Out of Italy
After the slaying of its soldiers in Baghdad the Italian government is cracking down on foreigners, writes Samia Nkrumah from Rome
The Nasiriyah suicide bomb attack that killed 19 Italians brought the war in Iraq closer to home for many Italians. As the country put to rest the Italian victims in a moving state funeral in which 50,000 people participated, sobering news of an averted attack near the Italian Embassy in Baghdad filtered through the crowd. A makeshift rocket launcher fitted with rockets and equipped with a timer was found in a street near the embassy.
Now that Italians have been targeted there is a heightened fear of further attacks inside the country and against Italian interests abroad. The country's secret military intelligence service, SISMI, warned that more attacks against Italy's contingent in Iraq were likely. Security also intensified around sensitive targets in Italy ranging from embassies and government buildings to banks and hotels.
Last week, the government summarily deported one Senegalese and seven Moroccans in what it called a "zero tolerance" policy towards anyone suspected of having links to terrorist networks. Italy would not permit mosques in Italy to become secret financing centres and terrorist recruitment offices, officials said. Defending the deportation, Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said in a statement that the Senegalese national Abdul-Qadir Fadlallah Mamour was expelled "for disrupting public order and being a danger to state security".
Mamour, who lives in Italy with his wife and their four children, had predicted there would be attacks on Italian bases in Iraq and was under investigation for suspicious fundraising activities. Contrary to media reports, however, Mamour was not the imam of the mosque of Carmagnola, a town near the northern city of Turin. The said mosque in fact closed down several years ago. Hamza Piccardo, of the Union of Islamic Communities and Organisations in Italy (UCOII) told Al-Ahram Weekly that he believes Mamour's story has been sensationalised. Piccardo explained that Mamour was known to suffer from megalomania and gained notoriety by making reckless declarations in public such as his support for Osama Bin Laden after 11 September 2001. According to Piccardo, the media has given Mamour unwarranted importance and used him as headline news because his statements feed on popular fears. Mamour is in fact quite isolated and is not popular within the Senegalese or Muslim communities in Italy. He represents no one but himself.
In the present climate of high security and fear, it comes as no surprise that the swift decision to expel Mamour and the seven Moroccans met with almost unanimous approval across the political spectrum. The Nasiriyah bombing hardened opinion against any perceived threat to the country's security and heightened patriotic fervour.
The mood in Italy is reminiscent of the days following the September 11 attacks when police arrested scores of suspected terrorists, many of whom were subsequently released for lack of evidence. At the time, the anti-immigrant Northern League Party and member of the governing coalition demanded that a couple of Muslims in the northern city of Turin be expelled for defending Osama Bin Laden in their comments. Last year's anti-terrorist law allowed the indefinite detention of terrorist suspects and the right to refuse asylum.
The very few voices who have questioned the motives behind Mamour's deportation argue that it is an unusual way of dealing with suspects. Mamour and the seven Moroccan men deported were neither charged nor tried prior to their deportation.
"If there was strong evidence against the suspects they would have been tried rather than expelled. The deportation was done to satisfy the public," reasoned Piccardo.
Hamza Piccardo is one of an estimated 30,000 Italian Muslims, most of whom consist of immigrants and their children. The general view is that in this culturally Catholic country, there is tolerance towards outward forms of worship or customs of religions other than Christianity. "The controversy over wearing headscarves would not be an issue here where a Muslim woman has the right to appear veiled on her ID photo, just as you get nuns and priests teaching in schools, wearing their habits," argues Piccardo.
After the attack on the synagogues in Istanbul, the UCOII president called the president of the Jewish Community Union to express grief over their loss. "We are capable of distinguishing between the position of believers of any religion and a government that pretends to represent all Jews worldwide," explained Piccardo. "A problem arises from the unacceptable identification of Israel with Judaism and the Jewish people worldwide. There is the Jewish population as a cultural race, there is Zionism, and there are practices of the current government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. We have to differentiate between them," commented Piccardo.
During a three-day visit to Italy last week, Ariel Sharon called on Italian Jews to immigrate to Israel. Sharon's visit came at a time when Israeli-EU relations are particularly strained. Javier Solana, secretary-general of the Council for the European Union and Marc Otte, European envoy to Israel, have both been ignored by Israel after their decision not to boycott Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
A EU document issued last week strongly criticised Israel's 'security wall' which divides cities and villages. The strongly-worded document also urged Israel to reconsider its policy of targeted assassinations and the boycott of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The EU also still maintains a ban on products made in Israeli settlements.
A day before Sharon was due here, Pope John Paul II said during his public commentary on Sunday that "the Holy Land does not need walls but bridges," in reference to the 430-kilometre wall.
The Israeli government's image in Europe is suffering and graphic images of Israeli activities in the Palestinian territories are taking their toll on public opinion.
Earlier this month, a survey commissioned by the European Commission revealed that 59 per cent out of over 7,000 Europeans polled in the 15 EU countries, believe that Israel is the greatest threat to world peace.
The Israeli prime minister's visit to Rome provided a sharp contrast between the cordial ties Tel Aviv currently enjoys with Rome and Israel's strained relations with Brussels. Since Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi came to power, Italy has become "Israel's best friend in Europe" according to Sharon, whose visit aimed to deflect EU criticism. Early next month, Israel will take part in the foreign ministers' Euro-Mediterranean partnership meeting in Naples to discuss -- among other issues -- the idea of founding a Euro-Med Bank as a subsidiary of the European Investment Bank.
