"[Mosques] are often places of cultural indoctrination, sometimes linked to international terrorism." - Gibelli
REUTERS: ROME - Italy's Northern League, allies of centre-right Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, want to limit the growth of Islam in the centre of world Catholicism by blocking the construction of mosques through strict new regulations.
Muslim immigrants using Italy as a route into Europe already get a foretaste of the mistrust with which many Europeans view their religion, with many projects for mosques and prayer halls already blocked by the opposition of local Italian residents.
But if the anti-immigrant Northern League pushes its bill through parliament -- where Berlusconi's coalition has a strong majority -- Italy will soon have a new law effectively blocking the construction of new mosques in much of the country.
Fearing the advent of "Eurabia", the League has used its control of Berlusconi's interior ministry since helping him to power to push through tough new laws against illegal immigrants.
It has now turned its attention to the newcomers' religion, emboldened by polls showing many Italians mistrust Muslims and a third do not want a mosque in their neighbourhood.
The Northern League has "made life difficult for the Islamic component (of immigrants in Italy) in every sense and especially with regards to places of worship", the president of the Islamic Cultural Istitute of Milan, Abdel Hamid Sha'ari, told Reuters.
Not just recent or illegal immigrants feel unwelcome, but also established Muslim residents like Jihad Amro, who said: "I have paid taxes for 17 years but I still don't feel at home."
"There are still situations where I feel uncomfortable or strange because they (Italians) don't see me as someone who is integrated," Amro, a Palestinian, told Reuters TV in Rome.
The League's anti-Muslim protests have often made headlines, such as when Roberto Calderoli, now a cabinet minister, walked his pet pig on a proposed mosque site to defile the soil or wore a T-shirt of the Prophet Mohammad, triggering riots in Libya.
The League runs many town halls in the prosperous north, the homeland it calls "Padania" which is also home to a majority of Italy's immigrants and of its more than 1 million Muslims.
Estimating that permission for a new mosque or prayer hall is granted somewhere in the country every four days, Northern League parliamentarian Andrea Gibelli told Reuters: "I consider this to be an unfettered colonisation of our culture." FEATURE: Italy’s Right to Curb Islam with Mosque Law >>> By Stephen Brown (Additional reporting by Eleanor Biles and Cristiano Corvino, editing by Mark Trevelyan) | September 16, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – Italy)
