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RELIGION

Italian villager reports parish for ‘noisy’ bells

Church bells have tolled in Italy for centuries, but for one man in northern Italy their time is up.

Published: 19 August 2013 08:22 CEST
Italian villager reports parish for 'noisy' bells
The village priest has defended the noisy bells. Photo: ehatch10s/Flickr

A resident in the village of Rivarolo del Re in the Lombardy region has reported the parish to the police, in a bid to stop the church bells ringing throughout the night, Articolo Tre reported.

Father Luigi Pisani told parishioners the news and said he may launch a counter campaign, collecting signatures of support for nighttime bell-ringing, Il Giorno Cremona said.

“There are many people in the village who don’t share the same stance. The bells carry out a service. Think of the number of people who do night shifts, in businesses in the area. The indication of time is useful,” the village priest said, quoted in Il Giorno.

“Frankly I don’t see how the ringing of the hour can be so annoying. It’s been like this for such a long time,” he added.

Despite this, Pisani has been unable to stop the law taking its course.

The resident’s complaint has prompted the intervention of regional environmental protection agency (ARPA). Specialists will determine whether the bells, despite their history, are ringing in high levels of noise pollution each night.

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RELIGION

Al-Azhar university calls for Sweden boycott over Koran burning

The Sunni Muslim world's most prestigious educational institution, Al-Azhar in Egypt, has called for the boycott of Swedish and Dutch products after far-right activists destroyed Korans in those countries.

Published: 26 January 2023 15:10 CET
Al-Azhar university calls for Sweden boycott over Koran burning

Al-Azhar, in a statement issued on Wednesday, called on “Muslims to boycott Dutch and Swedish products”.

It also urged “an appropriate response from the governments of these two countries” which it charged were “protecting despicable and barbaric crimes in the name of ‘freedom of expression'”.

Swedish-Danish far-right politician Rasmus Paludan on Saturday set fire to a copy of the Muslim holy book in front of Turkey’s embassy in Stockholm, raising tensions as Sweden courts Ankara over its bid to join Nato.

EXPLAINED:

The following day, Edwin Wagensveld, who heads the Dutch chapter of the German anti-Islam group Pegida, tore pages out of the Koran during a one-man protest outside parliament.

Images on social media also showed him walking on the torn pages of the holy book.

The desecration of the Koran sparked strong protests from Ankara and furious demonstrations in several capitals of the Muslim world including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry “strongly condemned” the Koran burning, expressing “deep concern at the recurrence of such events and the recent Islamophobic escalation in a certain number of European countries”.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson condemned Paludan’s actions as “deeply disrespectful”, while the United States called it “repugnant”.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price on Monday said the burning was the work of “a provocateur” who “may have deliberately sought to put distance between two close partners of ours – Turkey and Sweden”.

On Tuesday, Turkey postponed Nato accession talks with Sweden and Finland, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned Stockholm for allowing weekend protests that included the burning of the Koran.

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