Islamic Prayer in Italy

“A boy, perhaps Tunisian, outside the same bar, told him that Islamic law prohibits smoking during Ramadan and this time he had to lower his head and adapt to avoid problems. I assure you,” Sherif goes on, “that if tomorrow I went out to eat a sandwich in that same area, I wouldn’t go out alive.” The reason, the Egyptian-born entrepreneur explains to us over the phone, is simple: “They want to apply Sharia law to us because they consider us inferior and want to dominate us.” In recent days, Sherif reported everything to the carabinieri. The investigations aim to identify the perpetrators of the attack, also thanks to the security cameras installed in the area.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian, who had been transplanted to Italy for over forty years and known among his compatriots for his commitment against extremism, was overwhelmed by messages of solidarity: “There are several lawyers who have volunteered to defend us in a possible process and many people who made us feel their closeness.” Piedmont’s councilor for social policies, Maurizio Marrone, announced that he would meet Sherif and his brother in the area. “The episode that saw Sherif and Nabil Azer as protagonists is worrying because it gives us the pulse of how our cities are becoming free territories for Islamic fundamentalists who have no intention of integrating,” commented the politician, an exponent of Fratelli d’Italy.

“The fact that now also in Europe and in Turin we are starting to see disturbing dynamics replicated,” warns Marrone, “should worry all the institutions. Against the Islamic fundamentalists we need a hard punch and repatriation, not the do-gooders who too often have characterized the municipal administrations in the government of Turin.” And the case is destined to land in Parliament, too. In fact, party colleague Augusta Montaruli announced that she will submit a question to the Minister of the Interior “to ask for an account of this very serious attack.” The deputy will ask Lamorgese to report on the “measures put in place to combat phenomena of this type.”

“This is not the first episode of its kind and it is not permissible that religious freedom is not respected in Italy,” the League’s deputies Alessandro Benvenuto and Elena Maccanti, both originally from Turin, also declare. Isabella Tovaglieri, MEP of the same party, speaks of “unacceptable aggression.” What happened in the Piedmontese capital, she denounces, “cannot and must not leave us indifferent,” and is “the umpteenth result of myopic and unsuccessful immigration policies without limits so dear to the EU”. “While Brussels finances questionable campaigns to promote the veil,” he states, “our suburbs are increasingly in the hands of extremists and fundamentalists.”

“What happened is the demonstration of a failed system of non-integration, where real ghetto neighborhoods are created, where even someone thinks they can claim the right to decide who must comply and what the rules are,” echoes her colleague Alessandro Panza. The Piedmontese councilor for security, Fabrizio Ricca, also spoke: “It is not acceptable for someone to think they can go around imposing their religious beliefs with violence or intimidation, it is necessary to be vigilant against this way of understanding wedding ring.”