Posted on 07/31/2005 8:18:26 PM PDT by Pikamax
Italy bans Islamic burqas Natasha Bita, Florence August 01, 2005 ITALY has banned Islamic burqas under tough terrorism laws that provide two-year jail terms and E2000 ($3200) fines for anyone caught covering their face in a public place.
The counter-terrorism package, passed by Italy's parliament yesterday, doubles the existing penalty for wearing a burqa or chador -- traditional robes worn by Muslim women to cover their faces -- or full-faced helmets or balaclavas in public.
Police can extract DNA samples without a suspect's consent, detain them for 24 hours without a lawyer present, and deport foreigners suspected of terrorism under the new legislation. Soldiers involved in counter-terrorism have been given the same stop-and-search powers.
The changes, approved in a rare show of bipartisanship, came as Italian police arrested a fugitive hunted by British police over the bungled bombing attempt in London on July 21.
"In the course of the investigation, it has been possible to identify a dense network of individuals from the Eritrean and Ethiopian communities in Italy, believed to have helped the fugitive cover his tracks," Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu told the Senate. "We have before us a grave threat that has to be confronted with all the means of prevention and contrast that we have." Italian media yesterday reported that the suspected terrorist, named by British police as Somali-born Hussain Osman, was Hamdi Adus Issac, 27, born in Ethiopia and allegedly granted British citizenship using false Somali documents.
Osman, who reportedly lived in Rome for several years and speaks fluent Italian, is fighting Britain's extradition request via a European arrest warrant. He slipped through Britain's security dragnet last week by catching a train from London's Waterloo station to Paris. He then moved to Milan and Rome, where Italian police arrested him during a raid on a relative's apartment. They had been tracking him by monitoring his mobile phone.
Italy's biggest newspapers reported that Osman had admitted to his Italian police interrogator that he had carried a bomb on to a train in his backpack.
Italy's opposition leader, former European Commission president Romano Prodi, yesterday pledged to withdraw Italy's 3000 troops from Iraq if his centre-left coalition wins elections due by June next year.
"We will withdraw them as a occupying force because our job will be to aid in the reconstruction of Iraq," he said.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi -- who has said Italy will progressively withdraw its troops starting in September -- accused his rival of putting Italian soldiers' lives at risk by defining them as "occupying".
"He's breaking Western solidarity, justifying and enticing attacks against our troops," Mr Berlusconi said.
Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini accused Mr Prodi of exposing Italy to a terrorist attack.
As long as they don't ban Victoria's Secret. LOL
The Italians have got coglionies. Excuse my poor Italian...
Is that a kind of macaroni?
Mecca delenda est!
Do you know that Rome was losing when they started with that? They were so afraid of Hannibal that they started the Roman session with a "Carthago delenda est." It was like wishing it would make it come true . (In their case it did). The point is the Romans were afraid, we are not.
Andiamo, Italia! Brava! Excuse my miserable Italian, but I'm sure you get the idea.
Actually, non-citizens are allowed to vote in Roman elections.
Andiamo, Italia! Brava! Excuse my miserable Italian, but I'm sure you get the idea.
Sounds like they are going to deport all involved.
More specifically, the particular brand of Muslims who force their women and girls to hide their faces. If every Western nation would flat out outlaw this practice and instantly deport any non-citizen who advocates it, this brand of Islam would soon be re-confined to the little corner of the world (e.g. Saudi Arabia) where it came from). It makes me sick when I see not just women, but very young girls, walking around in the "land of the free" dressed in these get-ups. It's got to do serious and permanent psychological damage to a girl, to be forced to cover her face from the time she's 9 years old, and never have a normal face to face interaction with anyone outside of her own sick little immediate family.
Excellent policy.
I guess no one can call them cowards anymore
Prodi=Pansy
"Wow! Our Italian friends have some serious balls."
We don't read much about the Italian efforts in GWOT, but they have been working closely with the rest of the western governments to find and capture suspect terrorist cells. We have to remember they are next on the list according to Abu Musab el Zarqawi. I am sure they have security and intel forces working around the clock as every one else has to stop crap from happening. We tend to only hear from a given country after something bad happens. We don't often hear about all the would be's that got caught before they carried out their plans. As all cooperating nations in the GWOT get better connected with databases, inter agency cooperations, things will continue to get harder for terrorist cells to exists in these countries. As we are now seeing, these countries are starting to re-think just how much freedoms that deviate from the laws of those lands, that where permitted in the past, are now going to be acceptable.
Pakistan's Musharaf sort of drove the nail down hard the other day when he made the comment asking why are not muslim immigrants trying to integrate into the societies they migrate to and become trusted citizens. This is going to have more an impact than a lot of folks realize, in this fast moving word where 2 hour old news seems ancient. To have him say such a thing is practically anti-thesis to the Arab culture as well as many southeast asian cultures.
Please do not feel obligated to respond in kind. I just wanted to make this point.
YES!!
I agree completely that we are irredeemably lost in the fog of our politically correct thinking, too attached to utopian international schemes, to take realistic and concrete steps for our own self-preservation.
I'm sure there'll be an outcry from the Muslim population, but the right response is "If you don't like it, you can go back to where you came from."
Enough with this PC crap of allowing immigrants to call the shots. Anti-terrorism measures are a No. 1 priority and it's good to see that Italy gets it.
So, now wouldn't be a good time to open a Burqa King franchise?
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