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Italy’s rebel woman MP fears fatwa
The Sunday Times ^ | October 29, 2006 | John Follain

Posted on 10/29/2006 1:08:09 AM PDT by MadIvan

THE Italian feminist politician Daniela Santanche has been given 24-hour police protection after her strident views on the Muslim veil drew an apparent death sentence from an imam.

On a television chat show, Santanche, 45, an MP for the right-wing National Alliance party, clashed with Ali Abu Shwaima, the imam of a mosque near Milan.

“The veil isn’t a religious symbol and it isn’t prescribed by the Koran,” she said. “And in our country there is a law which forbids – for reasons of terrorism – people going around with masks on.”

Shwaima, an Italian national, retorted: “The veil is an obligation required by God. Those who do not believe that are not Muslims.

“You’re an ignoramus, you’re false. You sow hatred, you’re an infidel.”

The interior ministry, interpreting Shwaima’s insults as the equivalent of a fatwa — a religious edict calling for her murder — swiftly gave Santanche an armed bodyguard.

However, Shwaima insisted that he had never pronounced a fatwa, saying that the row over their debate had been “artfully created to cast a negative light on Islam”. He claimed that he was the one who needed protection, as critics had accused him of backing terrorism and his home address had been published in the newspapers.

Santanche had already created a stir in the Muslim world with her book, Woman Denied, which criticised Muslim women’s way of life and argued that they wore the veil only because their husbands, fathers or brothers forced them. The book was denounced by Iranian television and several Islamic websites.

Public debate over the wearing of the veil is a novelty for Italy, which has 1.2m Muslims, fewer than 5% of whom go to mosques.

Romano Prodi, the prime minister, was cautious this month when asked about the British debate over the issue. He said it was fine for women to wear a veil but “common sense” demanded that they should not conceal their faces.

Santanche is used to controversy. Last year she notoriously raised a middle finger to young people protesting at the government of Silvio Berlusconi, the then prime minister; she also proposed a “porn tax” to be levied on income derived from pornography. On her website she gives an account of the collapse of her first marriage and a guided tour of her home including the bathroom.

In a rare show of unity, Santanche’s left-wing political opponents are rallying to her support. “I want Mr Shwaima to know that threats, intimidation and condemnations are not acceptable in Italy,” said Barbara Pollastrini, minister for equal opportunities in the centre-left government.

Leaders of Italy’s Muslim community also expressed solidarity with Santanche. Souad Sbai, who heads the Union of Moroccan Women in Italy, called Shwaima “pseudo-religious”.

Santanche remains defiant: “You don’t imagine I’m going to give in? If I speak out it’s because Muslim women have asked me to. It’s time to turn our backs on the politically correct, it’s a question not of religion but of human rights,” she told The Sunday Times.

Of course she was afraid, she said, for herself and for her family. They now lived with bodyguards round the clock and she had been forced to give up using her bicycle: “But what I’m going through is nothing compared to the suffering of millions of women who are massacred, trampled on and pelted with stones.”

She was stunned to hear her 10-year-old son Lorenzo ask her what “condemned to death” meant. Perhaps he had heard the expression on the television news, she thought. “People talk like this in films,” she told him.

“So we’re in a film, mummy?” Lorenzo asked.

“Yes,” his mother had replied.

“I told him that because mummy is in politics, there are some people who don’t always agree with her. Having these guards with us just makes everything safer.”


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: eurabia; europe; fatwa; halloweenmasks; hijab; islam; italy; religion; rop; terrorism; veil
The spirit of Orianna Fallaci is not dead.

Regards, Ivan

1 posted on 10/29/2006 1:08:09 AM PDT by MadIvan
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To: Mrs Ivan; odds; DCPatriot; Deetes; Barset; fanfan; LadyofShalott; Tolik; mtngrl@vrwc; ...

Ping!


2 posted on 10/29/2006 1:08:23 AM PDT by MadIvan (I aim to misbehave.)
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To: MadIvan
“The veil is an obligation required by God.

Not my God..

3 posted on 10/29/2006 1:18:43 AM PDT by cardinal4 (Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi..)
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To: MadIvan
Amen. She has a very nice looking web site, www.danielasantanche.com in Italian of course - hopefully she will realize she has many fans in the English-speaking world and provide an English version of the pages soon.


            Daniela Santanche

4 posted on 10/29/2006 1:35:29 AM PDT by Heatseeker
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Isnt making a death threat a crime ???


5 posted on 10/29/2006 1:40:18 AM PDT by wodinoneeye
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To: MadIvan

I've met a least one woman in recent years who I worked with. She smoked and cussed like everyone else but dressed Muslim-style (the long robe and head covering without face covering.)

She said her husband wanted her to dress that way.


6 posted on 10/29/2006 1:18:09 AM PST by Nextrush (Communism died in the Soviet Union, but Diversity lives on everywhere)
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To: Heatseeker

Put the website address in google. Then you can click translate to get it in English


7 posted on 10/29/2006 1:27:48 AM PST by packrat35 (guest worker/day worker=SlaveMart)
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To: cardinal4

“The veil is an obligation required by God.


Ah, that would be a small g for their god. Amen.


8 posted on 10/29/2006 1:40:29 AM PST by gakrak ("A wise man's heart is his right hand, But a fool's heart is at his left" Eccl 10:2)
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To: MadIvan

That woman has more cojones (what's it in Italian?) than the overwhelming majority of male politicians including those in the USA.


9 posted on 10/29/2006 3:58:30 AM PST by Leftism is Mentally Deranged (Left: apologizing for the head-choppers and woman-stoners)
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To: Heatseeker

"Does this make me look fatwa?"

10 posted on 10/29/2006 4:21:53 AM PST by Caipirabob (Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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To: MadIvan
Fallaci was amazing. Thanks to FR I learned so much about Fallaci and others.

Great post
11 posted on 10/29/2006 5:47:12 AM PST by exdem2000
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To: MadIvan

Good for her.

Time to put the spot lighit of truth on these Islamofacist thugs who have perverted their religion into a reason and tool for their serial killing and abuse of people.


12 posted on 10/29/2006 7:18:21 AM PST by Grampa Dave (There's a dwindling market for Marxist Homosexual Lunatic wet dreams posing as journalism)
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To: MadIvan; USF; Fred Nerks; backtothestreets; AmericanArchConservative; Dark Skies; Just A Nobody
THE Italian feminist politician Daniela Santanche

Santanche had already created a stir in the Muslim world with her book, Woman Denied, which criticized Muslim women’s way of life and argued that they wore the veil only because their husbands, fathers or brothers forced them. [...]

It’s time to turn our backs on the politically correct, it’s a question not of religion but of human rights,” she told The Sunday Times.

I can't think of any time when I ever agreed with a feminist, but this woman is awesome!

She needs to watch her back or she may have the same demise that Theo Van Gogh had when he dared to expose the abuse women receive at the hands of islam.

I have questioned for quite some time WHERE are the feminists in THIS Country speaking out for the women who are brutally rape, tortured and murdered by the followers of islam?

The silence is deafening.

God Bless Daniela Santanche and I pray she has protection from what is assuredly about to come her way!

13 posted on 10/29/2006 7:35:06 AM PST by jan in Colorado (Don't be a "Cut and Run" Republican. INCREASE the Republican majority! VOTE 'R')
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To: Caipirabob
Here's another attractive pic of her...


14 posted on 10/29/2006 7:45:47 AM PST by Dark Skies ("He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that" ... John Stuart Mill)
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To: wodinoneeye
"Isnt making a death threat a crime ???"

Not if Muslims are the ones making the threats, apparently.
15 posted on 10/29/2006 11:41:14 AM PST by EnochPowellWasRight
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To: MadIvan; All
We've a woman here in the USA living under an endless barrage of fatwas. Her name is Wafa Sultan. She emigrated to the USA from Syria in 1989, and is an exceptionally strong voice against Muslim extremism. I do not know of another private individual more hated than this woman, raised Muslim, and shining the truth about Islam on Islam itself.

I would suggest everyone take a few minutes to see some video clips of her on YouTube. CAUTION: Most of the 138,000 video clips of Wafa Sultan are supplied by radical Muslims. You will recognize this when viewing comments people leave as only harsh criticism is permitted. Most complimentary comments are not approved for viewing by viewers of the clips. This should also be a wake-up call to everyone on how deeply muslims have organized their attacks within our nations, and right beneath the noses of our law enforcement agencies. Think about it. Over 138,000 video clips with the intent of attacking one person, plus many times that number of critical comments left by muslim radicals. Muslims hate this woman!

Clips:
Truth about islam from an ex-muslim lady (Arabic with English subtitles)

A "crack in the wall" - Wafa Sultan on the mohammed cartoons (English)

I don't know who protects this woman now, but I'd stand between her and anyone trying to carry out a fatwa any place, any time, any where. She has a voice that must be heard, not silenced!

She is also a guest on a Ollie North "War Stories" segment airing this evening on FOX NEWS: Ollie North: The Jihad
16 posted on 10/29/2006 3:06:56 PM PST by backtothestreets
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To: All
How-about a poster (10 yrs old) of Il Duce's Grandaughter, a former model for Vogue, and now a Rightist memer of the Italiam Parliament.. (also Sophia Loren's Niece) Right Wing Italian Women Politicians! Yeah!
17 posted on 01/10/2007 9:12:38 AM PST by BigEdLB (BigEd)
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