How Italy deters jihad terrorism

'The Ottoman Empire had been expanding into Europe ever since Constantinople fell to the Turks, and even before that. Wherever the Muslim armies went, they plundered cities, took slaves, turned churches into mosques, and converted many thousands of Christian captives to Islam at the point of a sword.

Westerners need to learn a lesson or two from present-day Italy (yet the current pope is another story):

Islamic State propaganda efforts in Italy have lagged behind that in other countries. Islamic State propaganda is easily available online in German, French and English, Vidino said, but there has been little translated into Italian…..Far fewer Italian residents have gone to Iraq or Syria to fight with the Islamic State than those in France, Germany and the U.K.

Italy has a tough immigration policy and deportation laws. For example, Italian authorities, acting on national security grounds, recently deported a Moroccan cleric, Mohammed Madad, who named one of his own daughters “Jihad.” The country has also expelled close to 100 terrorism suspects since the start of 2015.

Italy also rejected plans for the building of a mosque next to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and is seen as a country with a “mosque problem”; unregulated mosques in Italy are also closed down as part of the government’s counter-terrorism drive.

Italy has by no means demonstrated any action that is actually anti-Muslim or “Islamophobic,” but it has resisted stealth jihadist propaganda, and seeks first to protect its citizens from jihad incursion and attack.

Peculiar, however, in light of all this, is the alarming behavior of the current pope. He has called the murderous jihadist Abbas “an angel of peace”; was praised by the Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi of Qom, Iran for saying that Islam is peaceful; abandoned Christian refugees; and virtually turned his back on the millions of victims of jihad murder, abuse and terror, including innocent Christians who are persecuted. In fact, Pope Francis “held a private audience with the grand imam of Al-Azhar,” the Sunni imam who clashed with former Pope Benedict over Muslim violence against Christians — but notice how peaceful and loving Pope Francis appears to be.

Good for Italy although the late great Orianna Fallaci thought differently about its weak tactics in fighting jihadism. Muslims made huge gains in the western portion of Sicily long ago, particularly Palermo.

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