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Ex- minister in fresh Islam row

Calderoli calls for ‘pig day’ against new mosques

(ANSA) - Rome, September 13 - An opposition ex-minister who stoked international Muslim anger a year ago fired off a fresh broadside at Islam on Thursday by calling for a ‘pig day’ battle against mosque building on Italian soil. Northern League heavyweight Roberto Calderoli, who was reform minister under the previous, Silvio Berlusconi-led government and is now deputy Senate speaker, said pigs should be brought in to thwart plans for the construction of a major mosque in Bologna.

“I place myself and my pig at the disposal of those who are against this mosque. We will walk up and down on the land where they want to build, after which it will be considered ‘infected’ and no longer suitable,” Calderoli said.

He said he had used the same tactic with success in another northern city, Lodi.

“In future, we should organise a ‘pig day’ where the best pigs will be kept in places where they are thinking of putting up buildings which are not places of worship but potential centres for harbouring terrorist cells,” he said.

Calderoli also said he would deliberately eat pork on Thursday to “annoy” Muslims beginning their month-long Ramadan fast.

Welfare Minister Paolo Ferrero immediately condemned Calderoli’s comments.

“I apologise on behalf of all civilised Italians to Muslims living in Italy,” Ferrero said.

In February 2006, Calderoli was forced to quit as reform minister after he sported a T-shirt emblazoned with the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad which at the time were causing a wave of international Muslim protests.

Calderoli’s act was followed by violent demonstrations in Libya in which the Italian consulate in Benghazi was attacked. Some 15 people were killed after local police opened fire on a crowd trying to storm the consulate.

Calderoli’s populist Northern League party has frequently caused polemics with intolerant stances against Muslims and immigrants in general.

In the wake of the September 2001 terror attacks on the US, the party demanded that mosques and Islamic centres be shut down and Italy’s frontiers closed to Muslims.

More recently, a League member called for the expulsion of Muslim immigrants who could not be ‘vouched for’ by an Italian citizen. The party has also spearheaded campaigns to ban burkas and veils in public.

ANTI-MOSQUE BATTLE HEATS UP.

Bologna’s mosque would be built on the outskirts of the city to replace an old one which is now too small for the local Muslim population.

The Northern League and other critics have fought the project from the start, calling for a referendum and organising other forms of protest such as a bid to buy the land on which the mosque is to be built.

A similiar campaign is being waged in Genoa, where local members of Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party joined forces with far-right militants on Wednesday night to recite an “anti-mosque rosary”.

The protesters prayed to the Virgin Mary for her “help in illuminating the minds of local councillors” in favour of the mosque.

Top Forza Italia MP Isabella Bertolini said on Thursday that “the proliferation of mosques and Koranic schools in Italy must be stopped immediately, starting with Bologna. Our land is contaminated with thousands of these dangerous spreading cancers which are centres for recruiting fanatics to be martyred in the holy war which Islam is waging against the West”.

Interior Minister Giuliano Amato slammed the mosque critics, saying that their comments left him “bitter and worried”.

“Nowhere else in the world does such an attitude to Muslims prevail, not even in countries which have been directly affected by fundamentalist terrorism,” he said.

He blamed fear and prejudice for the phenomenon.

“This fear is typical of closed and ageing populations for whom diversity in itself is a threat... and it is combined with a cultural predisposition, opinions which have hardened into prejudices,” Amato said.

The minister also issued an open letter to Muslim residents to mark the start of Ramadan in which he stressed that “Italy recognises and guarantees religious freedom and has a positive view of the role faith can play in individual growth and the development of social harmony.

“We look with respect on this month of fasting, prayer and reflection in the hope that the true spirituality expressed by Ramadan may be confirmed in sentiments of peace and solidarity and the desire for dialogue and harmony”.

According to an annual survey carried out in five top Italian cities - Milan, Rome, Bologna, Palermo and Naples - fear of Muslim immigrants is on the rise.

The survey showed that 28% approved of building new mosques, compared to 49% in 2006 and 61% in 2005.

Almost 30% of respondents said they were against the centres because they viewed Islam as a dangerous religion while 24% said they fomented terrorism.

Only 28% said they favoured giving the vote to legally resident immigrants against 51% in 2006 and 63% in 2005.

A quarter of respondents admitted that they were more afraid of Muslim immigrants now than they were a year ago.

http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2007-09-13_113138718.html