Newsgroup: it.politica
Titolo: Italian premier attacked for Islam comments

Italian premier attacked for Islam comments
By James Blitz in Rome
Published: September 26 2001 20:05 | Last Updated: September 27 2001 17:36
ft.com
Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister, has been condemned by opposition
politicians after saying that western societies needed to be aware of their
"superiority" over Islamic culture.
In remarks during a one-day visit to Berlin on Wednesday, Mr Berlusconi also
argued that western civilisation had guaranteed "a respect for human rights
and religious rights - which do not exist in Islamic countries - and a
respect for political rights". He added that there was a "singular
coincidence" between the recent terrorist attacks on New York and Washington
and the recent activities of the anti-globalisation movement.
The prime minister's remarks, which were branded as "absurd" and "mistaken"
by Italy's centre-left opposition, appeared to be in sharp contrast to
attempts by other European leaders to distinguish between the extremism of
members of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terrorist group and the peaceful
nature of most followers of Islam.
In Berlin, Mr Berlusconi held talks with Vladimir Putin, Russian president,
and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany.
According to a report by the Ansa news agency, Mr Berlusconi told
journalists that the anti-globalisation movement had criticised the western
way of thinking and living, "but we have to be aware of the superiority of
our civilisation". 
He said the west was destined to "westernise and conquer populations", and
that "it did so with the communist world and it did so with part of the Arab
world". 
In a separate despatch, the AGI news agency reported the premier as saying
that "the west must be aware of the superiority of its culture and launch a
process of growth for those parts of the world that came to a halt 1,400
years ago". 
Piero Fassino, a leading member of the opposition Democrats of the Left,
said: "I think that at this moment it really doesn't help to talk about the
superiority of one civilisation over another. It helps even less so to say
that we must conquer people and westernise the world." Francesco Rutelli,
the opposition leader, said such comments would bring closer the moderates
and fanatics of Islam.
In another development, members of the Italian government have stated in
recent days that they took action to avoid a terrorist attack at July's G8
summit in Genoa that could have been similar to the attacks in New York and
Washington. 
Claudio Scajola, Italy's interior minister, said that "on the occasion of
the G8 in Genoa the government decided to close off air traffic over the
city because the secret services had given notice of a possible attempt on
the life of the US president". He added: "We don't know if our decision
foiled a possible attack on the part of these terrorists."
Gianfranco Fini, Italy's deputy prime minister, made a similar statement.
"We had information that, at Genoa, there was the chance of an attack on the
life of the US president involving an airliner. Because of this we closed
air traffic over the city and installed surface- to-air missiles. Those who
were ironic about our performance at the time should reflect on that." 

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