Italy's Muslim leaders and opposition groups expressed outrage on Thursday over a proposal by the anti-immigration party of Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni to freeze the building of new mosques in an effort to curb terrorism.
The Northern League, the main ally of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, suggested the ban after two men were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of planning attacks in and near the northern city of Milan, but groups slammed the call as prejudice.
The Italian Communist Party's immigration expert slammed the Northern League for its "latest attempt to criminalize Muslim citizens who live in Italy."
"Those who equate Islam with terrorism are really pandering to those who want to divide the world in an absurd war of civilization," Maurizio Musolino told the ANSA news agency.
Mario Scialoja, who heads the Italian section of the Muslim World League, said such a law would "create discrimination." "A law that penalizes non-Catholic places of worship would be unconstitutional," he told AFP.
The center-left opposition Democratic Party also rejected the proposal. "It would not be useful, and it is unacceptable," said party spokesman Ermete Realacci. "We are proud to be in a country with freedom of religion, and (banning new mosques) does not seem to be the way to address the problem of terrorism," he told AFP.
"Mosques are Islamic places of peace for social gathering and prayer. We teach Muslims in Italy to respect the land they live in and its laws. A proposal to ban the building of mosques is unacceptable and goes against the Italian constitution," An imam from the Islamic Cultural Institute in Milan, Abu Khalil, told AlArabiya.net.
"Even if the allegations happen to be true, a fair government does not punish 1.2 million Muslims because it fears two people," he said, referring to the arrest of two Moroccan men for alleged terrorist plots.
Vatican
The Vatican, for its part, said "civil society" had a right to determine whether a mosque is in fact being used as such. "On the one hand we need to recognize the legitimacy of the place of worship that is the seat of an authentic spiritual presence," said the Vatican's "culture minister" Gianfranco Ravasi. "But if it becomes something else, indeed civil society has the right to intervene and check," he told reporters.
| Count on the Vatican for the correct understanding of the problem. If the Catholic Church used its churches to stockpile weapons and ammo, it could fairly expect civil society to become a mite concerned (and civil society no doubt would, well before it would become concerned about a mosque). That there are enough mosques in the world serving as gathering places for terrorists, dishing up hate literature and spittle, as well as storing weapons, is enough to taint the rest. The 'Muslim World League' would do itself and its members a big favor by jumping on the more truculent Muslims in the world. |
Italy is home to some 1.2 million Muslims and counts 258 mosques and 628 Islamic associations, according to the Italian press. |
ROME - Italy wants to tighten controls on foreign cash arriving to build mosques and is studying a French proposal to create a state-backed foundation to filter religious funds for Muslims, the interior minister has said. Giuliano Amato told Italian reporters that Rome currently had little control over money coming into the country -- especially from foreign governments -- to help build mosques. He did not name any countries. I find the spread of mosques with cash from governments of other countries unacceptable ... I want to understand who is financing what in our country, Amato was quoted as saying in La Stampa newspaper on Friday.
An Italian Catholic magazine has published a satirical cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad (