Is not the weather getting itching?

Italy's Muslims under pressure

By Tamsin Smith
BBC News reporter in northern Italy

There are growing fears the hostage situation in Iraq is taking its toll on Italy's relations with its large Muslim community.

Far-right politicians in northern Italy are trying to invoke an old law to ban Muslim women from wearing burkas, or the chador, in public.

They say security is the reason, but critics accuse them of fanning the flames of intolerance.

Biassono is a sleepy commuter town on Milan's doorstep. It is rudely woken only when the Formula 1, at nearby Monza, thunders right past the end of the main road.

The quaint church with burgundy drapes over the door, and the lazy pace of pushchairs and cyclists point to white middle-class suburbia.

In August this year, the town's mayor dusted down and reinforced an old Italian law banning the wearing of veils in public places.

"We want to be able to look people in the eyes... Those kind of coverings like burkas are not right here," says Angelo de Biasio from the far-right Northern League Party.

He is one of several Northern League mayors in the area enforcing a ban on the burka by using a public security law passed under the fascist leader Mussolini and updated in the 1970s when Italy faced domestic political terrorism.


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The law forbids the wearing of items that obscure a person's identity. So why apply it to Muslim women now?

"We are in a similar security situation with the threats from terrorists in Iraq," explains Mr de Biasio. "We are under attack from extreme Muslim people here. If you look at what happens in the world, in Chechnya, those women wearing the burka are a symbol of death."

In Biassono, there are just 40 Muslims in a population of 11,000. No-one wears a burka.

But amongst local Italians, there is widespread support for the mayor's idea.

"It's the best way to control potential terrorists especially at the moment," says one, Giuseppe. The small group of people standing outside a local cafe murmur their approval.

"I agree," 84-year-old Tilde nods vigorously.

"I just don't trust what's behind those veils. We need to see their faces for security and for cultural reasons."

Just half an hour's drive away from Biassono is the multicultural heart of Milan.

This is Italy's most established Muslim community, numbering 100,000.

But the Northern League wants to introduce the burka ban here and has launched a campaign to gather support.

"We have been too tolerant with Muslims," says MEP Matteo Salvini. "Now is not the moment for tolerance, it's the moment for strict laws."

But wander along the streets dotted with halal butchers, specialist food stores and tea shops and even here its relatively rare to see women covering their faces - even at the only Islamic dress shop that actually sells burkas.

"Here we sell dress from Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Pakistan, everything really... even the occasional burka," says the store's owner, Fatima Abdelhakem, who is also president of the Association of Muslim Women in Italy.

She is angry that the debate over the burka ban associates veiled Muslim women with terrorists and is increasing tensions post-11 September 2001.

"I know the few women here in Milan who wear the burka. And they are afraid to go out in case they or their children are insulted. For others the headscarf is now a barrier; we feel this in the streets, in shops, the way people look at us.

"It's a sickening feeling and it really wasn't like this before. Intolerance has increased. It's worse since the war in Iraq and worse still with the hostage situation. People are linking our Muslim community and Islam with what's happening in the world, it's like we are constantly to blame... either for the hostages, or for the killing of someone."

FULL STORY ON BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3696802.stm)

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It's a sickening feeling and it really wasn't like this before. Intolerance has increased. It's worse since the war in Iraq and worse still with the hostage situation. People are linking our Muslim community and Islam with what's happening in the world, it's like we are constantly to blame... either for the hostages, or for the killing of someone

God bless the islamic Umma, god bless my hijab. I'm sick of all this, i'm sick of being judged for something when others do it they aren't judged upon. :angre: I'm sick of whats happening.

Amo, come by tell us some more!