Italian senator calls for "Pig Day" against mosques
Reuters
Reuters - Thursday, September 13 05:26 pm
ROME (Reuters) - A far-right Italian senator vowed on Thursday to stage a "Pig Day" protest against the planned construction of a mosque in the northern city of Bologna.
Roberto Calderoli of the anti-immigrant Northern League party said he was ready to bring his own pig to "defile" the site where the mosque will be built.
"I am making myself and my pig available for a walk at the site where they want to build the mosque," Calderoli, who is the vice chairman of Italy's Senate, said in a statement.
Muslims do not eat pork and consider pigs and their meat too filthy to touch.
Tensions flare regularly between communities in predominantly Catholic Italy over the site of new mosques to serve a growing Muslim population.
On Wednesday night, around 20 people staged a protest near the port city of Genoa over the planned construction of a mosque which they said would be offensive because it is near a church.
The protesters, including a priest suspended from the church, prayed the rosary -- which consists of the "Our Father", "Hail Mary" and "Glory Be" prayers read repeatedly -- despite a call by the country's most senior Roman Catholic bishop not to do so.
In December 2006, protesters left a severed pig's head outside a mosque being built in Tuscany.
In July, police arrested an imam on suspicion of leading a terrorism "training school" in a mosque in central Italy.
After that arrest, the Northern League called for all existing mosques -- most in old garages or converted factories and warehouses -- to be closed for security checks.
Calderoli is no stranger to controversy over Islam and is often accused of making racist comments.
Last year, he lost a ministerial post in a centre-right government led by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for wearing a T-shirt with cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad offensive to Muslims.
Italian senator calls for "Pig Day" against mosques
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