Anti-immigrant Czech MP's opinions publicly criticized by his own brothers

The opinions of Czech MP Tomio Okamura have been publicly rejected by members of his family in the media recently. First his brother Osama Okamura and now his brother Hayato, a theologian, have made public statements against Tomio’s opinions through interviews with news server iDNES.cz.

Hayato answered questions posed by reporter Luboš Palata about his own faith, his political convictions, and his opinions of Czech President Zeman. The theologian assessed his brother Tomio as a charasmatic individual who “basically means well”, but also said he is distrubed by Tomio’s growing populism.

“It’s as if politics has just ground him up,” Hayato told iDNES.cz. “He grabs at any opportunity to stay in the political limelight, even at the cost of actually going too far on some things.”

Hayato, the second of the three Okamura brothers, probably meets all of the criteria for being labeled an “optimist”, according to Palata. He has been involved in aiding Christian refugees from Iraq, studied with theologian Tomáš Halík, and has respect for both the personality and politics of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

When asked to describe himself, Hayato said he considers himself a “Christian realist”. “As a Christian, I am called upon to be open to aiding all people irrespective of their race, religion, culture or language. However, in practice that is not easy. At a time when yet another assassination is happening every few weeks in Europe and its neighborhood, and when the perpetrators are almost always of the Muslim faith, I greatly understand my fellow citizens who are unable to open themselves toward migrants and refugees of the Muslim faith. This is not easy for me either, but I accept the challenge,” Hayato said of the ongoing series of attacks that have happened in several European cities.

At the close of the interview, Hayato also gives his opinion of Czech President Zeman, whose behavior, in his opinion, reveals “obvious features of collaboration with Putin’s Moscow”. “Such an advanced nation as that of the Czechs deserves a better President who will unequivocally confirm our nation’s place in Western civilization and will not cast doubt on our membership in NATO and the European Union,” he said, adding that his favorite candidate for the next head of state would be the Czech Republic’s former ambassador to France, Pavel Fischer.