There is this article from the Financial Times that I would like to link here but, because it needs a registration (that I strongly support you to do), I quote it here:
Italian party seeks to block new mosques
By Paul Bompard in Rome
Published: August 25 2008 02:24 | Last updated: August 25 2008 02:24
Italy’s Northern League, the populist, xenophobic, sometimes separatist movement that is a key component of Silvio Berlusconi’s governing coalition, has proposed new legislation which would effectively halt construction of new Islamic mosques.
The bill, which the League’s chief of deputies Roberto Cota is expected to send to parliament next week, would require regional approval for the building of mosques. It would also require that a local referendum be held, that there be no minaret or loudspeakers calling the faithful to prayer, and sermons must be in Italian, not Arabic.
Chances of this being approved as it stands are slim, since it clashes with a number of constitutional rights and there was no immediate support from either Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party or from the ex-fascist National Alliance.
But there has been cautious support from the small, ultra-Catholic UDC party, and the proposed anti-mosque legislation undoubtedly reflects widespread feeling among Italians that some defence against a rapidly rising Islamic presence is needed. At present, the Muslim population in Italy is estimated at 1m, with 258 registered mosques.
The Northern League, which theoretically favours the secession of northern Italy from the centre and south, won more than 8 per cent of the vote at the April general elections, and has always trumpeted defence of national values of the northern Italian “race” as the natural product of its homeland.
Without giving details, Roberto Maroni, the rightwing interior minister from the League, also said in April that “nomads” – as Italians call the Gypsies, although most do little roaming – who were not Italian citizens and did not meet conditions to stay would be deported to their “countries of origin”.
The League has capitalised on a wave of xenophobia, of fear of crime committed by foreigners, and of preoccupation with illegal immigrants, which did much to help the Berlusconi alliance win the elections.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
No, it’s not just the “usual” ignorance that cause my country to be racist: that has became boring to discuss.
Is the ignorance about the simple fact that EVERY PRAY for Muslims are ONLY in Arab: even countries that are not Arab native speakers (some part of Pakistan but there are many others in Africa), prays in Arab. They learn the prays when they were kids and still pray in that way. Is a Muslim dogma to think that the language of God is Arab. And even if the “sermons” doesn’t need to be in Arab, what’s the problem of allowing people to speak in the language they want when they are in a religious place?
I absolutely agree that for anything else that is not within the mosque, they must learn Italian: they are in Italy, they can’t expect us to change our language. And I don’t think they even remotely think to ask so.
I would even “justify” if this request of “celebrate the sermons in Arab” where from “normal people”: but when politicians try to rule about something, they should at least try to be up-to-date on what they are talking about.
[Original Source: Italia dall’Estero]
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