ITALY: Religious Tensions with Turkey Rise

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Federico Bordonaro

ROME, Oct 6 2006 (IPS) - Politicians and intellectuals look more and more worried about Italy’s relations with Turkey, as the subject overlaps with the question of Islam, immigration, and security.

The political and cultural debate on Islam is heating up in Italy after a Turkish airliner flying from Tirana to Istanbul was hijacked by a Turkish citizen and taken to Brindisi (southern Italy) Oct. 3.

The hijacker, a Turkish citizen who claims to be a Christian convert and conscientious objector, told Italian authorities he wanted to speak with Pope Benedict XVI as he needs his protection against his country’s military. He later appealed for political asylum.

Hakan Ekinci, now facing detention in Italy, was reportedly the only hijacker on the plane and is said to have bluffed he could blow up the aircraft, though he was unarmed.

While Italy’s interior minister Giuliano Amato promptly reported in the Parliament about the details of the incident Oct. 4, politicians, intellectuals and civil society are once again discussing the relationship between the West and Islam, and more specifically, between Italy and Muslim immigrants.

The issue is becoming increasingly complex because many Italian observers interpret different questions through the same lenses of a civilisation conflict between the West and Islam. Such issues are Turkey’s accession to the European Union, the Pope’s visit to Turkey due Nov. 28, Italy’s security policy in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, Muslim immigration, and terrorism. Such a cultural approach has inevitable political fallouts.

Even though immigration from Muslim countries is a phenomenon independent of Turkey’s EU accession bid, there is an apparently widespread sentiment that Ankara’s joining would complicate any attempt to control the migration flux, and – even more importantly – that Europe could lose its specific cultural traits.

Right-of-centre media are assuming an increasingly critical position towards Turkey’s integration in the EU and, more in general, towards the viability of a multicultural society.

Filippo Facci, a journalist with the right-wing daily Il Giornale, ironically wrote Oct. 4 that “perhaps the hijacker wanted to warn the Pope that a book was just published in Turkey, in which the murder of Joseph Ratzinger during his next visit to Istanbul is described.”

The book, written by Yücel Kaya, is entitled Papa’ya Suikast (Assassinating the Pope), and carries the subtitle ‘Who will kill the Pope in Istanbul?’ For Facci, like for many conservative intellectuals, Turkey is still dominated by nationalism and Islamism, which makes it unfit to join Europe, and inherently hostile to Christendom.

Magdi Allam, vice-director of Italy’s major daily Il Corriere della Sera and a Muslim of Egyptian descent himself, sharply criticised Giuliano Amato for his “soft touch” approach to Islam.

In an editorial Oct. 4, Allam lambasted Amato’s decision to accept an invitation to a Ramadan’s celebration offered by the Union of Italian Islamic Communities (UCOII), saying that “in doing so, Amato acknowledges that particular view of the Homo Islamicus promoted by fundamentalists” and thus ignores the perils of the fundamentalist bid on European societies.

Other intellectuals, however, don’t share that view. Massimo Campanini, a scholar of Islam’s history, objects in an interview with Italy’s left-wing daily Il Manifesto that “too often, Islam is identified with terrorism” and that “trivialities” abound among the numerous discussions on the topic.

He criticised Amato’s proposal of a Charter of Values not for being too soft but for being originally directed at the Muslims alone, in an almost discriminatory way.

Recent events in Italy and Europe, such as the killing of a Pakistani girl by her father last summer – apparently motivated by the daughter’s relationship with an Italian man – or the murder of the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2005 by a Muslim, are adding to the growing hostility towards Islam by an increasing number of intellectuals and politicians.

Italy’s opposition parties accuse the government of being almost indifferent to security risks that the pontiff’s trip to Turkey allegedly carries. Tension is actually mounting since Ratzinger’s speech in Regensburg in Germany last month. Italian newspapers reported this week that some Turkish fundamentalist factions continue to threaten the Pope unless he apologises.

Giuliano Amato, though, said during his report to the Senate that the hijacking on Oct. 3 “does not augment the risks for the Pope’s journey to Turkey.” But this week’s auditions in the parliament highlighted a clear trend in Italy’s politics: views are polarising and the cultural clash theme is gaining strength.

Members of the left-of-centre majority stressed the fact that “the hijacker wasn’t a Muslim, as initially thought, but a Christian convert.” Graziella Mascia, a Communist senator, said “this sweeps away all prejudices.”

Marco Boato, a Green party member, said that “Turkey has been the victim of the hijacking”, and that Italy should express its solidarity with Ankara.

On the other hand, some right of centre deputies expressed the view that Italy’s approach to Islam and multiculturalism is totally wrong.. They said the government’s attitude is marked by “fear”, as on the occasion of Muslim protests against Joseph Ratzinger’s lectio magistralis in Regensburg and the ensuing disputes.

A growing number of politicians and opinion-makers from the right of centre of Italy’s political spectrum see Italy’s and Europe’s policy towards Islam as cultural capitulation, and call for stricter measures to control the activities of Muslim religious and cultural centres in Italy.

Such a trend will inevitably affect the future of Turkish-Italian relations, independently of security concerns about the Pope’s visit to Istanbul.

On the thorny issue of Turkey’s EU accession, opinions continue to be various – even among the more conservative right-wingers – but unsurprisingly, those who oppose Ankara’s integration are growing in number, as in France, Germany and other Western European nations.