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Italian town in turmoil after far-right mayor bans Muslim prayers (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 8 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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Bangladeshi residents and others in Monfalcone say decisions to prohibit worship at cultural centres and banning burkinis at the beach is part of anti-Islam agenda

The envelope containing two partially burned pages of the Qur’an came as a shock. Until then, Muslim residents in the Adriatic port town of Monfalcone had lived relatively peacefully for more than 20 years.

Addressed to the Darus Salaam Muslim cultural association on Via Duca d’Aosta, the envelope was received soon after Monfalcone’s far-right mayor, Anna Maria Cisint, banned prayers on the premises.

“It was hurtful, a serious insult we never expected,” said Bou Konate, the association’s president. “But it was not a coincidence. The letter was a threat, generated by a campaign of hate that has stoked toxicity.”

Monfalcone’s population recently passed 30,000. Such a positive demographic trend would ordinarily spell good news in a country grappling with a rapidly declining birthrate, but in Monfalcone, where Cisint has been nurturing an anti-Islam agenda since winning her first mandate in 2016, the rise has not been welcomed.

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[-] Cosmonauticus@lemmy.world 137 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Everyone likes to think of Italy as this land of the cultured and sophisticated with all the art, food, and architecture. But you'll find a lot of Italians are as racist and ass backwards as a toothless Klan member in Mississippi.

[-] Deestan@lemmy.world 74 points 8 months ago

Italy literally invented fascism.

Hitler used to jerk off to pictures of Mussolini while building his movement.

[-] Gympie_Gympie_pie@sh.itjust.works 35 points 8 months ago

Mussolini invented fascism, not Italy . Lots of Italians fell for it and supported it, the rest of the population - the vast majority - had to endure it and were straight up forced to live by its rules through persecution, imprisonment, violence, oppression, physical torture, displacement and homicide. Google the crimes of the Camicie Nere. Millions of Italians were killed because they wouldn’t accept the dictatorship. Look up the Partigiani fighters, they are the true heroes of the anti-fascist fight. Google the Fosse Ardeatine Massacre as one of many examples. Americans fancy themselves the saviours but they stepped in very very late when all the hard work had been done already by the Partigiani. Italy is historically a socialist country, so to say “Italy invented fascism” is just wrong.

[-] laughterlaughter@lemmy.world 12 points 8 months ago

Was Mussolini part of the government when fascism was invented? Then yes. Italy invented fascism.

It's okay. It's history.

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[-] rustyfish@lemmy.world 31 points 8 months ago

My GF is Italian. That’s pretty much how she describes Italy.

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[-] circuscritic@lemmy.ca 12 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

"Everyone likes to think of Italy as this land of the cultured and sophisticated..."

This is no big deal and it's kinda funny, but really it just sounds like you thought that, and then were shocked when you learned otherwise lol.

Because I honestly don't know anyone who believes that. While I'm sure there are people who do, it's not this massive common misconception that you're claiming.

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[-] redcalcium@lemmy.institute 83 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

The decision to ban burkini is weird. You can't swim nude on Italy's beaches, but can't swim fully clothed either?

[-] Hubi@feddit.de 49 points 8 months ago

I can see how banning the Burkini in indoor pools makes sense from a hygienic perspective, but banning them on public beaches is just to take something enjoyable away from a specific group of people.

[-] crossmr@kbin.social 29 points 8 months ago

France is pretty strict on that. Apparently men can't wear trunk style swimming bottoms. I'm not sure how they handle the burkini vs rashguard issue. I know rashguards are very popular with a lot of east asians because they worry about skin cancer.

[-] Linkerbaan@lemmy.world 27 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

People pee in the pool. I doubt a Burkini is going to make the hygienic difference.

[-] WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 8 months ago

Hard agree. Pools are gross—anyone getting in one knows that and accepts it. I’ll take a lady in a burkini over an unattended child any day.

[-] Akasazh@feddit.nl 16 points 8 months ago

How is burkini different from a swimming suit that would warrant banking them from indoor pools?

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[-] MacStache@sopuli.xyz 55 points 8 months ago

I'm pretty sure that's against italian constitution. Freedom of religion is a fundamental freedom on EU level as well.

[-] 100_kg_90_de_belin@feddit.it 18 points 8 months ago

Municipalities in Italy have been pushing an anti-Muslim agenda since at least 9/11 as part of the right-wing identity politics agenda.

Mosques and cultural centers are seen as radicalization centers.

They know that any court would shoot down shit like this as unconstitutional, but Italian law is slow as molasses and their goal is signaling to xenophobes and racists.

[-] mods_are_assholes@lemmy.world 17 points 8 months ago

That's nice, since when have fascists ever cared? I mean like in all of human history?

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[-] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 13 points 8 months ago

Who knew electing fascists would lead to fundamental freedoms of minorities being removed?

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[-] Jaysyn@kbin.social 42 points 8 months ago

Christofascists are gonna fash.

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[-] FartsWithAnAccent@lemmy.world 34 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Bigotry aside, that seems like a wildly unenforceable law: What are they going to do? Go house to house to make sure people aren't praying the wrong way?

[-] theinspectorst@kbin.social 50 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I mean, bigotry and unenforceability aside, it's also pretty unambiguously illegal.

Italy is a signatory to the ECHR which creates an explicit right to privacy (Article 8) and freedom of religion (Article 9).

The Italian constitution itself also specifies a right to religious equality before the law (Article 8).

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[-] BreakDecks@lemmy.ml 12 points 8 months ago

Not defending this at all, but the ban only covers praying at "cultural centers", which I assume doesn't include people's private residences.

They truly could enforce against public Islamic worship illegal, depending on how broadly "cultural centers" is defined, and I expect fascists to define it to cover all of public life.

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[-] Reddfugee42@lemmy.world 21 points 8 months ago

I am stunned, stunned I tell you, that a culture famous for its misogyny is also backwards in nearly every other possible way.

[-] raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 20 points 8 months ago

now come on - don't judge all Italians based on piece of shit Berlusconi and other fascists.

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[-] Hadriscus@lemm.ee 18 points 8 months ago

The amount of hate and ignorance ITT is staggering. Do better Lemmy, please

[-] stoly@lemmy.world 15 points 8 months ago

Lemmy has passed it's golden moment now that enough regular Redditors made if over.

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[-] fastandcurious@lemmy.world 14 points 8 months ago

Why us there so much muslim hate in Europe, I just don’t get it

[-] Neon@lemmy.world 43 points 8 months ago

a lot of islamic terror attacks in the past have made people bitter.

and i mean a lot of them

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[-] GONADS125@feddit.de 38 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I think it just might have to do with the history of Islamic terror attacks..

Such as the London bombings and bridge attack, Charlie Hebdo attack and the more recent stabbings in France, the Madrid train bombings which killed 193 people, the November 2015 Paris attack in which 130 were murdered, the 2016 Atatürk Airport attack in Turkey which left 45 dead, the 2016 Brussels bombings, just to name a few...

I'm not suggesting that all or even most Islamic individuals are dangerous/terrorists. But there is a long, bloody history of Islamic extremism throughout Europe.

I'm also not suggesting this justifies these bans in Italy whatsoever. I share this because it's essential context to answer your question.

[-] theinspectorst@kbin.social 18 points 8 months ago

Muslim immigrants will have de facto faced as much (if not far more) hostility and prejudice before any of those events.

What changed is that by the late 20th century, it had become politically unacceptable for right-wing parties to be perceived to be preying on overt racism towards their countries' brown-skinned citizens. But the War on Terror at the start of the 21st century created a new organising framework for nativists, whereby they could incite hatred against exactly the same brown-skinned people as before, but claim they were targeting them for their religion and not their skin colour. At the heart of it is still the same prejudice towards those who are different, it's just that the aspect of difference they choose to focus on today is more politically acceptable than the one they used to focus on.

From the perspective of a brown-skinned Muslim immigrant, the ideological hoops the far-right jump through are likely irrelevant. These people were targeted by nativists before, and they get targeted by nativists now.

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[-] bleistift2@feddit.de 24 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

We don’t have black people to discriminate against, so we make do with browns after discriminating against Jews fell out of fashion.

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this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2024

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