FIFTH COLUMN
Of Longinus
“I invite you to fight the unbelievers, cut off their heads with your swords, blow their heads off with your explosive belts. It is necessary to break the skulls of the unbelievers and drink their blood to achieve victory”, he said to children aged between 4 and i 10 years the president of the Islamic cultural association 'Al Dawa’ of Foggia, as shown by the wiretaps arranged by the investigators and published by the newspapers. The magistrates explain that the man was talking “of the obligation to destroy churches and transform them into mosques, identifying Italy as the target of terrorist activity”. The man was arrested, they seized assets worth 370.000 euro and its center, also used as a place of prayer. In Turin, in recent days, an Italian-Moroccan was arrested for “participation in the Islamic State terrorist association”. E’ considered the author of the first ISIS propaganda text in Italian. Some Italians who converted to Islam are also involved in the investigation, as well as citizens of foreign origin: the alleged accusation is of having carried out a campaign of radicalization and proselytism on the web. The investigation began at the end of 2015, when the Italian-Moroccan agreed to a two-year prison sentence, with conditional suspension of sentence, for incitement to commit crimes for terrorist purposes for the publication on the web of a series of ISIS documents. Even in Milan, Napoli, Modena, Bergamo and Reggio Emilia, searches were carried out by the police against individuals believed to be linked to Islamic extremist circles.
In Italy, people of the Muslim religion are estimated to be 1 million and 700 thousand. In this data – deducted from the nationality of origin – neither are the converted Italians counted (around 80 thousand, the estimates say) nor former foreigners who have acquired Italian citizenship. Based on data from Study and Research CentreIDOS, there are 8 officially recognized mosques, including the Great Mosque of Rome, active from 1995 in the Monte Antenne district, the largest in Europe, built thanks to the economic investment of the Saudi royal family, which still contributes to its existence today. I cultural centers, acting as places of worship – some large, many obtained from basements, warehouses, cellars, garage – are estimated, because there is no precise map, in approximately 800. Islamic cultural associations are approx 400. Read More
