An alarm bell we can no longer ignore

Rome, Jan. 5 - "For years now we have been raising the alert about a number of strange activities at mosques and Islamic centres, often simply religious settings used to cover up subversive activities and Islamic fundamentalism. Today, this alert is being raised also by Minister Amato, starting with the streams of funds coming in from abroad and of which neither provenance nor end-purpose is known. It is therefore only right that there should be some regulation of such cash movements, but even more importantly, there needs to be a blanket investigation of a number of Islamic centres and their activities, followed by the immediate closure of those suspected of criminal or subversive pursuits."

This is how Roberto Calderoli, vice president of the Senate and national co-ordinator of the Northern League secretariat, described his views in a note, further pointing out that it is better "to prevent than react later, and the 228 reported potential sites in our country represent an alarm bell that we can no longer ignore."