Bangladeshi residents and others in Monfalcone say decisions to prohibit worship at cultural centres and banning burkinis at the beach is part of anti-Islam agenda

The envelope containing two partially burned pages of the Qur’an came as a shock. Until then, Muslim residents in the Adriatic port town of Monfalcone had lived relatively peacefully for more than 20 years.

Addressed to the Darus Salaam Muslim cultural association on Via Duca d’Aosta, the envelope was received soon after Monfalcone’s far-right mayor, Anna Maria Cisint, banned prayers on the premises.

“It was hurtful, a serious insult we never expected,” said Bou Konate, the association’s president. “But it was not a coincidence. The letter was a threat, generated by a campaign of hate that has stoked toxicity.”

Monfalcone’s population recently passed 30,000. Such a positive demographic trend would ordinarily spell good news in a country grappling with a rapidly declining birthrate, but in Monfalcone, where Cisint has been nurturing an anti-Islam agenda since winning her first mandate in 2016, the rise has not been welcomed.

    • davepleasebehave@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      in my city they are more magnanimous. putting unmovable barriers on the bench that makes it impossible to lie down upon.

        • Demdaru@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Homeless shelters. If there’s a problem, it’s either:

          • Homeless person prefers alcohol over shelter
          • Homeless person prefers narcotisc over shelter
          • Homeless person likes being homeless and is parasite

          Please do not question it with points like shelters being full, alcohol and narcotics addicitions and not something you can just drop or people rarely choosing to be homeless out of their own volition. It’s all their fault.

          Cause “I say so”.

        • ShunkW@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          In my city, there was a homeless encampment by the river, under an overpass. Not bothering anyone. Local police went in without warning. Instead of just moving them along, which is already bad enough, they literally cut up tents, poured out food and water supplies, and then arrested several of them for various bullshit reasons when questioned.

    • iamericandre@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      The priest at the church my mom used to work at did the same thing with the bus stop benches an Eagle Scout built because of the same reason.

  • Cosmonauticus@lemmy.world
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    Everyone likes to think of Italy as this land of the cultured and sophisticated with all the art, food, and architecture. But you’ll find a lot of Italians are as racist and ass backwards as a toothless Klan member in Mississippi.

    • Deestan@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Italy literally invented fascism.

      Hitler used to jerk off to pictures of Mussolini while building his movement.

      • Gympie_Gympie_pie@sh.itjust.works
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        Mussolini invented fascism, not Italy . Lots of Italians fell for it and supported it, the rest of the population - the vast majority - had to endure it and were straight up forced to live by its rules through persecution, imprisonment, violence, oppression, physical torture, displacement and homicide. Google the crimes of the Camicie Nere. Millions of Italians were killed because they wouldn’t accept the dictatorship. Look up the Partigiani fighters, they are the true heroes of the anti-fascist fight. Google the Fosse Ardeatine Massacre as one of many examples. Americans fancy themselves the saviours but they stepped in very very late when all the hard work had been done already by the Partigiani. Italy is historically a socialist country, so to say “Italy invented fascism” is just wrong.

        • laughterlaughter@lemmy.world
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          Was Mussolini part of the government when fascism was invented? Then yes. Italy invented fascism.

          It’s okay. It’s history.

          • Gympie_Gympie_pie@sh.itjust.works
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            10 months ago

            What does that even mean…

            Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini invented fascism. Indeed, it’s history. Whathttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_fascism

            • laughterlaughter@lemmy.world
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              Correct. They were part of the government at the time, therefore Italy invented fascism.

              Just like Britain invented the first tank. Not “some dude in the government.”

        • iegod@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          Mussolini invented fascism, not Italy

          If this is the case you’re gonna have to give back a lot of things that are attributed to “Italy”. I think it’s well understood what is meant when someone claims something is from a region/area/country. It was an Italian and it took a country to back it. It’s Italian.

          • Gympie_Gympie_pie@sh.itjust.works
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            10 months ago

            Those are the Partigiani, but countless other Italians have been killed because they were against fascism, even before the Partigiani movement formed.

        • Cosmonauticus@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          So if any italians are like Israel. A country with a rich history of strife and oppression but basically ignore it because it’s easier to blame others (in this case brown ppl/immigrants) as the cause of all their problems slowly sliding back to the ideals (in this case racism and fascism) they supposedly rejected.

          • Sp00kyB00k@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            You are missing the point. The Dutch has Nazi’s too, but also a lot of resistance. There is good and bad all around, even within people. If you want to label it as one thing, that would be shortsighted.

    • VelvetStorm@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I have never once in my life thought of Italy as being sophisticated. I feel like they definitely use to be but havnt been in a long time.

    • bruce965@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      As an Italian, I would say that’s not the case, not “a lot of Italians are racist”. I’ve had interactions with a few racist people of older generations, but I would say that they are the exception, thankfully.

    • maness300@lemmy.world
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      Totally agreed. There’s a reason why italians sided with fucking hitler during world war 2.

      They are insecurity incarnate.

      • khannie@lemmy.world
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        Even if we fully ignore that it was Mussolini, by that broken logic modern Germans are Nazis which they so obviously aren’t.

        I’m not saying this situation isn’t a shambles but trying to say all Italians are insecurity incarnate is honestly stupid. They just aren’t. Most Italians are lovely.

        • laughterlaughter@lemmy.world
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          OP didn’t say “Today’s Italy” sided with hitler. Most Italians are indeed lovely, yes. But your comment is a strawman.

  • FartsWithAnAccent@lemmy.world
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    Bigotry aside, that seems like a wildly unenforceable law: What are they going to do? Go house to house to make sure people aren’t praying the wrong way?

    • BreakDecks@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      Not defending this at all, but the ban only covers praying at “cultural centers”, which I assume doesn’t include people’s private residences.

      They truly could enforce against public Islamic worship illegal, depending on how broadly “cultural centers” is defined, and I expect fascists to define it to cover all of public life.

  • Reddfugee42@lemmy.world
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    I am stunned, stunned I tell you, that a culture famous for its misogyny is also backwards in nearly every other possible way.

  • Hadriscus@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    The amount of hate and ignorance ITT is staggering. Do better Lemmy, please

    • stoly@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Lemmy has passed it’s golden moment now that enough regular Redditors made if over.

      • mods_are_assholes@lemmy.world
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        Oh my friend it is going to get much, much worse. And of course this could all be solved by lemmy admins and mods cracking down on fascist posters, but they won’t.

        • stoly@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Sounds like you prefer to be on Reddit where angry mods rule everything.

    • Crampon@lemmy.world
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      What do you mean? I only see people here venting possible reasons for why European countries are vary of Islam. There’s no hate going on here.

      If there was a confused hyper normalized comment here it’s yours.

      • fastandcurious@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        There is a difference between trying to figure out why ppl are racist towards a particular group and saying that we should discriminate everyone equally who believe in god(The latter of which is prominent here)

        I respect atheists a lot because they (mostly) actually do something good rather than bigotry in the name of god, but what I am seeing here is no different than extremism by other religious fanatics

        ‘Ban all prayers’ ‘My belief(s) are superior than others and anyone who doesn’t share my belief is dumb/terrorist etc etc’

        They have turned atheism into some sort of cool shit for teenagers. ‘Oh you don’t have a bike are not atheist? LOL every cool kid has a bike doesn’t believe in your skydaddy lol, you are so gross and dirty and dumb’

        I have argued a lot about this on lemmy, and I will admit some are in good faith, but most of them were just religious extremist, just without the religious part

        Edit(s): Shit ton of typos 50th edit: Great example down where you see people claiming anyone who follows a religion is dumb🤷🏼‍♂️

    • Cosmicomical@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      How about we invest in properly educating children so we won’t need to worry about religion anymore?

      • Hadriscus@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        Religion is not necessarily a lack of education, perhaps there is a correlation where you live but it’s quite insulting to suggest this is universal

        • SkippingRelax@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          It seems to be, on the planet I live on. It’s literally trying to explain things with magic and imaginary creatures.

          • Hadriscus@lemm.ee
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            10 months ago

            @SkippingRelax

            You’re being willfully reductive… religion is not only a cosmogony, it is also (and often dominantly) a set of rites and laws. People have always been educated and religious. But then that varies locally and I don’t hope to invalidate your experience by stating that

            • Cosmicomical@lemmy.world
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              I’m sure you’re a good person, and I don’t have much against religion as a concept, but on average it’s not a force that i consider positive for humanity, and religious establishment is very easily corrupted in every possible way.

      • uis@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        Sounds like communism. Or Navalny, but he is busy being corpse.

      • uis@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        Ok. Then removing state funding and subsidies of all religions.

        • iegod@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          That’s reasonable and should be the default. No special treatment, but no special restrictions either. That’s only fair.

          • uis@lemm.ee
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            10 months ago

            Dunno. But they are in Russia. Fuck Putin.

      • stoly@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Yes but then you’re hurting everyone equally. This is actually a better idea than discriminating against a single group because it’s actually fair.

      • mods_are_assholes@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        anti-theists never care about the damage they inflict, as they are strong believers that the damages religion brings is infinitely worse than the atrocities they feel they must commit to eradicate it.

        It’s just another flavor of fanaticism that feels entitled to their violent rhetoric because ‘they see more clearly’.

        It’s the same euphoria any zealot feels.

        • Alexstarfire@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Ahh yes, the atrocity of making it illegal. I’m not for making religion illegal but how is that in any way equal to even a portion of the violence caused by various religions?

          • mods_are_assholes@lemmy.world
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            Religion isn’t required for atrocities to happen, some of the most brutal regimes in the world are staunch atheists.

            Do you have any idea what Russia did to the clergy after the revolution?

            Or the absolute inhumanity by which the Chinese government has treated Tibetan monks?

            All in the name of cleansing the world of ‘hateful religion’.

            It’s so easy to turn a blind eye to your own side’s revolting history and pretend you have clean hands.

            We’ve seen what happens when atheists take over, and it is ALWAYS followed by the blood of the faithful.

            • Croquette@sh.itjust.works
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              Religion isn’t required, but history has shown over and over that it is inevitable that atrocities are committed in the name of religion.

              Why do religion get a pass, but a cult doesn’t? They operate the same way.

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                but history has shown over and over that it is inevitable that atrocities are committed in the name of religion.

                Abusers will always seek positions of power to abuse from, the pedo elite in hollywood is proof of this, and only one of their kind was ever even brought up on charges in the last decade.

                Same with the military

                Same with the government

                You just blame religion exclusively because some edgelad youtuber told you to.

        • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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          euphoria any zealot feels.

          Thank you in advance for making me feel good about calling your god skydaddy. Why don’t you pray to it to stop me?

      • moon@lemmy.ml
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        So this is what Lemmy is doing now? “Why is there hatred of Muslims? Because they’re terrorists of frequent terror attacks.”

        Maybe you had all these terror attacks because you already had large groups of disaffected young men who didn’t feel like local society had anything for them and then became radicalised?

        In France, Muslims are half as likely to get a callback for a job than Christians with the same credentials.. So people already hated them. The terrorist attacks are just the latest excuse.

    • Daerun@lemmy.world
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      A lot of people is mentioning terror attacks, but I think that’s only part of it. The sexist nature of most muslim people living in Europe adds up to the mix. It seems to me that people in US are OK with burkini, just to mention something present in this article, but in Europe it is mostly seen as yet another sign of that sexism.

      • fastandcurious@lemmy.world
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        If there is one thing US has done well, it’s combating racism based on religion (Islamophobia, Anti-Semitism etc.) it still exists but much better than whatever the fuck is happening in Europe

    • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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      Right wing news outlets push Islamophobia hard. Same ones that love israel.

      If you want to keep the imperialism going it’s important that people hate whatever culture you’re trying to invade so your country can “save it from barbarism”.

    • Faresh@lemmy.ml
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      Consequences stemming from the destabilization of the middle east by foreign interference.

        • Faresh@lemmy.ml
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          I never said that one or the other european country was or wasn’t involved, but consequences of an action aren’t limited to who enacts it or to who is acted upon. Some here in these comments mention terrorism. As an example of what I meant when I said “consequences stemming from the destabilization of the middle east by foregin interference”, I will mention the perception of Islam as a religion that endorses terrorism as some here in the comments did. Religious extremism has only become a problem due to foreign interference. One of the most well known groups, ISIS, only became as strong as they became due to the Iraq war.

          Yet they somehow have to take in muslim “refugees” and destabilize their own country in the process.

          I don’t know if you are expressing your disapproval of their immigration, but I feel like we shouldn’t put the two kinds of “destabilization” on equal levels. I’m sure the german and french natives can’t say they have anywhere near as many problems as the people arriving. I also must note a certain double standard here in that I don’t see anyone speaking against receiving ukrainian refugees, despite those countries not being blamed with what is happening in Ukraine.