Bangladeshi Muslim residents and other Muslims in Monfalcone say decisions to prohibit worship at cultural centers and banning burkinis (full body covering swimwear) at the beach is part of the mayor’s anti-Islam agenda. The mayor, Anna Maria Cisint, who has been nurturing anti-Islamic rhetoric in the town, is backed by Matteo Salvini’s League party and by Brothers of Italy, the party led by the Italian prime minister Georgia Meloni.
The Guardian 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.
The town’s population growth is mostly attributed to the sprawling shipyard owned by the state-controlled giant Fincantieri, whose policy of outsourcing labour over the past two decades led to a huge inflow of skilled foreign workers, mainly from Bangladesh. The cheaper immigrant workforce far outnumbers Italians, especially during peak periods in the construction of huge cruise ships.
Monfalcone’s Bangladeshi community has been further boosted by relatives arriving via a family reunification policy, which Cisint would like to restrict, and by their Italy-born children. Today, the community makes up 6,600 of Monfalcone’s total 9,400 foreign-born population, according to figures provided by Cisint during an interview with the Observer.
Cisint, a politician backed by anti-Islamization-focused Matteo Salvini’s League party, and by Brothers of Italy, the party led by the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, won an easy reelection in 2022, mostly on the anti-immigration ticket that facilitated the rise to power of Italy’s far right.
One of her first policies was to remove the benches in the main square, allegedly because they were mainly used by Muslim immigrants. Cisint attempted to limit the number of foreign children in schools, while cricket, popular among Bangladeshis, was scrapped from the sports festival. Last summer, she banned Muslim women from wearing burkinis at the beach.
But it was Cisint’s ban on prayers in November, which also applies to a second Muslim cultural centre in the town, that has reverberated most. Cisint claimed the Muslims had flouted urban planning rules because the premises was designated for commercial use and not for worship. Safety was another factor, she said, after citizens sent her photos showing “hundreds of people” entering.
“I didn’t say ‘close down and you must not pray’,” Cisint told the Observer. “The space was being used in a distorted way – it was a mosque. They need to respect the laws.”
The ban chimes with a proposal by Meloni’s Brothers of Italy for the nationwide shutdown of hundreds of Muslim prayer spaces that are not in mosques. Asked to comment on “the Monfalcone situation” during a press conference in early January, Meloni, who has long railed against “Islamization” in Europe, said: “Those who choose to live in Italy must respect Italian norms.”
Cisint said the exponential growth in the foreign-born population has put pressure on Monfalcone’s social services. But she doesn’t have a problem with the town’s other significant foreign community – Romanians. “They come, they integrate and they respect Italian norms,” she said.
Cisint recites a list of stereotypes about Muslims, such as women being forced to wear face coverings and walk behind men. She claims she has done a lot for the community, including building more schools “because they are having so many babies”. She accuses Muslims of not wanting to learn Italian, and if they do the main objective is to obtain citizenship.
But at an Italian lesson run by volunteers, a Muslim woman said it was hard to find places on the classes run by the authority. Her teacher, Cinzia Benussi, said: “It seems that everything is done to make life difficult for Bangladeshi residents.”
Steve says
Italians are utter fools for letting the Bangladeshis bully them.
Rie Toria says
The saying that goes, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do” is so apt in this situation!
Me says
Awww … Did the nasty woman upset the mudslime filth?
What a shame … NOT!
Thomas Richard says
There are 56 Muslim countries! Live there!
Ramez Fekry says
Rome, “the Eternal City,” has been sacked at least 7 times, most significant of which was the Mohammedan raid on Rome in 846 A.D.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_raid_against_Rome
It bears repeating that Mohammed, the warlord who founded islam, declared, in 622 A.D., his ‘prophecy’ that the Islamic Conquest of Constantinople (the most Holy City of Orthodox ☦ Christianity, which fell to ☪ Turkish and Turkic ☪ Moslems in 1453 A.D., owing to massive cannons sold to them by a Hungarian, named Orban) and Rome (the most Holy City of Roman Catholic Christianity) will be realised within 15 centuries of his death!
Just as non-Mohammedans aren’t allowed into Saudi Arabia’s Mecca, the most Holy City of Islam, no Moslems should be granted entry into Rome, Italy, and, by extension, the entirety of Italy!