モスクを建てるな(伊太利編)

http://eunheui.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2008/09/post-cbd1.htmlにて知る。
土耳古の新聞、Turkish Daily Newsに掲載されたロイターの記事;


Italy's right to curb Islam with mosque law
Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Italy is still giving many Muslim immigrants their first glimpse of Europe and a foretaste of the mistrust with which many Europeans view their religion. If the anti-immigrant Northern League gets its way, Italy will soon have a new law effectively blocking the construction of new mosques in much of the country

ROME - Reuters


Italy's Northern League, allies of center-right Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, want to limit the growth of Islam in the center of world Catholicism by blocking the construction of mosques through strict new regulations.

Muslim immigrants using Italy as a route into Europe already get a foretaste of the mistrust with which many Europeans view their religion, with many projects for mosques and prayer halls already blocked by the opposition of local Italian residents.

But if the anti-immigrant Northern League pushes its bill through parliament, where Berlusconi's coalition has a strong majority, Italy will soon have a new law effectively blocking the construction of new mosques in much of the country.

Fearing the advent of "Eurabia", the League has used its control of Berlusconi's interior ministry since helping him to power to push through tough new laws against illegal immigrants.

It has now turned its attention to the newcomers' religion, emboldened by polls showing many Italians mistrust Muslims and a third do not want a mosque in their neighborhood.

Makes life difficult: The Northern League has "made life difficult for the Islamic component (of immigrants in Italy) in every sense and especially with regards to places of worship", the president of the Islamic Cultural Istitute of Milan, Abdel Hamid Sha'ari, told Reuters.

Not just recent or illegal immigrants feel unwelcome, but also established Muslim residents like Jihad Amro, who said: "I have paid taxes for 17 years but I still don't feel at home."

"There are still situations where I feel uncomfortable or strange because they (Italians) don't see me as someone who is integrated," Amro, a Palestinian, told Reuters TV in Rome.

The League's anti-Muslim protests have often made headlines, such as when Roberto Calderoli, now a cabinet minister, walked his pet pig on a proposed mosque site to defile the soil or wore a T-shirt of the Prophet Mohammad, triggering riots in Libya.

The League runs many town halls in the prosperous north, the homeland it calls "Padania" which is also home to a majority of Italy's immigrants and of its more than 1 million Muslims.

Estimating that permission for a new mosque or prayer hall is granted somewhere in the country every four days, Northern League parliamentarian Andrea Gibelli told Reuters: "I consider this to be an unfettered colonisation of our culture."

Discourage integration?: Gibelli, the author of the bill awaiting cabinet approval, said mosques discourage integration and "are often places of cultural indoctrination, sometimes linked to international terrorism".

Arguing that Muslims can "pray anywhere" and do not need a mosque, Berlusconi's allies have blocked Muslims from building their own place of worship in Italy's business capital, Milan.

"Muslims in Italy have the right to open some prayer halls or formal mosques," said the president of the Muslim World League in Italy, Mario Scialoja.

"I can understand some political parties or Italian communities may have problems seeing a mosque built in their area, as it might hurt the value of their property," he told Reuters. "But a solution has to be found."

At present requests for mosques to be built are being blocked in Venice, Bologna, Trento and Treviso, among others. In Trento the League has collected 15,000 signatures and in Treviso it has called young local Muslims "extremists, pure and simple".

The League bill would ban mosques from being built within a kilometer (0.6 miles) of a church, oblige imams to speak Italian, link the size of the mosque to the number of the congregation and forbid muezzins from using loudspeakers to call the faithful to prayer.

It will ban minarets and, crucially, give the final word to local residents via a referendum -- which would effectively mean no new mosques in League-dominated areas of the north.

"Nobody wants to build a mosque or open a prayer hall near a Catholic Church," responds Scialoja, a former Italian ambassador to Saudi Arabia who converted to Islam two decades ago.

"Mosques should be located in areas where Muslims live and where they don't provoke or create problems for the surrounding Italian population," he said.

Pensioner Isabella Fanicula, who lives near the latest site of Milan's itinerant mosque, asks:"Why do they have to stay here in the middle of all the people? People have their homes here. They should go away, into the country somewhere."

But the fate of a mosque in Colle Val D'Elsa in rural Tuscany, held up by ferocious opposition from locals and funding problems, suggests green-field mosques will not prosper either.
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=115556

特に、現職の閣僚である北部同盟のRoberto Calderoliがモスク建設予定地を汚すために豚を連れて散歩したというのは凄い。中国の文化大革命の時に、ムスリムが豚小屋に放り込まれたというのを思い出した。因みに、ユダヤ教でも豚は忌まれており、これは同時に反ユダヤ主義的な振る舞いでもあることを付言しておくべきだろう。さらに、北部同盟というのはロンバルディア至上主義なので、この人たちの差別の対象はムスリム系の移民である以前にシチリアなどの南部の伊太利人であるということも。
ところで、私は日本における英語の公用語化を支持しているので、船橋洋一『あえて英語公用語論』という本はけっこう共感を持って読んだのだが、この本の欠点は伊太利の北部同盟を持ち上げていること。
あえて英語公用語論 (文春新書)

あえて英語公用語論 (文春新書)

さて、Karen ArmstrongのThe Battle for God*1によれば、西班牙のレコンキスタによってユダヤ人が追放されるのと前後して、ヨーロッパ各地でユダヤ人追放令が出されている。伊太利について言えば、ペルージャ(1485年)、ヴィチェンツァ(1486年)、パルマ(1488年)、ミラノ、ルッカ(1489年)、トスカーナ(1494年)(p.8)。こうしてヨーロッパを追放され、パレスティナのガラリア*2に流れ着いたユダヤ人たちの間でユダヤ人のスピリチュアルな実存の傷を癒す教えとして生み出されたのがユダヤ神秘主義カバラ)であった。Karen Armstrongの論では、ファンダメンタリズムとは近代化によるスピリチュアルな傷に対する、幾分誤った(つまり、mythosとlogos、宗教と政治の混同を伴う)応答だということになる*3。上にあるような伊太利での仕打ちがファンダメンタリズムを刺戟する可能性というのは言うまでもないだろう。
The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

なお、以前にモスク建設を巡る独逸とオーストリアにおける紛争に言及したことがある*4

*1:See http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20070922/1190487945

*2:当時はオスマン帝国支配下

*3:彼女によれば、カバラの創設者であるIssac Luriaにはmythosとlogosの混同は見られない(p.14)。

*4:http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20070716/1184582197 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20080130/1201709033