Posted on 09/13/2007 1:27:45 PM PDT by knighthawk
ROME (Reuters) - A far-right Italian senator outraged Muslims on Thursday by calling for a "Pig Day" protest against the planned construction of a mosque in northern Italy.
Roberto Calderoli of the anti-immigrant Northern League party said he was ready to bring his own pig to "defile" the site where the mosque is due to be built in the northern city of Bologna.
"I am making myself and my pig available for a walk at the site where they want to build the mosque," Calderoli, who is a deputy speaker of Italy's Senate, said in a statement.
Calderoli also said he would eat "a nice plateful of pork chops to show my lack of sympathy for those who consider pork forbidden meat."
Muslims do not eat pork and consider pigs and their meat too filthy to touch.
"Those words are highly offensive and indecent, especially as they are coming from an Italian lawmaker," Mario Scialoja, a prominent leader of Italy's Muslim community, told Reuters. "It left me speechless".
Tensions flare regularly between communities in predominantly Catholic Italy over the site of new mosques to serve a growing Muslim population.
On Wednesday night, around 20 people staged a protest near the port city of Genoa over the planned construction of a mosque which they said would be offensive because it is near a church.
The protesters, including a priest suspended from the church, prayed the rosary -- which consists of the "Our Father", "Hail Mary" and "Glory Be" prayers read repeatedly -- despite a call by the country's most senior Roman Catholic bishop not to do so.
In December 2006, protesters left a severed pig's head outside a mosque being built in Tuscany.
In July, police arrested an imam on suspicion of leading a terrorism "training school" in a mosque in central Italy.
After that arrest, the Northern League called for all existing mosques -- most in old garages or converted factories and warehouses -- to be closed for security checks.
Calderoli is no stranger to controversy over Islam and is often accused of making racist comments.
Last year, he lost a ministerial post in a centre-right government led by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for wearing a T-shirt with cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad offensive to Muslims.
I hope this guy gets elected Prime Minister of Italy.
So are democrats
BDYEA, BDYEA, BYDEA.. That’s Allah, Folks!!!
Just carry around a snack bag full of pork rinds and if some muzzie tries to pull something, hold it out for them to see.
Tell them that if they blow you up, it’ll pork everywhere.
LMAOROTF!!!
Muslims irked. Good! Irk them some more and watch them explode.
The protesters, including a priest suspended from the church, prayed the rosary -- which consists of the "Our Father", "Hail Mary" and "Glory Be" prayers read repeatedly -- despite a call by the country's most senior Roman Catholic bishop not to do so.
I guess Pope St. Pius V was wrong to ask Christians to pray the Rosary for the victory of the Christian fleet against the Turks before the Battle of Lepanto. :-P Save us from linguini-spined bishops!
It left me cheering! Bravo, Senator!
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Oink.
Sad to say but the Italians have brought this on themselves. The Catholic Italians have gone against the teachings of their Church by practicing birth control, thus reducing the Italian population to the point of necessitating the immigration of Muslims to pick up the work their offspring would have done.
Hmm, this author needs to write more clearly. Was the priest physically suspended from the church or was he canonically suspended from the Church? And why didn't she name the country's "most senior Roman Catholic bishop"? Who is it? Bagnasco, head of the Italian Bishops' Conference? The Pope and the Curia are in Vatican City, so I wouldn't think that she meant any of them.
Can you provide a reference for this story?
ditto!
He’s welcome over here anytime!
re: 16
...um...ew!
Hey cool dude!
Thanks for the ping! :)
Until Hillary’s staff finally admitted she lied, they called the Sir Edmund Hillary link to her name “undetermined” and supposed that maybe her mother had lied to innocent Hillary.
Screw the libs at Snopes. They’ve spun other stories as false too but if you read the details, they have a lot of truth. They defend the practice by spinning it to their own “synopsis”. True is False and False is True unless the best they can arrive at is “a white lie” or a “near truth”.
A European with backbone! He has some ideas I could get on board with!
Salafists Wildly Indignant about Nearly Everything! S.W.I.N.E!
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