Italian Web Islamic Radio Makes Inroads

Equipped with only a telephone line, a portal recorder and a computer, the site works around the clock.

"It all started a year ago as an educative site for Islam, but unfortunately it did not receive much attention from visitors," Abdul Kabir Roberto Aliotta, Coordinator of Islam Network Italy, told IslamOnline.net.

He and two other Italian Muslim volunteers in Liguria Region in Italy, who were recently joined by Giuliano Falco, a non-Muslim blogger, decided to change their strategy.

"We changed the site into an informative one, offering an experimental radio where we can comment the ongoing events and help the Muslim Italian to integrate into society," added Abdul Kabir, a sound engineer also responsible for the site update and radio content.

"The site and the web radio were established to meet the needs of Italian Muslims who find difficulties to know about Islam due to limited sources as well as teaching of intercultural and interconfessional dialogue, through the interviews and the comments by Islam experts."

He said the website was launched to give voice to main players of the Islamic activities in Italy as well as reflect on main topics about Muslims in Italy and Europe.

"We don’t have an ideological line but we give space to all the reasonable moderate tendencies that flow in Islam. It is also open to the confrontation with other religious and secular realities that exist in our country."

Equipped with only a telephone line, a portal recorder and a computer, the site works around the clock.

"The site can be listened to 24 hours a day where the offered services are recorded and uploaded to the online radio."

Making Inroads

Soon the site audience changed and more non-Muslims, including reporters from local journals and agencies, began to log in.

"Thanks Allah the radio had an extraordinary success where many international agencies used our reports," said Abdul Kabir.

He said periodical site statistics show that there are many frequent visitors from Italy and overseas though the site services are exclusively in Italian.

The radio is offering a wide range of information gathered from different sources as well as imams and scholars within the Italian territories, including the mosque of Milan city.

"It was very hard at the beginning to get the attention of these scholars and make them believe in our project but soon they became happy to receive our calls and help us after finding that it really works."

The site and the web radio also address global issues of interest to Muslims such as Palestine, beside offering Islamic information services such as Hadith.

They also cover events such as social forums and conferences by non-Muslim and Muslim groups.

They joined hands with the Young Muslims of Italy group in organizing a a seminar about Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) after the Danish cartoons crisis.

The publication of twelve cartoons, including one showing the Prophet with a bomb-shaped turban, by Denmark's mass-circulation daily Jyllands-Posten had sparked off global protests.

The radio also had a big hit with its interview with Don Andrea Gallo, the respectable priest of Genoa, during which he demanded the immediate withdrawal of Italian troops from Iraq.

"This interview had such a positive impact both on the radio and the media," recalled Abdul Kabir. "We got more exposed to the media."

The radio still faces some problems.

"The main problem is the lack of human resources in an Italian reality where the Muslim community is of a recent formation, composed of a great range of foreigners - more than the 95 percent."

There are some 1.5 million Muslims in Italy, the country's fastest-growing immigrant population.

Islam is the least represented of the monotheistic faiths in Rome’s corridors of power.

Unlike Judaism, Buddhism and some Protestant denominations, Islam is not officially recognized by the state.