Monday, November 12, 2007

Pig Day in Padua

The Northern League is going full throttle in its opposition to the building of mosques. This story reminds me of the notorious pig’s blood caper at the mosque site in Copenhagen back in 2006, and also the weekly Friday pig races in Katy, Texas.

From AKI:

Italy: Pig’s walkabout on planned mosque site sparks protests

Padua, 12 Nov. — Muslims and non-Muslims have slammed the attempted ‘desecration’ of a plot of land earmarked for a mosque in the northern city of Padua by members of the anti-immigrant Northern League party who paraded a pig on the site over the weekend.

Yow! A pig!“We believe in God not in superstition,” said local imam Kahlhil Boussuni, quoted by La Repubblica on Monday. “And we intend to build our place of prayer and worship where only the faithful will be permitted to enter.”

Giancarlo Galan, the right-wing president of the northern Veneto region, where Padua is located, also voiced his disapproval. “This is a serious and unacceptable act which we pray will not be repeated,” he stated.

“This is a shameful gesture that can only fuel hatred,” added Padua’s left-wing mayor, Falvio Zanonato.
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A cross-party delegation of politicians as well as representatives from pacifist, secular and religious organisations on Sunday visited the patch of land located near an industrial zone to express solidarity with local Muslims.

Pigs are considered unclean in the Muslim and Jewish faiths.

“The legality so much vaunted by the Italian right cannot be in one direction only,” said local Green party councillor, Aurora D’Agostino, adding that she was filing a formal complaint to local magistrates about the episode.

“Our objective was to attack the left-wing local council which gives immigrants privileged treatment compared to Italians, and to underline the principle of reciprocity: how many Christian churches are there in Saudi Arabia?” said the secretary of Padua’s Northern League branch, Maurizio Conte.

Northern League senator and former minister Roberto Calderoli, in October proposed a regular “pig day” in which he threatened to take his pet pig on land where fast-growing Muslim immigrant communities were planning new mosques.

A growing backlash against Muslim and immigrants in Italy, fed in large part by fears of terrorism and other crimes is especially intense in Veneto.

The region has attracted the largest share of Italy’s immigrants because of abundant work in factories and farms. At least 10 percent of Padua’s 200,000 residents are immigrants.

Note that once again the Left is in full “solidarity” with the Muslims.


Hat tip: insubria.

6 comments:

Kafir Canada said...

"fears of terrorism and other crimes is especially intense in Veneto"

Not the really "the Serenissima" anymore. But I guess when there's no reason to be proud of your culture...wait...Veneto? Oh...hmmm...

Morgan said...

"Note that once again the Left is in full 'solidarity' with the Muslims."

What else is new? If only they knew the real cost of that solidarity.

X said...

Morgan, my defining experience of leftists has always been their willingness to declaim previous failures as "they weren't doing it properly!" with the added statement that they'll get it right this time. It's no surprise that they're applying the same attitude to their interactions with Islam. The fate of Iran should have been a massive clue, but "they didn't do it right!"

Morgan said...

You're right on the money, Archonix. That's something I've also learned about the Left myself. Even at the moment of their own destruction, they'll be saying just that. They just didn't do it right.

spackle said...

Maybe the citizens of Padua could build a "dog run" next to the mosque with a sign reading "No angels allowed".

Bert said...

The story also reminds of the pig-races in response to the disgraceful unrespectful behavior of muslims in Katy: "When an Islamic group moved in next door [to build an islamic center including a mosque] and told [actually: threatened] Craig Baker the pigs on his family's 200-year-old Texas farm had to go, he and his swine decided to fight back."