italian minister, wears cartoons

Editorial: Fascist Tactic
16 February 2006

JUST when it has become apparent to levelheaded people around the world that what is needed in the Danish cartoons row is a period of calm, an Italian government minister tries to make things worse. Roberto Calderoli, Italy’s minister for reform has had T-shirts printed with the offensive cartoons and says he plans to wear them.

This is not only outrageous, it is unbelievable. In all the furor, no government minister anywhere has been so provocative or so irresponsible. The man is a lunatic. He knows the damage that has been done to Denmark’s image and exports as a result of the cartoons and yet he deliberately opts to goad the Muslim world into doing the same for Italy. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi should boot him out, not just for his bigoted views but for the potential damage he does to his country. In France, in Germany, in the UK, he would already be sacked.

Sadly, given Berlusconi’s own record of insulting remarks about Islam — he is the only European politician to publicly state that Western civilization is superior and pour scorn on Muslim countries’ respect for human and religious rights — he probably will do no such thing. The world will take that to mean that he agrees with his minister.

The Muslim response must be dignified. We need to treat this with the contempt it deserves, and Italy must be made aware of the affront done. But Muslims worldwide should not respond by blaming Italy or the Italians as a whole, most of whom will be as shocked as Muslims are. Certainly, no one should start boycotting Italian goods or stop eating pizzas and pasta or, even worse, trying to burn Italian embassies or offices of Italian-owned companies; indeed, the riots, burning embassies and dead protesters that have been seen in the past few weeks in the backlash against the cartoons simply play into the hands of the Islamophobes.

The Italians go to the polls in seven weeks’ time. Let them show what they think of their asinine minister’s contribution to the row. At the moment, polls indicate that Berlusconi will be defeated. If the bigots in government are thrown out in Italy, that will be an end to the matter. The one expectation in the meantime is that other EU governments, other Italian politicians and the Italian media roundly condemn Calderoli and let Italians know of the dangers of keeping him and others like him in power.

Of course, elections are what this was all about. What is even more repugnant about Calderoli’s contribution is that it was designed not only to offend, but to profit by offending. The far right, anti-immigrant Northern League party, of which he is a member, wants to increase its vote. Calderoli has taken his campaign into the sewers. He is out to vilify Islam in the hope of gaining votes. It is a classic fascist tactic: Target the minorities, scapegoat them, in the hope of winning over the majority. It is the sort of contribution that Mussolini would have been proud of. Do Italians want good relations with the Muslim and Arab world? Do they want people in government who do not care what damage they might inflict on the country so long as they get elected? Presumably they would prefer to have responsible politicians, not provocative, self-interested bigots. The choice rests with them.
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