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Posted on October 13, 2009 at 05:47:25 PM by mb
Italy Wants to Prosecute Burqa Women
Reuters, 10/10/09
MILAN – Plans by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s allies to prosecute Muslim women for wearing burqa, a loose outfit covering the whole body from head to toe, is infuriating the political establishment in the southern European country.
“A ban (on the burqa) would be xenophobic and discriminatory,” Mario Scialoja, the chair of the Islamic Culture Center of Italy, told Reuters late Thursday, October 8.
“The existing law should be enforced.”
The far-right Northern League is pressing to amend a 1975 law to prosecute Muslim women for wearing burqa.
The law slaps hefty fines and up to two years in jail on people covering their faces with anything preventing their identification by police.
But the Northern League is now proposing to amend the law to ban “garments worn for reasons of religious affiliation”.
The far-right party also wants to remove from the law the expression “justified cause”, which has prompted courts to allow burqa on religious grounds.
Scialoja warned that a burqa ban would stigmatise Muslims, calling on Italian authorities to treat Muslim women with respect.
“We say no to a new law.”
The burqa has been a hot issue in many European countries.
Last month, the Italian spa resort town of Montegrotto Terme banned the burqa.
A French MP has also proposed a ban on the wearing, sparking outcry among the Muslim minority and across the Muslim world.
Italy has a Muslim population of some 1.2 million, including 20,000 reverts, according to unofficial estimates.
Unconstitutional
The center-left opposition also strongly criticized the proposed burqa ban.
“(The plan is) unconstitutional because it infringes on religious freedom,” said Donatella Ferranti, a member of the opposition Democratic Party.
Barbara Pollastrini, former centre-left minister for equal opportunities, also blasted the move.
She said the current legislation was sufficient, but needed to be more effectively enforced because the burqa “conveys a message of violation of women’s human rights”.
Italian Muslims have been in the eye of storm since the Berlusconi’s government and its far-right partners came to power.
The Northern League is widely accused of racism with many critics calling it the BNP of Italy, a reference to the British right-wing party.
Its election campaign played on issues such as immigration, crime and economic and cultural fears from immigration.
Portraying itself as a defender of Italy’s Christian roots, it started its mission in the new government in May 2008 with bringing down a mosque in the northern city of Verona.
Last September, the League rejoiced the success of its campaign to halt the building of a mosque in the northern city of Bologna.
Last year, League MP Mario Borghezio burst into a church in the northern city of Genoa shouting anti-Islam statements.
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