If opponents and proponents of the impending war in Iraq have anything in common, it’s that all describe the conflict in absolutes: It’s a War for Oil, it’s a War Against Tyranny, it’s a War for Empire, or—if you believe Saddam Hussein and several of the pilgrims sound-bitten by CNN during the recent hajj season in Mecca—it’s a War Against Islam. Listen to the voices of Prague’s multinational Muslim community, however, and the absolutes melt away.

All Muslims “don’t have one idea,” says Toto, a young Algerian. “Right now we have a political crisis between Arabs because some people, they are stupid and they are for the war, and some they are not for the war and it’s a very, very big problem.

“I am an international boy for peace,” Toto continues. “I am not for Saddam Hussein. He and his government are shit. They are killing for money and the poor [Iraqi] people, they pay for it. I know he’s not the ideal—he’s a communist and he wants to be No. 1 between all Arab states.” But he has equal contempt for George W. Bush, characterizing the US president’s position as “no war, no oil, no money.”

The roots of the conflict, Toto believes, are economic and political, not religious. He notes that some 10 million Muslims live in France, and millions more in the United States and United Kingdom, with “no problem. Well, it’s a problem, but between cultures, not the religions.”

At the Islámská Nadace in Kyje in Prague 9, the imam and worshippers are guarded when a stranger approaches asking their opinions on Iraq. But Nadeem, a young Saudi attending evening prayers, speaks openly about the tension on the doorstep of his homeland. Asked about the Czech government’s support for Bush, he replies, “So does my country. Do they have a choice? And it’s always easy to support the strong one.”

“I am against Saddam,” Nadeem says. “They [Iraq’s leaders] are not Muslim, they don’t practice true Islam and they don’t believe in an afterlife. They only use parts of the religion and scriptures they like so they can control the people. ... We don’t need him. But we don’t need something like Afghanistan,” with a government put in power by a US-led regime change, he says.

Nadeem regularly reads Al Jazeera news reports on the Internet and listens to Arabic radio broadcasts. He has downloaded the transcript of Osama bin Laden’s last recorded message from an Arabic web site and hopes to publish a complete English translation. For many Arab Muslims, he says, the war is bigger than politics and oil business in the here-and-now. On his last visit to Saudi Arabia eight months ago, he says, many people he knows were buying weapons in anticipation of the war, to “practice and prepare” for the apocalyptic conflict many of his compatriots believe an attack on Iraq will trigger.

“Right now will be a big conflict. What they [Christians and Jews] believe is that after this war, Jesus will return to the Holy Lands between the Nile and Euphrates rivers. But according to Islam, something else: The Christians will be many and the Muslims will be few and the Muslims will fall. But [non-Muslims] will be led by a false messiah, though he will have miraculous powers to convince them. In the end the true Messiah will come to Palestine and kill the false one and show the true religion to the Jews and Christians.”

At a small mosque in Nove Mìsto, post-prayer discussion about the potential conflict incorporates both citations from the Koran and more earthly questions of foreign policy. Speaking in English but making scriptural references in Arabic, Mohammed, a businessman from Sudan, says that according to the Islamic holy text, when the day of judgment comes all will be considered innocent until proven guilty,”as is the principle in certain nations in the West.” But one “certain nation,” Mohammed says, has inverted this principle and put the burden of guilt on an Islamic nation.

“I have a question,” says an Algerian who asked that his name not be used. “Why in Israel [do] they have nuclear weapons? It’s not dangerous? I am not just for Arabs; I am for peace and humanity. What Hitler made with zidove, it’s not good. But Arab people in Israel, they are killed, and [Israelis] must pay. Afterwards Germany paid. And when they kill people in Palestine, nothing. We are nothing? We are not people of the Earth, we are from outer space?”

While expressing various views on several aspects of the conflict, the Prague Muslims who were willing to talk were unanimous in condemning what they considered the US double-standard towards Iraq’s weapons and Israel’s. Equally widespread was a sense of resignation to the seemingly inevitable war, and a common feeling that in the end, as Imran, a Pakistani shopkeeper put it, “Allah will reward the righteous and punish the wicked.”

Owner of the Euro Supermarket near the intersection of Dlouha and Revolucni in Prague 1, Imran arrived in Prague four years ago. He attends prayers at the mosque in Kyje monthly and says he is not a “strong” Muslim — he is not particularly religious. His store has a halal section (for foods in accordance with Islamic law), but it also caters to those with less scriptural tastes. “We have alcohol on those shelves, and we sell these sandwiches here,” he says, pointing to a cooler of Crocodille baguettes made with non-Koran-sanctioned pork products.

“In Pakistan we are Muslims, but not like [Arab states],” he says.”We are different people—in Pakistan you have maybe 20 percent of these hard extremists. But people like this bin Laden, they are not born in our country.”

Imran says he hears much talk about the situation in the Persian Gulf region but does not follow the news “What can you believe in the media? Do you think in the newspapers or the TV they give us the truth?” And he refuses to say which nation he considers responsible for the conflict, Iraq or the United States.

“Whoever does something bad, he will be punished for it, “ he says. “I think nobody wants war. In the US, in Arab countries, everywhere, don’t normal people just want a life of peace?”

Jim Gray is at letters@pill.cz