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March 7, 2006

Italy: Members Of State Muslim Body Refuse To Condemn Terrorism

News from AKI demonstrates the problem of negotiating with Muslim "representatives". Last month, the government sponsored the formation of a new group, the Consulta Islamica, which has 16 members, representatives of Muslim groups.

Today, the group had only its second meeting, and this descended into disagreement and acrimony. The source of this contention was a document which was presented to the group by member Souad Sbai, president of the Confederation of Italy's Moroccans.

The document stated that the Consulta Islamica should condemn terrorism, religious fundamentalism and should be in favour of religious freedoms in the Islamic world.

Only 9 members were prepared to sign the document, while 7 refused. Mohammed Nour Dachan (pictured), president of the Community of Islamic Organisations in Italy, or UCOII, which is the largest Muslim group in Italy, refused to sign, saying that "the role of the Consulta should be to advise the minister on specific problems and not to approve documents of this kind." The UCOII represents about 800,000 Muslims in Italy.

Another refusenik was Amadia Rachid, an imam from Salerno, southern Italy.

Nour Dachan prefers the Consulta Islamica to deal with issues like mosque construction, according to a memorandum he submitted. He also said the group should not just deal with problems concerning Muslim immigrants.

The next meeting will take place on 28 March, where government members will attend, and where issues of educating Muslim immigrants will be discussed.

The Consulta Islamica today proposed that Arab language courses should take place in Italian state schools.

The fact that almost half of these Muslim representatives refused to sign a document condemning terrorism only shows that it is pointless for governments to give any credence to these groups.

If the members cannot condemn acts of terrorism, they have no right to be listened to by government members, and they really should have no rights to remain in Europe.

Half of the council members have Italian nationality, while the others are a Tunisian, two Moroccans, a Libyan, an Algerian, a Somali, an Albanian and a Senegalese.

There are about 1.1 million Muslims in Italy, out of a total population of about 58 million (mostly Catholic) people. About 10,000 native Italians are said to have converted to Islam.

When the Consulta Islamica was founded, Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu stated, according to Euro-Islam: "The council is the hand that we stretch out to moderate Muslims in order to move on together on the path of integration. Many of the members have already taken an official position against terrorism."

Nour Dachan, according to AGI made the ludicrous claim that Christians in Muslim countries receive far better treatment than do Muslims in Christian countries.

"The Bishop of Nigeria said that religion has nothing to do with what is happening in his country nor with the priest who was murdered in Turkey. There is no clear evidence. We have never blamed on the Holy See the abuses suffered by some 50,000 Muslim women in western countries," Nour Dachan claimed disingenously.

Dachan made this statement on 24 Fenruary this year. He seems unaware of the treatment of Copts in Egypt, Saudi Arabia's practice of banning Bibles and crucifixes and jailing people who take part in Christian services. He obviously thinks that the persecution of the Christian minority in Pakistan and also the beheadings of Christians in Indonesia is all perfectly acceptable.

According to Chiesa.com, Syrian-born Dachan, who is imam at the mosque of Ancona, has made a token condemnation of terrorism, but in Iraq. "We condemn terrorist attacks because they are part of a shameful strategy. But we ask for the immediate withdrawal of the Italian military contingent and the end of the military occupation of Iraq, which are part of America's imperialistic logic."

In his favour, he went to Baghdad in September 2004, to help negotiate the release of two Italian aid workers, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta who had been kidnapped on Sept 7 and held hostage for three weeks.

According to the Stephen Roth Report, a copy of the Koran, annotated by Dachan's group, the UCOII, first printed in 1994 and still on sale, contains Islamist and antisemitic commentaries. The secretary of UCOII, Hamza Roberto Piccardo, has expressed his approval of suicide attacks within Israel.

When Pope John Paul was dying last year, Dachan visited the hospital where the pontiff lay, and said that Muslims throughout Italy would pray for him. Dachan, in this action, and in the release of the two hostages, knows how to make political capital for himself out of almost any situation. He has claimed to Christians that he condemns terrorism.

But it seems he does not wish to issue any official condemnations of terrorism, because his organisation panders to its indoctrinated Muslim followers who approve of the terrorism which goes on in Israel against its civilians.

This odious and dissembling man should be deported.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at March 7, 2006 6:07 PM

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