ROME/TRIPOLI,
February 18, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Italian
Institutional Reform Minister Roberto Calderoli resigned Saturday,
February 18, as Libya blamed him for sparking deadly protests that
claimed the lives of ten people by wearing a T-shirt of the Danish
cartoons satirizing Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon
him).
"I
have resigned," Italy's Ansa news agency quoted Calderoli as
saying.
Earlier,
the Italian minister, a leading member of the Northern League party
which will contest a forthcoming general election on an
anti-immigration ticket, refused to step down and rejected accusations
that he was to blame for the deadly clashes in Libya, Reuters
reported.
"I
can be sorry for the victims, but what happened in Libya has nothing
to do with my T-shirt. The question is different. What's at stake is
Western civilization," the daily La Repubblica quoted him
as saying.
Calderoli
said his gesture was part of a "battle for freedom and
democracy."
"For
years now we have been subjected to threats, we've been subjected to
terrorism and nobody is calling for reciprocal respect," he
argued.
As
news unfolded of a mounting death toll in protests outside Italy's
consulate in Benghazi, Libya, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said
late Friday, February 17, Calderoli "must resign."
"I
have spoken to Umberto Bossi and he has also condemned him," he
added, referring to the leader of Calderoli's Northern League party.
Italian
cabinet ministers last week distanced themselves from previous remarks
by Calderoli, in which he scornfully referred to Muslim immigrants to
Italy as "Ali Babas" who snapped up jobs and cheap housing
from Italians.
Calderoli
aroused uproar by vowing to sport T-shirts displaying the cartoons,
first published in September by Denmark's mass circulation daily Jyllands-Posten
and then reprinted elsewhere in Europe.
This
came as Europe raced to defuse anger in the Islamic world over the
drawings which included portrayals of the Prophet wearing a
bomb-shaped turban and another showing him as a knife-wielding nomad
flanked by shrouded women.
Italy
Blamed
 |
|
Libya blamed the protest on the "provocative and outrageous" actions of "hateful and racist" Calderoli. (Reuters)
|
Libya
on Saturday blamed Italy for the deadly protest that left 10 people
dead and Rome's consulate in the northern city of Benghazi ablaze,
reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The
Qaddafi foundation, headed by the reform-minded son of Libyan leader
Seif el-Islam, issued a statement blaming the riot on the
"provocative and outrageous" actions of Calderoli.
It
called on Rome to "take urgent measures against this hateful and
racist minister", otherwise it would see "its interests and
relations with Libya pass into a delicate and decisive
reevaluation."
The
foundation also urged the opening of a judicial enquiry to uncover who
was responsible for opening fire on the demonstrators, saying those
responsible should be brought to justice.
"At
least 10 demonstrators have been killed according to the police who
sent me that toll," the first secretary of the Italian embassy in
Tripoli, Dominico Bellatoni told AFP.
"No
Italian was hurt when a thousand demonstrators attacked the consular
building after Friday prayers and set the first floor on fire."
Private
sources contacted from Tripoli said the toll was "between 15 and
25," while "very many injured" had been taken to the
Al-Jala hospital in Libya's second city and economic powerhouse.
Police
threw teargas grenades and opened fire with live ammunition in the
eastern coastal city on the 1,000 demonstrators, some of whom who had
overwhelmed security forces to storm the consulate building and set it
ablaze.
Libyan
television said that 11 people had been "hit, some of them
killed" and added that the Benghazi authorities had asked the
public prosecutor to open a probe into the police handling of the
demonstrators.
Television
pictures showed angry demonstrators setting fire to the Italian flag
and thick clouds of black smoke billowing into sky from the consulate
building.
It
was the first action against Italian interests in a Muslim country
since protests began against the caricatures throughout the Muslim
world.
Muslims
protesting against the cartoons set fire to the Danish consulate in
Beirut on Sunday and Syrian protesters did the same with the Danish
and Norwegian embassies in Damascus a day earlier.
Muslim
scholars, including prominent Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, organizations
and leaders have been united in condemning the violent attacks against
the embassies.
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