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| Europe |
| Turinese Muslim community under scrutiny for Olympics |
| 2006-02-07 |
| Turin’s Muslim community is feeling the pressure of tighter security for the Winter Olympics, with locals saying clerics are facing empty mosques as illegal immigrants are hiding from police until the end of the Games. Italy’s Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu has named militant Islamists as a chief threat to the Games, and last September the government expelled Moroccan-born imam Bouriki Bouriqi Bouchta who was accused of praising Al Qaeda in his sermons in Turin. “There are more controls than usual because of the Olympics. I see it in a positive light as long as our rights are respected,” said imam Abdelaziz Khounati, who preaches at the Peace Mosque where Bouchta used to work. “Many people don’t come here anymore because the police stop them and ask for their residence permit, so they feel uncomfortable.” He added: “Presence (in mosques) has fallen because the illegal immigrants have disappeared -- many of them have gone to other cities and are waiting until the Games are over.” The Olympics open on Friday and end on Feb. 26. Hidden away in a small courtyard amid washing lines and children’s toys, marked only by a small sign next to an unassuming metal door, the Peace Mosque has an underground feel to it. But Khounati, who works as a religious representative for the Turin Games, was keen to show that his community is part of the mainstream, and said there were no extremist preachers in the city. Over the past few days, violent protests by Muslims outraged over a series of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper have added to security concerns at the Games. Some Muslims working in the halal butcheries and kebab shops around the Peace Mosque said they felt offended by the caricatures, which were reprinted by several European papers, but that they did not plan to protest in Turin, preferring to keep a low profile during the Olympics. Attendance at another mosque in the neighbourhood in northern Turin, home to many Muslims, has also fallen as more and more police are patrolling the streets, residents said. On Tuesday morning, several police vans were slowly driving around the neighbourhood and a member of the tax police was going from shop to shop, checking accounts and receipts. “In a way we are used to it. They are always controlling us. Now there are even more controls. They talk about terrorism, but we are the ones being terrorised,” said a local shop keeper who did not want to be named. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 Fer gawd's sake. You are illegals. Not supposed to be their. If the mosques are empty, that means most of the muslims are there illegally. And they feel "uncomfortable" and "terrorised" by increased police presence? You're criminals - the only right you have is to be booted back to the hellpit you came from posthaste. "Rights"? Oh, bugger off. Italy should clean out this rat's nest of illegals. Basta. |
| Posted by: Hupomoger Clans9827 2006-02-07 18:17 |