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"We are resolved to leave beyond continuing media onslaughts against Islam and enjoy the `Eid," Ali Abu Oshwaima said. |
MILAN — The three-day `Eid Al-Fitr, which starts here on Monday, October 23, brings a long-lost smile to the faces of many Italian Muslims who have had a very hard time with rising Islamophobia in the southern European country.
"We are resolved to leave beyond continuing media onslaughts against Islam and enjoy the `Eid," Ali Abu Oshwaima, the director of the Islamic Center in Milan, north of Rome, told IslamOnline.net.
"All Muslims in Italy should use `Eid to wash away their problems."
The Islamic Center in Milan, a religious reference authority not only to Muslims in Milan but to almost all Italian Muslims, has announced Monday as the first day of `Eid Al-Fitr, the feast that marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.
Muslims start the day with special prayers shortly after dawn, often in large open areas, and spend the `Eid visiting family and friends.
Traditionally, everyone wears new clothes for `Eid, one of the two most important Islamic celebrations together with `Eid Al-Adha.
Italy has a Muslim population of some 1.2 million, including 20,000 reverts, according to estimates published by the mass-circulation Corriere Della Sera.
Suspicious
Milan has three grand mosques with minarets and domes in addition to 35 prayer rooms and 150 halal slaughterhouses.
Police put the city under close scrutiny due to the large Muslim population.
"Police are watching every step here and surveillance cameras are on a stand-by mood round the clock," a Milan Muslim local, who requested anonymity, told IOL.
Ahmad, another resident, laments that Milan is no more the city it used to be.
"We Muslims are hurt by such suspicious looks out there," he said.
Italian police also make arrests of suspected Muslims every now and then in predawn house raids.
In 2006, Italy's parliament adopted a package of anti-terror laws, which make it easier for police to monitor phones and the Internet, deport foreigners considered a threat to security and grant residence to illegal immigrants who collaborate with investigators.
Rising Islamophobia in the West has resulted in racist and scandalous measures — as put by some rights activists — like the enactment of law no.155 of 2005, which is unprecedented even in the world's dictatorships.
It obliges visitors of any cyber café to leave a copy of their IDs at the registration desk before logging in.
Media Campaigns
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| Islamic Center in Milan. |
The security campaign coincides with an anti-Muslim media drive that tars Islam and Muslims with the terrorist brush.
Abu Oshwaima was himself targeted in the media, which misquoted him as saying that Muslims would be a majority in Italy in ten years' time.
"No doubt media had twisted my statements," he said. "What I have said is that within ten years the Muslim presence in the country will be normal.
"Media are intent on insulting even moderate Muslims in Italy," complained the director of the Islamic Center in Milan.
Terrorism, violence, Islam and Muslims have been making headlines recently in Italy.
La Stamapa newspaper ran a story on Friday, October 20, on the new controversial movie "Propaganda" by Gianfranco Fini which associates Islam with violence.
Corriere Della Sera also reported heavily on the raging row over the Muslim face-veil in Britain and the seven Italian Muslims detained in the notorious US military prison of Guantanamo.
Publishing a report on the arrest of Pakistani currency smugglers, the local Epolis Milano used a photo of a praying Muslim to run with the story.
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