Italian Interior Secretary Calls For Ban On New Mosques

ROME: A proposal by the anti-immigration party of Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni for a moratorium on the building of new mosques amid terrorism fears in Italy sparked outrage among Muslim leaders and the opposition on Thursday.

The Northern League (NL), the main ally of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, suggested the ban after two men were arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of planning attacks in and near Milan. Maroni told the daily La Stampa: "These arrests show that ... terrorism is entrenched in Italy, and that we must be vigilant. Unfortunately it is not easy to distinguish between places of worship and those that recruit terrorists and finance the planning of attacks." Maroni's party has lodged a motion in the Lower House of parliament for a ban on the building of mosques and Muslim cultural centres in Italy until parliament passes a law to oversee their construction, La Stampa reported. "Mosques are springing up like mushrooms, and mayors can do nothing about it because there is no law," said Roberto Cota, the head of the NL's group in the Chamber of Deputies.

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Comments

[Spiritgirl2]

I think that this is terrible. Once again ugly religion rears it's ugly head. What makes people resort to terrorism in the first place - ignorance and oppression! When this so-called "War on Terror" first reared it's ugly head - I knew that it would turn out to be this way! Not everyone that believes in Islam is a terrorist! What makes people terrorists: lack of education, lack of access to jobs, isolation from the larger society, not enough communication with people that are not Muslims to exchange ideas and dispel myths and rumors about each other!

While most "Christians" don't want to admit it - there are and will continue to be "Christian Terrorists" (think: Timothy McVeigh, Oklahoma City bomber)! As long as people believe in a Being that is higher than themselves, does it really matter what you call this Being? Do you really believe that this is what is most important to this Being? Shakespeare's Hamlet said it "A rose by any other name would it still smell just as sweet"? I know it would!

As we move into this new millenium with all of the challenges that we face, maybe we need to concentrate on those things that we have in common with each other as beings living in society, rather than tearing each other apart for our differences!

[GZLives]

Are you really going to argue that a bombing that occurred 13 years ago in Oklahoma city is anything like what we see on an almost daily basis around the world from Islamists?

Come on ...

[tinamou]

Are you really going to suggest that these "Islamists" in any way have a monopoly on radicalism or extremism? Are we to disregard the other forms and perpetrators of extremism, be they Christian, Hindu, Jewish, politically, or even racially motivated? Other forms and sources of extremism occur on an 'almost daily basis', too, and certainly have not been discontinued, nor do they in many parts of the world pale in comparison or significance to "Islamists". Come on...

I find this suggestion to be absolutely despicable. When two people are arrested out of a community of an estimated 1 million, and the vicious ignorance contained within factions of Italian politics wants to whitewash Mosques as centers for the promotion of violent radicalism, and by consequence the Muslim community as receptive to that violent radicalism, there is a profound injustice there. Such vile bigotry, but I wouldn't expect any different from the Northern League... they are disturbingly bigoted and racist on a regular basis, what a complete joke of a party!

[Tom95134]

I love this crap from the 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 recognise the legitimacy of the place of worship that is the seat of an authentic spiritual presence," said the Vatican"s Culture Minister Gianfranco Ravasi."

In other words, Mosques cannot be used to promote socia change, but Catholic Churches can be used to prech a doctrine that denies people their right, e.g., The Knights of Columbus pushing for approval of Prop 8 in California.

Again we see the hypocrisy of religions that want you to do push their own agenda no matter who it hurts. The Catholic Church should take time to remember that it was the Church's sanctioned Crusades that planted the seeds of the Muslim distrust of others.

[piul05]

The Vatican, during the 20th century, had a rather enlightened postion on the relationship between faiths, the true vocation of the church, its role on the persecution of others, so on and so forth... until people like Karol Wojtyla (JP II) and the present Pope ( his former "rottweiller") presided over shift in orientation of the church that stated it should keep itself from political matters (such as the oppression and torture of its flock in Africa and the Americas), unless, of course, they were anti-communist Poles - then, revolution was alright.

That, plus a complete out of touch view on social matters and its own structures, meant that it is a huge dinosaur in the room; low attendance, affiliation in name only, people looking elsewhere for religious fulfilment and dwindling number of priests and nuns.

Whatever the vatican has to say, it's an irrelevance.