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Mayor bans Muslim face veil, Islamic prayers

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Mayor bans Muslim face veil, Islamic prayers

With migrant crisis at its peak, the mayor had last year warned migrants from entering Hungary illegally

Published: Wed 8 Feb 2017, 11:41 AM

Updated: Thu 9 Feb 2017, 10:12 AM

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A mayor in Hungary has banned Muslims from covering their face with hijab (veil) and the Islamic call to prayer in what he describes as a 'war against Muslim culture'.
In an interview with the BBC, Laszlo Toroczkai was quoted saying, "We primarily welcome people from western Europe - people who wouldn't like to live in a multicultural society. We wouldn't like to attract Muslims to the village." 
With his move, he hopes to attract Christian Europeans who object to multiculturalism in their own countries to migrate to Ásotthalo, a remote village in the Hungarian plains, situated around two hours from Budapest.
"It's very important for the village to preserve its traditions. If large numbers of Muslims arrived here, they would not be able to integrate into the Christian community. We can see large Muslim communities in Western Europe that haven't been able to integrate - and we don't want to have the same experience here," he further said in his BBC interview.
He bluntly adds, "I'd like Europe to belong to Europeans, Asia to belong to Asians and Africa to belong to Africans. Simple as that."
With migrant crisis at its peak, as many as 10,000 people crossed the border to move from Serbia into Hungary. The Hungarian mayor has expressed his concerns and introduced the strict measures.
This is what the Mayor had to say last year about illegal border crossings -



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