Author:
Publication: www.islam-online.net
Date: September 27, 2003
URL: http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2003-09/27/article13.shtml
Few days after a similar threat
by his French counterpart, Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu warned
Saturday, September 27, that "either mosques respect the law or they close."
In statements carried by the BBC
radio, Pisanu said: "We will not permit Italian mosques to transform into
centers of secret financing and recruitment of Islamist fighters."
The minister vocalized similar threats
in an interview with the Corriere della Sera newspaper published Thursday,
September 25.
A spokesman for the Islamic Cultural
Center in Milan cast doubts on the criteria to be used in determining possible
legal violations that could result in the closure of mosques, said the
British broadcast.
"Mosques are places of worship and
if you close them because someone who committed a crime happened to enter
the mosque then by the same logic we would have to shut down Churches frequented
by members of the Italian mafia," he averred.
Pisanu also said he planned to follow
France's example of setting up a council of moderate Muslims to communicate
with state authorities, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"Nicolas Sarkozy (French interior
minister) explained to me that there is a clear link between the opening
of dialogue with moderate Islam and the 22 percent reduction in violence
in Paris suburbs," Pisanu said.
"And even if it is with different
methods, I want to do the same thing in Italy - hold dialogue with the
large majority of moderate Muslims who have come here to find bread and
work," the minister added.
Sarkozy, a conservative whose country
is home to five million Muslims, threatened Thursday, September 18, to
expel Muslim "radicals" and to close mosques preaching "Islamic fundamentalism."
"Mosques where fundamentalism is
preached will be shut down, imams who express radical views will be expelled
and speakers who do not guarantee respect for the Republic's rules will
see their entrance visas refused," he thundered.
And last Friday, Denmark's right-wing
government a plan to curb the activities of "radical" religious leaders,
which politicians said was apparently aimed primarily at Muslim scholars.
The rules oblige religious leaders
to be financially self-sufficient, speak Danish and respect "Western values"
or risk being declared persona non grata.
