FIGHT BETWEEN MUSLIMS AND CHRISTIANS IN PALERMO [ITALY]: 3 INJURED

AGI Online ^ | February 8, 2005

[underlying]

FIGHT BETWEEN MUSLIMS AND CHRISTIANS IN PALERMO: 3 INJURED

(AGI) - Palermo, Feb. 8 - Orthodox Christian and Muslim nomads living together in a nomad camp at Palermo's Favorita ended up in a violent fight causing the injury of 3 people, later arrested by Carabinieri forces.

Investigation on the reasons are under way but Carabinieri forces believe they can be found in the permanent climate of tension between the two groups belonging to different ethnic and religious groups.

The fight apparently started on the pretext of a loud squealing of tyres by one of the arrested near the caravans of the other group, generating a fight carried out first with sticks and later with knifes.

When Carabinieri forces arrived the nomads scattered.

Strettan Ahmetovic, aged 24, Igor Selimovic, aged 21 and Nebojsha Selimovic, aged 23 were identified and arrested.

The first and the second were slightly injured at head and chest and will recover in seven days time, whereas the third was stabbed at the back and kept under observation in the hospital Villa Sofia.

All three men arrested will have to respond to the accuse of aggravated fight.

The arrests were confirmed by public prosecutor Adriana Blasco.

Some of the knifes used in the fight were confiscated.

[Mears]

Nomads?

Refugees from the former Yugoslavia I presume.

[deaconjim]

Palermo was a nice place. I hope it still is.

[Kurt_D]

"Nomads" *lol* What a ridiculous term for illegal immigrants.

[groanup]

Let me know, I can round up a few other Georgia rednecks to weigh in. Of course we would be limited to reading poetry to the combatants.

[mark502inf]

The Roma or Gypsies are often called Nomads in Italy. Many come from the former Yugoslavia. That would fit the names in the story.

[rdcorso]

My Grandmother must be spinning in her grave knowing that this filth is littering the streets of her birthplace.Italy supposedly has little tent cities in the middle of the public square that are filled with muslims who urinate and defecate all over the place.I think it was the Italian author who received all those death threats,Oriana Fallucci or something like that who mentioned it.

[Cacique]

More than likely we're speaking of Albanians, the largest muslim group of immigrants into Italy. The fatct that the others were orthodox Christians may be either Serbians or part of the extremeley small minority of Albanians who are Orthodx (most Christian Alabanians are catholic) going back to the days of Iskender Bey. However, the names ending in VIC are slavic and that raises the possibility that these were Bosnians and not Albanians which is very likely.

[virgil]

Palermo is in Sicily. Muslims at one time controlled parts of the island,but not since the Normans moved in in the 11th century.

[Kurt_D]

Must have been a match between Serbs and Albanians... and, judging by the names of the injured ones, it seems that the Albanians kicked some butt.

[Cacique]

Read the article, those were the guys arrested, probably for bashing some heads. However, since Bosnian Muslims commonly have slavic last names it's hard to tell the religious affiliation of these guys. There are few Serb refugees or illegal aliens in Italy since they were mostly the cause of the other refugees.

Just as an aside, I'm part Slovenian, thus I know the region quite well.

[Kurt_D]

Actually, I used to work with a bunch of Albanians and Muslim Bosnians back in Switzerland. The latter usually do not have Christian names (i.e. Stephan, Ivan, Igor, Vladimir, Aleksander, Radomir, Kasimir, Slobodan, etc.)

[mark502inf]

I'm part Slovenian

Hey, one of your cousins married the Donald!

Were you invited to the wedding?

[ny demimonde]

i think he might mean gypsies (but that's very un-PC).

[maine-iac7]

squealing of tyres

Well, yeah. That'd do it