Italy: "Islamaphobic" discourse becoming the norm
01 November 2005
Overtly racist comments by Italian politicians, mainly but not exclusively those from the Lega Nord, have been commonplace for some time (cf. comments made by Gaetanao Pecorella of Forza Italia in relation to the discovery of an illegal anti-terrorist information service targeting Muslims, Statewatch, Vol. 11 nos 3/4). However, they are now emanating with worrying consistency from senior politicians and even the political institutions themselves.
After playing a key role in the failure to introduce an EU Directive against racism and xenophobia - which was recently withdrawn by Commissioner Franco Frattini following the Italian government's long-standing and solitary opposition to the measure in the Council - Justice Minister, Roberto Castelli, (Lega Nord) boasted that it was a victory for freedom of speech.
He also referred to the case of Oriana Fallaci, an Italian author who was on trial in France for "inciting racial hatred" against Muslims through her book The Rage and the Fury. Following the London bomb attacks in July 2005, the Justice Ministry briefly posted extracts from Fallaci's book on the official Justice Ministry website.
Other instances that merit attention include statements by Marcello Pera, the president of the Senate (a member of Forza Italia and the second highest institutional figure in Italy after the president), at a meeting of the Catholic Youth organisation, Comunione Liberazione, on 21 August 2005 in Rimini. He lamented the "moral crisis" that the West is experiencing, with immigration resulting in "meticciato" (literally, cross-breeding; meticci is the term used under Mussolini's racial laws forbidding mixed marriages to preserve racial purity); multiculturalism causing "apartheid, resentment and second-generation terrorists", and "relativism" and the notion that "all cultures have the same ethical dignity". He presented these as a danger whose consequences include the Buttiglione case and the gay marriage law in Spain.
Another statement by Lega Nord MP Roberto Calderoli (minister for institutional reforms and devolution) claimed that "Islam is not a civilisation" and presenting the conflict between the West and Islam as being between "a culture and a non-culture"; the deputy mayor of Treviso, Giancarlo Gentilini, responding to amendments to the anti-terrorist law by arguing that "Muslims should go around in jacket and trousers so as to avoid there being any covered body parts, otherwise there could be a terrorist under every robe".
Moreover, Clementina Forleo, a Milan judge, suffered a campaign of vilification after acquitting five terrorist suspects in January 2005 by ruling that the Iraqi insurgents were guerrillas rather than terrorists. She was investigated by the Justice Ministry after reporting policemen who had violently detained a migrant for the minor offence of travelling on a bus without a ticket. She said: "I saw him being chased by men from four patrols, caught, thrown to the floor and taken away...I felt the need, as a citizen, to intervene due to methods that I found disproportionate and violent".
Il manifesto, 4.4.04; 13.7, 21.7, 7-8.9.05; Repubblica 24.1, 9.7, 13.7, 8.9, 12.12.05.