[ppi] [ppiindia] Muslims stand against terror in Italy

** Mailing List|Milis Nasional Indonesia PPI-India **
** Situs resmi: http://www.ppi-india.org **
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** Situs Beasiswa: http://informasi-beasiswa.blogspot.com **      Muslims stand 
against terror in Italy  
      By Ian Fisher The New York Times

      MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 2005
     


     
      CREMONA, Italy After the bombs in London in July, the first offer from 
the new Muslim leadership here was to form posses to keep an eye on possible 
militants. This city, gentle and refined, the home of Stradivarius, declined. 

      Another idea that did not work was a possible service by both Muslims and 
Christians in the treasure of a cathedral here - which, prosecutors say, Muslim 
militants considered blowing up three years ago. 

      But Sadiq el-Hassan, a leader at Cremona's mosque, insisted that because 
the London bombings made future attacks in Europe a near certainty, something 
long overdue had to happen: Muslims, finally, needed to take a stand. 

      "Our mistake is that we were quiet," said Hassan, 40, a Tunisian who in 
dress and speech seems nearly Italian. "After all that happened after Sept. 11, 
we never came out and said, 'These things are bad.' But it's not too late." 

      It may not be too late, but Muslim leaders here worry that time is 
nonetheless running out on Italy's patience with them - and that worry has set 
off an unusual degree of self-criticism among Muslims like Hassan. 

      It has not happened much in Europe, but Hassan is planning for the 
Muslims of Cremona to show publicly that they are as much against terrorism and 
violence as Italians are. In coming weeks, Muslims will march against extremism 
carried out in the name of Islam. "If the million Muslims who live in Italy 
don't say anything, it means we are giving a green light to the terrorists," he 
said. 

      To optimists, like Mayor Gian Carlo Corada, the decision for the march is 
a welcome sign, the possible beginning of a model for how the uneasy 
relationship between Muslim immigrants and Europeans can be redefined. Muslims, 
he said, could begin aligning themselves more clearly against terrorism and for 
values that are more European; Europeans, in turn, would be more open to 
communication and true integration. 


      Already for more than a decade, Cremona, a quiet city of 70,000 in the Po 
Valley, famous for violin making, has been an unlikely laboratory in Italy for 
relations with immigrants, nurturing both amity and extremism. And that history 
seems to show both the need for a new start to relations, and the difficulties 
of new beginnings. 

      The area's farms and factories - and the aging population of Italians, 
which has created a need for younger workers - have attracted a far higher 
percentage of immigrants here than to Italy as a whole. According to the mayor, 
about 20 percent of people in this area are immigrants compared with less than 
5 percent for the whole of Italy. North Africans, mainly Muslims, began coming 
in the 1980s, and there are now some 10,000 around Cremona, Hassan said. 

      The city's political and religious authorities have largely been 
supportive of immigrants, and many immigrants have worked to integrate 
themselves and their families. City leaders praise an open dialogue with 
Muslims particularly. But given the rapidity of the change, it has been 
unsurprisingly imperfect on both sides. 

      "Cremona is a racist city," said Tamsir Ousmane, 44, from Senegal, who 
speaks a sackful of languages, including Italian, French, Russian and English, 
and runs a call center. "If I want to rent a house, I can't. They won't rent to 
me. Unfortunately, it is like this. But we are here. We work here. And we pay 
taxes." 

      Maria Anselmi, 64, sitting on a park bench downtown with five other older 
women, spoke of her fear of a terrorist attack and anxieties about immigrants 
in general. "In a while there will be more of them than of us," she said. "They 
are going to squash us." 

      But relations with Muslims have been especially difficult. Nearly a dozen 
members of a former mosque were arrested in recent years, and two were 
convicted in July for belonging to an extremist cell plotting to carry out 
terror attacks. The plots uncovered here included bombing the subway in Milan 
and blowing up the cathedral here, which dates from 1107. 

      "The city found itself at the heart of a series of investigations that 
suggested it was a crossroads of international terrorism," said Andrea Gibelli, 
a parliamentarian for the Northern League party, which has advocated a hard 
line on immigration. "It was very uncomfortable." 

      The Northern League has been instrumental in closing down several 
mosques. While it has not moved against the new and more moderate mosque here, 
where Hassan is a leader, Gibelli is skeptical - and not only because of the 
specific terrorist threats here. Muslims, he said, have been reluctant to 
integrate into Italy. Mosques, he said, "are not places of prayer - they are 
for politics." 

      "They want to create areas where they can hide behind the protection of 
religious freedom, completely detached from the rest of the city," Gibelli 
said. 

      While the Northern League is on the far right, there seems to be a 
broader and growing opinion that Muslims, in fact, need to do more. One priest 
who is highly supportive of the Muslim community here conceded that in joint 
prayer groups against violence, perhaps only 10 percent of participants were 
Muslim. There has been talk for more than a year about a Muslim march against 
violence, but it has not yet happened. 

      Hassan concedes the criticism is valid. "Integration is difficult," he 
said, "because when you integrate, that is when you have identity crises. But 
we have to try." 




      Elisabetta Povoledo contributed reporting for this article. 

     
         


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