a month for any reaction to appear and two months for it to grow,” says Jiri Ovecka, the documentary’s producer. “It was the same with the Muhammad cartoons.” …

The Council of Arabic Ambassadors to Prague is now renewing its protest about the undercover footage first aired Oct. 7 in the documentary I, Muslim on the public station CT2. Members of the Muslim community first filed a complaint with the Czech Radio and Television Broadcasting Council (RRTV) that month, claiming the program is biased, provokes fear and manipulates footage to promote false stereotypes.

“It was made in a confrontational style,” says Vladimir Sanka, head of the Islamic Center in Prague. “We see it as a one-sided documentary, which evokes a distorted look at Islam in the eyes of the Czech public.”

RRTV spokesman Petr Bartos says the complaint is on the RRTV’s agenda, but it has yet to debate the issue. If found guilty, CTV would face a fine of up to 10 million Kc ($416,000). CTV declined to comment, saying it is waiting for the RRTV to rule.

Hidden feelings

The footage in I, Muslim shows a reporter pretending to be someone interested in converting to Islam. He conducts several conversations with members of the mosque, located in Czerny Most, about Islam, Europe, terrorism and the role of women.

Ovecka says he stands behind his choice to use the hidden camera footage. “I wanted to get real opinions of the local Muslim community on the issue — find out what the differences are between Czech and foreign Islam,” he says.

One Muslim in the documentary compares Islamic terrorists to Jan Palach, the Czech student who committed suicide by setting himself on fire in protest of the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia. Another says Islamic law should be implemented in the Czech Republic, including the death penalty for adultery, Ovecka says.

“I have to say with 100 percent certainty that by using hidden camera I have learned things that I would never have learned otherwise,” he says. “The result was alarming, and if not for the hidden camera, I would have never had any of this footage.”