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Rome mosque is one of only two grand mosques in Italy
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Additional
Reporting By Ahmad Maher, IOL Staff
CAIRO,
March 27 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A party of the
Italian coalition government of Silvio Berlusconi has put forward a
draft law to restrict the construction of more mosques in the
south-central European country.
The
measure was dismissed Saturday, March 27, by the director of the
Islamic Culture Society in Milan, Mahmmoud Asfa, as nothing new for
the Northern League (LN), which is notorious for its xenophobic
rhetoric.
The
extremist party has been always quick to call for the closure of any
Islamic center inaugurated in the country, he told IslamOnline.net
over the phone.
Asfa
noted that the LN has been campaigning for expulsion of all
foreigners, and not Muslims in particular, from Italy.
Leading
member of the LN Federico Bricolo claimed the proposed bill should be
adopted to head off “Islamic terrorism”, reported The Guardian on
Thursday, March 25.
Mosques
in Italy “aren't simple places of prayer but centers of recruitment
for terrorists and for propagation of hatred for the West”, Bricolo
alleged.
“The
Madrid attacks show how dangerous Islamic terrorism is, which we have
to deal with in our house, too,” Bricolo went on.
Up
to 200 people were
killed and some 1500 injured in a series of blasts that devastated
four trains in the Spanish capital Madird on March 11.
Muslims
from all over the world strongly
condemned the carnage, making clear “Islam does
not permit aggression against innocent people”.
“The
mosque is a political place and is symbolic of a civilization that has
run a 1,400-year long path in antithesis of Western culture,”
Bricolo continued with his extremist rhetoric.
Under
the proposed bill, requests to build or open mosques and their method
of finance would be assessed by local authorities and put to a local
referendum.
Italian
Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu warned last September that “either
mosques respect the law or they will
be closed”.
The
LN fared poorly in the last general elections due to its hard-line
anti-immigrant policies and xenophobic and anti-European rhetoric,
which alienated many Italians, said the BBC News Online.
Secession
from Italy was a key part of the party’s platform in the 1990s.
Its
leader Umberto Bossi, who is the reforms minister, has frequently
threatened to create an independent state of Padania in the north.
His
plans, however, have proved totally impractical and Utopian, the BBC
said.
Asef
put at between 450 and 500 the number of Islamic centers throughout
Italy, pointing out that there were only two grand mosques in Rome and
Milan.
He
said there are an estimated 1.4 million Muslims living in Italy,
making Islam the second largest religion in the country, although it
is not officially recognized.
The
Muslim activist indicated that the majority of the Muslim community
live in the north.
The
inauguration of the Islamic Center in Rome in 1973 was an important
step in the way of enhancing the cross-cultural dialogue between
Italians and Muslims.
The
founding in 1999 of the Islamic-Italian Council was a further step
ahead.
