Reporting of Federici Studies Center
Municipal Police at school’ of anti-racism. Seminars on the topic of multicultural society with Muslim and Sinti teachers
An anti-racist training course for the traffic police of Bologna. E’ the task entrusted by the Municipality to the Eos association, who for a year will take care of workshops and seminars for managers and officials of the municipal police, on the topic of differences and multicultural society. Among the teachers also the president of the Ucoii and of the Islamic Community of Bologna, Yassine Lafram, and the number one of the Italian Sinti association of Bologna, Luigi Chiesi, together with Marina Pirazzi, founder of Eos. The project will cost just under 5.000 euro.
In the local plan against discrimination, the Municipality of Bologna had foreseen “specific training activities aimed at staff on the topic of differences and multicultural society” Therefore “develop a training project aimed at municipal police personnel, concerning the organization of local police services within a transcultural society".
The first phase of the project should start in the next few days: a questionnaire will be distributed to officials and agents of the municipal police and on this basis a program of workshops and seminars will be defined, which is expected to start in January, with an expected completion date in the spring 2019. The following September, the strings will be drawn on the success of the workshops. The seminars will focus on topics such as “direct discrimination, indirect and institutional” or the “weight of stereotypes and prejudices and the weight of the system of institutional discrimination”, but also on “respect for human rights in the police and the ethical and professional obligations not to discriminate within and outside the Police and to promote equal opportunities.
The initiative immediately met with opposition from Lucia Borgonzoni, Northern League councilor and senator: “Apart from casting a disturbing shadow on the professional daily life of a category, it borders on the ridiculous” he wrote in a note “the course would be held by the President of UCOII, to which the Municipality in every way wants to build a mosque in Bologna, and the president of the Italian Sinti Association. Funds reimbursed by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation which perhaps, you would do well to check what they are used for, and throw yourself into an absurd and offensive project. However, only in Bologna can Muslims and Sinti go around teaching the police".
“If done well, it could be very useful – writes city councilor Umberto Bosco in a note – However, I remain perplexed by the fact that the course teachers also include the president of the UCOII as well as spokesperson for the Islamic Culture Center of Bologna whose statute provides for the preservation and strengthening of Islamic identity, element that casts shadows on what will actually be taught. Sometimes the values and traditions of two cultures conflict irreparably, in these cases integration occurs only if the exponent of the incoming culture sacrifices some aspects of it. Regarding integration, if you rely on masters like Lafram, we risk taking one step forward and two steps back”. (…)
