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MUSLIMS

Muslims in Italy protest over freedom to worship

Several hundred Muslims staged a protest prayer outside the Colosseum in Rome on Friday over what they see as unfair restrictions on their freedom to practise their faith in Italy.

Muslims in Italy protest over freedom to worship
Hundreds of Muslims rallied in Rome and Milan on Friday. Olivier Morin / AFP file picture

Organisers said they had called the demonstration following the recent closure on administrative grounds of five makeshift mosques.

Many Italian Muslims suspect local authorities are responding to a climate of mistrust caused by recent Islamist attacks in Europe by closing down the places of worship on the grounds of easily resolved problems such as the number of toilets on a particular premises.

“We feel people are pointing the finger at us,” said Francesco Tieri, a convert to Islam who acts as a coordinator for a number of Islamic groups.

“There is no political will to recognise that we are here and that we are a peaceful community.

“We are forced to rent places to pray — which for us is like breathing air, if we can't do it we die.”

According to official figures there are just over 800,000 Muslims living in Italy legally and officials estimate that a further 100,000 live in the country permanently without official papers.

That would suggest the community makes up more than 1.5 percent of the population and that Islam is the second most followed faith in the mostly Roman Catholic country.

Islam however is not recognised as an official religion, unlike Judaism or the Mormon faith, and many Muslims from north Africa and South Asia feel discriminated against on the grounds of both race and religion.

Rome is home to the biggest mosque in the Western world but proposals to construct traditional-style mosques elsewhere have frequently run into opposition from local councils who can withhold planning permission on any number of technical grounds ranging from the size of proposed parking facilities to the architectural harmony of a particular neighbourhood.

Right wing parties have called for a blanket ban on any mosques built withfunds from donors outside of Italy.

Lawmaker Barbara Saltamartini of the anti-immigration Northern League called Friday's demonstration “an unacceptable provocation” which should never have been allowed to take place in Rome.

MUSLIMS

France ‘charges 10 ultra-right suspects over plot to attack Muslims’

French authorities have charged 10 suspected far-right extremists in connection with an alleged plot to attack Muslims, a judicial source said Thursday.

France 'charges 10 ultra-right suspects over plot to attack Muslims'
File photo: RAID police officers
The nine men and one woman aged 32 to 69 were arrested in raids across France on Saturday.
 
The suspects, whose detention was extended late Monday for a further 48 hours, had an “ill-defined plan to commit a violent act targeting people of the Muslim faith,” one source close to the probe said previously.
 
They appeared before a judge on Wednesday evening and were charged with “criminal terrorist conspiracy”, the source said.

   
Several were also charged with violations of firearms laws and the manufacture or possession of explosive devices.
 
Police have linked the ten to a little-known group called Action des Forces Operationnelles (Operational Forces Action), which urges French people to 
combat Muslims, or what it calls “the enemy within”.
 
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Police outside the home of Guy S., the alleged leader of a group linked with the ultra right 'AFO' . Photo: AFP

Rifles, handguns and homemade grenades were found during searches in the Paris area, the Mediterranean island of Corsica and the western Charentes-Maritimes region.  

Prosecutors said in a statement Wednesday that 36 firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition were seized, as well as items in one suspect's home that 
could be used in the manufacture of TATP explosives.
 
The suspects include a retired police officer, identified only as Guy S., who was the alleged leader of the group, according to a source close to the investigation. The group also includes a former soldier.
   
France remains on high alert following a wave of jihadist attacks which have killed more than 240 people since 2015.
   
Officials have urged people not to confuse the actions of radicalised individuals with those of France's estimated six million Muslims — but anti-Islamic violence is on the rise.
   
The “Guerre de France” (War for France) website of the shadowy Operational Forces Action depicts an apocalyptic battle scene under the Eiffel Tower, and claims to prepare “French citizen-soldiers for combat on national territory” (see image below).
 
  
France's TF1 television has said the group planned to target radicalised imams and Islamist prisoners after their release from jail, as well as veiled women in the street chosen at random.
   
France registered 72 violent anti-Muslim acts last year, up from 67 in 2016.

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