The Italian Crucible

New York Sun ^ | August 24, 2005 | Michael Ledeen

[dervish]

For better and worse, Italy has long been the political and cultural laboratory of the Western world. From the glory days of Rome, through the Renaissance and the various nation-states, into the experiment at nation building that is still very much a work in progress, Italy has tried out the best and the worst in us.

‘snip’

Like the rest of us, the Italians have a jihadi problem, and they have it for the usual reason: For a long time they refused to acknowledge the problem existed, and now they are trapped in a political and cultural web of political correctness and multiculturalism that they must undo if they're going to be able to deal effectively with the problem. In the early 1980s, when I was special adviser to Secretary of State Haig, I traveled frequently to the Vatican to compare notes with one of John Paul II's personal secretaries, an African with the beautifully syncopated name of Kabongo. One day he surprised me by suggesting it might be useful if somebody did a study analyzing the Vatican's Islam policy. The best way to do that, Kabongo said, was quantitative: "How many churches have we built in their countries, and how many mosques have they built in ours?"

The answers were fairly well known. No churches had been built in Muslim countries, while thousands of mosques had been built in "Christian" nations. And, as Kabongo knew earlier and better than most, that was a big problem. The thoughtful Italian Muslim journalist Magdi Allam has put it most clearly: "Look around, we see a network of mosques that developed thanks to judicial arbitrariness and official indifference, handed over to self-appointed foreign imams, mostly representatives of Islamic extremists who have been declared criminals in Muslim countries themselves."

[dervish]

These foreign imams are frequently apologists and even recruiters for the terror war. The "Union of Islamic communities and organizations in Italy" recently found legitimate the use of violence against the state whenever Muslims felt themselves discriminated against. But the Italian government has yet to act as the British and French have, by expelling radical imams and, in the French case, taking control of the mosques' finances. On the contrary, the radical imams have become celebrities, treated with respect by the government and welcomed on evening talk shows.

The official respect for the self-proclaimed leaders of the Italian Muslims rewards celebrity rather than embracing a religious minority. As Allam insists, these official "leaders" are highly unrepresentative of the Italian Muslim community. A mere 5% of Italian Muslims regularly go to mosque. Most Muslims in the country - more than 100,000 of them - come from the Balkans, primarily Albania, where their religious upbringing was generally haphazard. A considerable number of Italian Muslims have quietly - in many cases, secretly - converted to Christianity.

‘snip’

[dervish]

May be of interest for your list.

[kingsurfer]

I was talking with my Italian friend a while back about illegal immigrants. I told him aout the UK's welfare system and extremely abused policies of letting all and sundry in (even after they have travelled through dozens of safe countries to get to the UK and therefore contravened the Geneva Conventions on Refugees).

I asked him what happened in Italy and he said we put them back on their boat and send them home.

[Malesherbes]

I lived in Italy for a year, and I can testify that thousands of them missed the boat back. They can be seen in every marketplace in Italy hawking their wares. They may not all be Moslem, but they are illegal - and nobody seems to care (reminds me in a way of our own US of A.)

[parisa]

I read anything and everything written by Michael Ledeen. Ping for later read!

[NYer]

"Look around, we see a network of mosques that developed thanks to judicial arbitrariness and official indifference, handed over to self-appointed foreign imams, mostly representatives of Islamic extremists who have been declared criminals in Muslim countries themselves."

That would include this one in Rome, Italy.

The Mosque and Islamic Cultural Center is intended to serve the growing number of Muslims that have moved to Rome. The mosque is the only one in Rome and the complex is considered one of the major monuments built in the city in the past few decades. It has become well known outside Rome and Italy as a result of the considerable coverage it has received in a number of international publications.

Two years ago, the Imam called for a "jihad" against the non-believers. Fortunately, he was booted back home but it just proves the assertion of this writer.

Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list

[dervish]

The problem is that now that the UK has wisely chnaged its immigration policies to forbid entry of extremist Muslims, the open borders of the EU will still put the UK in danger.

Since the EU permits free travel among its member states then immigration policy must be EUwide.