Italy: Meloni's party presents law to fight against ‘Islamic separatism’

The Brothers of Italy party (Fratelli D'Italia, FDI), led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, presented on Wednesday in the Chamber of Deputies a bill aimed at combating "Islamic separatism," which includes a ban of full-face veils and tightening supervision of funding for places of worship.

"The law against Islamic separatism represents a necessary step to protect Italian identity, the safety of citizens and the freedom of women. It is not a matter of limiting religious freedom, but of preventing it from being weaponized to justify practices incompatible with the principles of our Constitution and our society," so asserted FDI parliamentary leader Galeazzo Bignami.

A law to combat political Islam

The bill has been promoted by the deputy, and head of FdI's Immigration Department, Sara Kelany, who said that the aim is to "combat the emergence of enclaves, counter-societies in which sharia law  and Islamic fundamentalism prevail and not Italian order."

Kelany says that while Italy is not on the same level as France, there are beginning to be worrying signs of the influence of political Islam in the country's suburbs.

"Among the measures envisaged in our proposed law are a restriction on foreign funding to Islamic places of worship to prevent the influence of political Islam; the prohibition of concealing one's face in public, for reasons of security and protection of women's dignity; the enforcement of penalties for forced marriages, a phenomenon that has already led to tragedies," the deputy added.

"This rule addresses two needs: the safety of citizens, who must be able to know who they are dealing with, and that of not humiliating women's dignity, because hiding a woman's face means humiliating her dignity."

Violators will face fines of between 300 and 3,000 euros (roughly $350-3,500). The bill is presented as a response to "religious radicalization" and is part of a broader effort to strengthen secular values and national cohesion.

Monitoring funding of places of worship

As for monitoring the trail of money earmarked for the construction of places of worship, with the aim of clarifying its provenance and ensuring its transparency, "it will be necessary to focus efforts, also those of legislators, on the sources of funding and support for urban planning interventions aimed at the construction of religious places," underlined Galeazzo Bignami.

According to the deputy, the idea is to prevent financing "coming from natural or legal persons with purposes contrary to the order of the state and that can alter public order in some way."