Italy's Far-right Party Urges Blanket Closure Of Muslim Prayer Centers
05 February 2018Islamophobia Watch
Italy's far-right Northern League Party - part of former premier Silvio
Berlusconi's poll-leading conservative bloc - has pledged mass closures of
Muslim prayer sites if it enters the government following general elections on
March 4.
The national debate on immigration and Islam in Italy has reached a fever
pitch in recent days after a xenophobic attack on Saturday in the central
Italian town of Macerata left six African migrants injured.
The attack, carried out by a neo-Nazi sympathizer affiliated with the League,
appeared to be an act of revenge for a murder initially blamed on an alleged
drug dealer from Nigeria.
'With the League in government, we will close all illegal Islamic centers, and
those that do not fulfill the key principles of transparency, legality,
openness and acceptance of our values, starting from the respect of women,'
the party said late Tuesday.
The statement initially called for a ban on 'all' Muslim centers but was later
toned down. It was issued ahead of a Thursday visit by League leader Matteo
Salvini to Umbertide, a town in Umbria where a mosque is under construction.
'Salvini is right: let's close illegal Muslim sites,' Giorgio Gori of the
center-left Democratic Party responded on Wednesday. 'But first, let us
respect the Constitution, and let us allow the construction of legal prayer
sites, also for Muslims.'
In 2016, then-interior minister Angelino Alfano told parliament that Italy had
1,205 Muslim prayer sites or cultural centers, with a particularly high
concentration in the north, where the League is historically based.
In Sesto San Giovanni, a Milan suburb and former left-wing bastion, a
League-backed right-wing administration was elected last year and vetoed the
construction of what would have been Italy's largest mosque.
Italy's far-right protests discounts for Arabic speakers at Turin museum
Meanwhile, a discount for Arabic speakers has put the Egyptian Museum in
Turin, northern Italy, in the middle of a fight about credentials, confessions
and concessions after criticism from the far-right Brothers of Italy (FdI)
party.
On Sunday, FdI spokesman Federico Mollicone dismissed the museum's temporary
two-for-one concession as 'ideological and anti-Italian,' and promised an
'automatic spoils system' against director Christian Greco.
Culture Minister Dario Franceschini, who hails from the center-left Democratic
Party, rallied to Greco's defense on Twitter on Monday, calling the director a
'competent and independent person with international experience.'
Jumping into the fray, Stefano Schwarz, a parliamentary candidate for the
leftist Free and Equals party, announced a pro-Greco rally outside the museum
later Monday, open to people 'of all religious confessions.'
The FdI is part of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's rightist alliance, which
leads polls ahead of March 4 general elections. It has neo-fascist roots and
has taken eurosceptic and anti-immigrant stances.
On Friday, FdI leader Giorgia Meloni led a protest outside the Egyptian
Museum, during which she accused Greco of 'discriminating against Italians'
and favoring only 'a specific religion.'
Greco met her and said he was trying to reach out to minorities by offering a
cultural bond with the museum's collection.
Turin has a large immigrant population, including almost 5,000 Egyptians. Its
Egyptian museum is the world's second-largest, after Cairo's.
Greco also reminded Meloni that not all Arabic speakers are Muslim, as she had
implied.
A video of their exchange - which took place amid a tense election campaign
characterized by rising anti-immigration and Islamophobic rhetoric - has
circulated widely on social networks.
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