Italy Thwarts Basilica Attack Plot

A Moroccan man is shown walking in the San Patronio Basilica in Bologna, northern Italy, in this picture taken from a home video seized Monday by Italian authorities and made available Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2002, during a press conference. Four Moroccans and an Italian, left, whose names were not made public, were arrested Monday under the suspiscion of terrorism after they filmed themselves near the central altar and the frescoes in the basilica. (AP Photo/Gianfilippo Oggioni, HO)

ROME (AP) - Italian police arrested four Moroccans and an Italian who they say may have been planning to attack a Bologna basilica with a 15th-century fresco inside that depicts the Muslim prophet Muhammad in hell, being devoured by demons.

Prosecutor Paolo Giovagnoli said the five men were arrested Monday in the church itself, San Petronio Basilica, and were accused of criminal association with the aim of terrorism.

In June, Milan daily Corriere della Sera reported that Islamic extremists were plotting to attack the basilica because they found the fresco insulting to Islam. Also in June, plainclothes police were assigned to the basilica.

A group of Italian Muslims had appealed unsuccessfully to the Vatican ( news - web sites) last year to have the fresco, by Giovanni da Modena, removed or to have parts of it covered, arguing that it offended Islam.

The five men, who live in Padua, a city in northeastern Italy, were arrested after they videotaped the fresco and the central altar with a medieval-era crucifix, and were overheard saying worrisome things, Giovagnoli said.

"They were heard saying phrases hostile to (the Christian) religion, expressing the possibility of destroying" religious symbols, Giovagnoli said.

_ "If they don't take it (the fresco) away, everything will come tumbling down."

Police were still translating the conversations, which were spoken in Berber, which is spoken in northern Africa.

Corriere della Sera had reported that Carabinieri paramilitary police learned of a plot to attack the basilica by intercepting phone conversations as part of a larger investigation into Muslim extremists operating in Italy.

That investigation led to the convictions earlier this year of seven Tunisians in Milan who were accused of providing logistical support to recruits of al-Qaida, bin Laden's terrorist network, passing through Europe.

Asked if the Bologna authorities had uncovered any links between the five men and suspected terrorist cells in other Italian cities, Giovagnoli said so far nothing has turned up to indicate a connection.

Umm, aren't there eyes just above the "rebirthing" area? What does THAT mean?!?!

No clue. Perhaps Desdemona would like to hazard a guess on that.

And here's a quote from another article about this mural:

Italian Muslims Demand Destruction Of Offensive Painting

According to The Times, British Islamic scholar Gai Eaton also minimized the impact of the 600-year-old image, saying, "The mural is particularly offensive, but that does not mean that we as Muslims can demand its destruction, or the destruction of Dante's Divine Comedy either.

"Muslims must be allowed to blow off steam, but beyond that we must put up with these things. It is not as if this is a contemporary work. It represents medieval Christian prejudice against Muslims at the height of the Islamic threat to Western Europe."

Well, excuse me, but it seems that we are pretty much as far, if not farther, along the road to being threatened by moslems as the west was in medieval times. At least then, the threat wasn't world-wide, but contained in smaller areas. Now however, I can't think of many areas in the world that aren't being subjected to invasion by moslems, frankly, except for the arctic and antarctic.

Sorry I have Iraq on the brain these days.

Let me try again with the typo corrected: Yea its funny that Wahabist al-Qaeda and Shiite IraN can't work together but Shiite IraN has no problem helping Sunni Bosnian Muslims??

Now with my oops out of the way, answer that question.

PS: I am not a fan of Milosevic in fact I hate him. I just am an enemy of the UN Court which is a fake court. If Milosevic gets Kangaroo justice what hope is there for the free world?

Milo did have a relationship with Iraq, but the amount of help no way compares to what Iraq got from Washington in the pre Kuwait days.

So its possible Islamic groups with different ideologies work together for a common cause, eh? That is why Def Sec Rummy is fuming that al-Qaedeans hid out in Iran.

By the way evidence exists that Iran and al-Qaeda worked as allied past and present.

From the Asia Times: Al-Qaeda primed for wider struggle By Syed Saleem Shahzad December 8, 2001

In April 1995, it becomes known that Iran has delivered a large supply of weapons to Bosnian Muslims, mostly via Croatia, allowing them to continue their struggle against Bosnian Serbs.

In February 1998, the Islamic Front against Jews and Christians is formed in Afghanistan by bin Laden, combining Egypt's Gamaa Islamiyya, Al-Jihad and three smaller groups. Iranian, Palestinian and Egyptian movements began meetings from 1998 in Khartoum. The CIA suspects Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin of attending the meetings.

Soon afterward, Mohammed al Masari gives a press conference in London at which he shows a video of bin Laden saying that the attack was justified. Saudi Arabia protests and in January 1996 then British premier John Major has Masari deported. On May 4, the perpetrators of the Saudi attack are beheaded. Then on June 25, 19 Americans are killed by a bomb explosion at a US base near Dhahran. Bin Laden is interviewed in Afghanistan and says that there will be more attacks.

It was at this time that bin Laden twists his stance and courts Iran to some extent. On June 29, there was a meeting in Tehran, attended by the most important terrorist organizations of the Middle East, organized by Iran's secret service. After this meeting the Lebanese Hezbollah becomes a part of Al-Qaeda and bin Laden injects large amounts of cash into the group.

London-based Syrian Sheik Omar Bakri is leader of the worldwide Islamic fundamentalist organization Al-Muhajiroun, which has connections to bin Laden. Bin Laden also promised the Iranian Revolutionary Guard about $60 million to train Egyptians who would be based in Afghanistan and then transferred to fight in Bosnia and Kosovo alongside the Muslims. This was how bin Laden's network expanded to Europe.

On August 4, 1998 Albania deports, with the help of the CIA, Egyptian jihad members to Egypt, where they are wanted in connection with the Luxor incident. Albania's Minister of Internal Affairs Paskal Milo declares that former president Sali Berisha allowed the fundamentalist terrorists to settle in Albania. Three days later, there are bomb explosions in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam, which kill 257 people.

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