Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06ROME1025
2006-04-05 08:49:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Rome
Cable title:  

ITALY'S FLEDGLING ISLAMIC CONSULTATIVE COUNCIL

Tags:  KISL PREL PGOV PTER IT HUMAN RIGHTS 
pdf how-to read a cable
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ROME 001025 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/31/2016
TAGS: KISL PREL PGOV PTER IT HUMAN RIGHTS
SUBJECT: ITALY'S FLEDGLING ISLAMIC CONSULTATIVE COUNCIL

Classified By: Political Minister Counselor David D. Pearce, for reason
s 1.4 (b)(d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ROME 001025

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/31/2016
TAGS: KISL PREL PGOV PTER IT HUMAN RIGHTS
SUBJECT: ITALY'S FLEDGLING ISLAMIC CONSULTATIVE COUNCIL

Classified By: Political Minister Counselor David D. Pearce, for reason
s 1.4 (b)(d).


1. (C) Summary: Interior Minister Pisanu's hand-picked
Muslim Consultative Council continues to be controversial
after its first two meetings. Criticism by both the
right-wing Northern League Party and some members of the
Muslim community convinced Pisanu to cancel the next meeting
until after the April 9-10 national elections. One member's
proposal to denounce terrorism and affirm Israel's right to
co-exist with Palestine won the support of the majority of
the group. Another member's proposal to offer Islamic
instruction in the schools, allow workers time on the job for
Friday prayers, and establish an Islamic bank, drew pointed
criticism. If the center-left wins, the future of the
Council is uncertain, but Pisanu deserves considerable credit
for being one of the few Italian officials prepared to open
discussions on Muslim integration. End summary.


2. (C) Minister of Interior Pisanu announced September 10
the formation of a Muslim Consultative Council, which
includes sixteen persons (see para 12) hand-picked by the
Minister to broadly represent the Muslim and immigrant
communities. It was designed to provide the MOI with advice
on how to deal with the Muslim community, especially problems
of integration (housing, schools, jobs),religious rights
(wearing the veil, male-female relations, halal butchery,
burial rites),preaching and education of imams, immigrant
concerns (asylum, citizenship, residence permits),and access
to Muslim clerics in prisons and hospitals.

Controversial from the Start
--------------


3. (C) The existence and composition of the Council
continues to be an issue of some controversy. The Northern
League Party, known for its anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant
rhetoric, has called the Council a "dangerous monster" and a
body that represents the interests of only one minister.
Pisanu's decision to include the Union for Islamic
Communities in Italy (UCOII) in the Council has been
particularly controversial. Founded in the 1990s in Ancona,
UCOII claims to represent over 50 mosques in Italy and has

ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Perhaps UCOII's most
extremist member is its number two, Hamza Piccardo, a former
Italian Marxist militant who converted and has publicly
praised suicide bombers. Italy's most well-know and
influential Muslim journalist, Magdi Allam, as well as the
leaders of the Rome mosque strongly opposed including UCOII
in the Council. Pisanu's view has been that it is better to
include UCOII and keep it from becoming more radical; many
others in the community agree.

Statement on the Cartoons
--------------


4. (C) The Council met for the first time February 8 and
issued a statement condemning both offenses against Islam as
a religion (without specifically mentioning the Danish
cartoons or the decision by now ex-Minister for Reform
Calderoli to wear the cartoons emblazoned on a T-shirt) and
violent protests of those offenses.

Internal Divisions
--------------


5. (C) On March 7, the Council met again, with more
controversial results, as various members sought to use the
meeting to make political statements. Souad Sbai offered a
proposal condemning terrorism, affirming the right of Israel
to co-exist with a Palestinian state, and opposing an Islamic
identity that conflicts with a national Italian identity. It
was signed by everyone present, except Dachan, Chaouki and
Amadia. Dachan then presented his own proposal, calling,
among other things, for the teaching of Islam in Italian
public schools, establishment of an Islamic bank, and
provisions allowing Muslim workers to pray on Fridays at
their workplaces. This document was not signed by the other
members.


6. (C) Sbai claims to have written her proposal and denies
it had ulterior motives, but Embassy and Consulate sources
indicate that Magdi Allam had a strong hand in drafting it,
with the specific goal of isolating UCOII. MOI Diplomatic
Advisor Guido Lenzi confirmed that the Council is split
between pro- and anti-UCOII factions and noted that Pisanu
decided to form a Council secretariat to vet future proposals
before they are introduced. According to Sbai, Pisanu's
Christian Democratic roots incline him to let everyone on the
Council speak, but he does not understand either the
implications of his actions or the deep divisions among the
Muslim community in Italy.


7. (C) Dachan's proposal to offer one hour of Islamic
instruction in the schools generated immediate reactions.
Vatican Cardinal Raffaele Renato Martino, President of the
Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, expressed support
saying "If there are a hundred Muslim children in a school, I
do not see why their religion should not be taught. This is
respect for human beings." (In the face of some criticism,
he later backed off his comments somewhat.) Abdullah
Redouane, the Secretary General of the Islamic Cultural
Center in Rome and Mario Scialoja, a Council member, strongly
disagreed for both practical reasons ("it isn't possible to
teach every religion and sect present in schools") and
concern about spreading extremist ideology ("who will choose
the teachers?").


8. (C) The next session of the Council was scheduled for
March 28, but Pisanu canceled it, citing scheduling
difficulties. Lenzi confirmed, however, that Pisanu wanted
to avoid creating more controversy three weeks before
national elections.

The Intellectual Debate: Integration vs. a Christian Identity?
-------------- --------------


9. (C) Comment. Pisanu is one of the few center-right
officials interested in tackling the issue of Muslim
integration in Italy. When Muslims in Italy proved incapable
of organizing into one group to apply for an "intesa" that
grants privileges similar to those enjoyed the Catholic
Church, Pisanu tried unsuccessfully to convince the
Parliament to agree to official recognition of various Muslim
groups. He then conceived of the Consulta as a way reach out
to the Muslim community. Pisanu's viewpoint is based on his
95/5 percent theory--you monitor and deport the 5 percent of
extremist troublemakers and offer respect and integration to
the other 95 percent of moderates.


10. (C) Senate President Marcello Pera has taken a
different approach. He proposed a manifesto to reaffirm
Italy's traditional values and culture. The written text
refers to the need to respect the values of western
civilization and, on that basis, Souad Sbai signed it and
organized a meeting between Pera and a group of Muslims. But
in his speeches, Pera has been touting a specifically
Christian Italian identity. Pera previously co-authored a
book and appeared publicly with Cardinal Ratzinger; he
remains a good friend of now Pope Benedict. The general gist
of the book and Pera's continued quest is the need to fight
the moral relativism that is weakening Europe. The manifesto,
which has not generated a significant degree of interest
among Italians, appears designed more to create intellectual
space for the center-right amidst the overwhelmingly leftist
Italian academia than in creating a specific political
platform. Pera's aide, Gaetano Quargliariello, who drafted
the manifesto was surprised that we even asked about its
practical impact on immigration or social policy towards
Muslims.


11. (C) The fact that a leading center-right intellectual
like Pera has not yet considered the practical effects of his
manifesto is a sign of how the public debate over Muslim
integration in Italy has just begun. If the center-left wins
the April 9-10 election, the future of this fledgling Council
will be in doubt, but Pisanu deserves credit for at least
opening a dialogue on the need for integration. End comment.


12. (U) The Council includes:
-Ejaz Ahmad (Pakistan),Rome journalist;
-Khalil Altoubat (Jordan),Rome physiotherapist;
-Rachid Amadia (Algeria),Imam, Salerno;
-Kalthoum Bent Amor Ben Soltane (Tunisia),Arabic lecturer,
Urbino;
-Khalil Chaouki (Morocco),student and journalist, Naples;
-Mohamed Nor Dachan (Italo-Syrian),medical doctor and
President of the Union of Islamic
Communities in Italy (UCOII),Milan;
-Zeinab Ahmed Dolal (Somalia) nurse, Rome;
-Gulshan Jivraj Antivalle (Italo-Kenyan),President of the
Ismailite Community, Rome;
-Tantush Mansur (Libya),President of the Islamic Union in
the West, Rome;
-Yahya Sergio Yahe Pallavicini (Italo-Japanese, son of an
Italian prince who converted),
Imam and VP of the Italian Islamic Religious Community
(CO.RE.IS),Milan;
-Mohammed Saady (Italo-Moroccan),co-President of the Beyond
Frontiers CISL union
organization, Naples;
-Souad Sbai (Morocco),journalist and President of the
Moroccan Women's Association, Rome; -Mario Scialoja (Italian
convert and former GOI Ambassador to Saudi Arabia),Director
of
the World Muslim League/Italy and member of the Rome
mosque's board of directors;
-Roland Seiko (Albania),journalist, Rome;
-Younis Tawfik (Italo-Iraqi),President of the
Italianan-Arabic Cultural Center, Turin; -Mahadou Siradio
Thiam (Senegal),NGO worker, Rome.

(NOTE: Sbai and Chaouki, and separately Pallavicini, just
returned from very successful Mission-sponsored IVP programs
in the U.S.; Saady visited the U.S. on a Volvis program in
2005.) GOI representatives include: Minister of Interior
Pisanu; Pisanu's Chef de Cabinet; the Chief of the Department
for Civil Liberties and Immigration; and the Diplomatic
Advisor to the Minister, Ambassador Guido Lenzi.
SPOGLI