Category Archives: Italy

Italian Muslims complain to president about violation of rights by Lega Nord

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lega Nord posterMuslims in Italy have written to the country’s president Giorgio Napolitano claiming their constitutional rights are being violated by the anti-immigrant policies of the Northern League party.

A lack of mosques and halal food outlets in the north were especially serious problems, said the letter to Napolitano, written by the Union of Islamic Communities in Italy (UCOII).

“I write to you as the custodian and guarantor of the Italian constitution the Italian’s Republic’s highest judge, to draw to your attention the day-to-day difficulties faced by Muslims in a large area of the country,” said the letter signed by UCOII’s president Ezzeddin Elzir.

Law-abiding Muslim immigrants and foreign residents who have striven to integrate in Italy’s northern regions and who do not present any real security threat, are being treated as second-class citizens, according to UCOII.

“Chiefly in the north of Italy, their religious freedom and personal dignity, upheld by the constitution and international conventions to which our country is a signatory, are gravely compromised,” the letter continued.

The letter did not specifically name the Northern League, which control several regions and most local councils in the north of Italy, but referred to “a certain political hostility made worse by the irresponsible action of certain local administrations.”

“Fundamental rights are being denied, such as places of worship and the availability of food prepared according to Muslim precepts,” the letter stated. “There is barely a Muslim community in northern Italy that does not come up against outright bans on mosques arrogantly imposed by local councils who malevolently invoke petty local bylaws to deny a basic constitutional freedom.”

UCOII asked for specific intervention from Napolitano over a school in Adro, in the Lombardy province of Brescia that has said it will only exempts Muslim pupils from eating pork if they have an allergy to it or on other health grounds.

AKI, 24 September 2010

Via Islam in Europe

Italy: veil ban back in the spotlight

Posted on by Bob Pitt

National debate over a “burqa ban” was back in the spotlight on Tuesday following an official request for the Senate to discuss the security implications of Islamic face coverings. Senator Ada Spadoni Urbani of Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party group (PdL) presented a motion on behalf of her party addressing the issue. The motion is aimed “at resolving the public security issues raised by the custom of wearing the burqa or other clothing that prevents accurate identification,” she explained. “This is not intended to discriminate in any way against religious beliefs”.

The rightwing Northern League party promised a bill on the issue on Friday, while a row has been simmering for a number of days over whether a mother should be permitted to wear a face veil while dropping her child off at nursery school. Other parents at the school in the small Lazio village of Sonnino had reportedly complained to the school’s head that the woman’s niqab scared their own children. On Monday, Sonnino Mayor Gino Cesare Gasbarrone announced a compromise had been reached following a meeting with all parties whereby the woman had agreed to remove the veil once on the school premises.

Meanwhile, the Northern League proposal, a translation of the recently approved French bill, will join eight other draft laws already under consideration by parliament. The bill would prevent women from wearing a face veil in public, including in schools, on public transport or in any kind of office. The penalty for transgressors would be a fine of between 150 and 300 euros or alternatively some kind of community service “aimed at encouraging integration”, explained League Deputy Whip Carolina.

But unlike other proposals, the new bill will also punish anyone “who forces someone else to wear it, using either physical or psychological violence”. This offence would be punishable by a year in prison and a 30,000 euro fine.

A 1975 law already prohibits any mask or clothing that makes it impossible to identify the wearer. In its current form, it permits exceptions for “justified cause”, which has been interpreted as including religious reasons in court rulings against local attempts to ban the burqa and niqab. Most of the bills currently before the Italian parliament would amend the 1975 law to make specific reference to Islamic face coverings.

Commenting on the Sonnino case, Isabella Bertolini of the PdL said the case demonstrated a “growing imperative for a complete ban on the burqa in all places, not just in schools”. “Our society’s flexibility leads our institutions at all levels to interpret laws in the most politically correct way possible, causing incalculable damage,” she said.

ANSA, 21 September 2010

Italy: Northern League introduces veil ban bill

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Carolina LussanaItaly’s anti-immigrant North League party has introduced a bill in the lower house of parliament seeking ban on burqa, the full body veil worn by Muslim women.

According to the legislation, wearing burqa will be punishable by a year in prison, fines of €150 to €300 for the wearer and €30,000 for anyone forcing a woman to don the face-covering Islamic garment. Anyone coercing a minor or a disabled woman into wearing a burqa will be eligible for a €60,000 fine. If a woman is wearing the burqa of her own volition, the €150-€300 fine can be reduced, if she agrees to do community service aimed at better integrating Muslim immigrants.

“This bill represents a step forward because we are not just facing a problem of public order, but – we believe – an offence to women’s dignity”, said Carolina Lussana, Northern League member of parliament, handing over the copy of the bill to reporters. “It is also a violation of the principle of equality between men and women enshrined in our constitution,” she said.

The bill is likely to draw criticism from many Muslim immigrants, but 73 percent of Italians believe the burqa should not be allowed to be worn in public places, according to a recent poll by Panel Data.

IANS/AKI, 18 September 2010

Senior Vatican official warns against Muslim domination of Europe

Posted on by Bob Pitt

European Christians must have more children or face the prospect of the continent becoming Islamised, a senior Vatican official has said. Italian Father Piero Gheddo said that the low birth rate among indigenous Europeans combined with an unprecedented wave of Muslim immigrants with large families could see Europe becoming dominated by Islam in the space of a few generations.

“The challenge must be taken seriously,” said Father Gheddo, of the Vatican’s Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions. “Certainly from a demographic point of view, as it is clear to everyone that Italians are decreasing by 120,000 or 130,000 persons a year because of abortion and broken families – while among the more than 200,000 legal immigrants a year in Italy, more than half are Muslims and Muslim families, which have a much higher level of growth.”

He said: “Newspapers and television programmes never speak of this. However, an answer must be given above all in the religious and cultural fields and in the area of identity.”

The priest blamed Christians for failing to live up to their own beliefs and helping to create a “religious vacuum” which was being filled by Islam. He predicted that Islam would “sooner rather than later conquer the majority in Europe”.

Daily Telegraph, 7 September 2010

Italian Muslim leader condemns suppression of the veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Veiled Muslim women have become the true upholders of western traditions of female dress, says Italy’s top imam, who angrily condemned the decision to fine a woman in Italy for wearing a veil that completely covered her features.

Izzedin Elzir, the president of the Union of Islamic Communities in Italy (UCOII) and a former fashion designer, said: “If we go and see the beautiful artistic representations of the Madonna, we see her with the veil. We don’t see her semi-naked, I think. For that reason, I believe it is the Muslims who are protecting the traditions of our country.” The imam said: “I believe Italian tradition is that which can be seen by going to a church, to a museum and seeing the beautiful images of the Madonna with a beautiful veil. That is our tradition.”

A €500 (£430) fine was imposed on Amel Marmouri, a Tunisian woman, who was stopped last week by carabinieri. Marmouri, 26, was covered head-to-toe, though it was unclear whether she was wearing an Afghan-style burqa or the niqab, which is more common on the Arabian peninsula.

Marmouri’s husband, 36-year-old Braim Ben Salah, said they were merely obeying the Qur’an, which said she “may not be looked at by other men”. But Elzir disputed that. “There are two interpretations,” he said. “One interpretation has it that the woman should be totally covered. Another says the woman should be covered totally, except for her face and hands. Both schools of thought are valid and it depends on the woman which school she chooses. The important thing is the freedom of the individual. Whether the face is covered or not covered, this belongs to the private sphere of the individual where we believe our constitution – the Italian constitution – guarantees religious freedom.”

He said the UCOII was not in favour of full veils. But, in a pointed allusion to Italy’s in-your-face variety shows with their scantily clad hostesses, he added: “It’s a personal choice, like a woman who decides to go on television half-naked. That’s her freedom. That’s her choice.”

Elzir said that, when faced with episodes such as the fining of Marmouri, “the [Muslim] community feels really discriminated against. There are serious problems in our country, not whether one wears the full veil or does not use the full veil, but problems of the economy, which is crumbling, [and] of unemployment. I believe the politicians and those who have the responsibility for governing ought to be looking at the reality and trying to resolve the problems of society, rather than creating them.”

Ben Salah said that the fine imposed on his wife meant she could no longer leave their house. “So what is better?” asked the imam. “That we condemn these hundred or so women who cover up their faces to spend the rest of their lives at home?”

Observer, 9 May 2010

Italy: another council decides to fine veiled women

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The northern city of Cossato on Friday became the third local authority in Italy to impose fines on women who cover their faces in public. The head-to-toe Islamic burqa and the niqab, which leaves the eyes visible are not specifically named in the by-law but are understood to be its target.

The fines will range from 25 to 100 euros. Elsewhere in northern Italy, Varallo and Novara city councils have already imposed fines on burqa and niqab wearers.

“There’s no security emergency in Cossato. But I want to stress that people coming to our country have obligations as well as rights,” said mayor Claudio Corradino, who belongings to Italy’s anti-immigrant Northern League party.

AKI, 7 May 2010

Italy: Tunisian woman fined for wearing veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A 26-year-old Tunisian woman has been fined for wearing a face veil while walking to a mosque in northern Italy, stoking an increasing debate on the integration of Muslim minorities in Europe.

Police in the city of Novara, a stronghold of Italy’s anti-immigration Northern League, stopped the Muslim woman on Friday while she was walking with her husband to prayers wearing a black niqab that covered her face but left her eyes exposed.

Police handed her a 500-euro fine under a bylaw introduced in January by the mayor of Novara which bans clothing in public that prevents identification by police.

“We just enforced a local law that stops people from covering their face near sensitive places like schools, hospitals or post offices,” inspector Leonardo Borghesani told Reuters. “We understand the fine is hefty, but she can appeal.”

The Northern League, a coalition ally of conservative Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, is pushing for legislation to outlaw face-covering Islamic garments in public.

Reuters, 4 May 2010

See also CNN, 4 May 2010

What’s threatening about European attacks on Muslim veils

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The anti-burqa cause is sweeping Europe. In addition to Belgium and France, Italy and the Netherlands are considering bans. Yet the targets of these measures are virtually nonexistent. Mr. Bacquelaine estimates that a couple of hundred women in Belgium wear a full veil. In France, one study estimated that there are 1,900 burqa wearers in a Muslim population of 5 million.

“The idea that this poses a criminal or cultural threat is ludicrous. Those who say they are defending women’s rights have it exactly backward: They are violating fundamental rights to free expression and religious freedom…. Muslims, including the devoutly religious, are in Europe to stay. Banning their customs, their clothing or their places of worship will not make them more European. It will only make Europe less free.”

Editorial in the Washington Post, 1 May 2010

Poll: half of Europeans oppose headscarf in schools

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Just over half of Europeans surveyed opposed allowing Islamic headscarves in schools but backed the presence of crucifixes in classrooms, according to a Spanish study obtained by AFP Wednesday.

A total 52.6 per cent of those polled in 12 European Union member states along were “opposed” or “totally opposed” to the use of the garment in schools, according to the study carried out by the research department of BBVA, Spain’s second-largest bank. Opposition to the veil was highest in Bulgaria with 84.3 per cent against and France with 68.7 per cent opposed and it was lowest in Poland with only 25.6 per cent against followed by Denmark with 28.1 per cent opposed.

By contrast 54.4 per cent of those polled were in favour of classrooms displaying crucifixes. In Spain and Italy, two nations with a strong Roman Catholic tradition, support for the use of crucifixes in classrooms stood at 69.9 per cent and 49.3 per cent respectively. Support for the use of crucifixes in classrooms shot up to 77 per cent in Britain and 78.8 per cent in Denmark.

AFP, 28 April 2010