Justice minister wants to fine burka wearers

Mon Jun 6, 2005 09:23 AM ET

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By Rachel Sanderson

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's justice minister, a member of the right-wing Northern League party, was accused of fueling anti-Islamic sentiment in Italy Sunday after saying he would fine women wearing the all-covering burka.

Roberto Castelli said an Italian law banning the covering of a person's face in public would be applied to women wearing the full-length religious robe that hides the head and face. "To go around with your face covered is a crime, you can't do it," Castelli told reporters.

"Women who do so must be reported to the police and fined."

Castelli's outburst is the latest in a series to make headlines as overwhelmingly Catholic Italy comes to grips with a growing Muslim population some see as a blessing for the economy and others as a threat.

Opposition politicians demanded his resignation and that of other Northern League ministers, whose party has come to be defined by its anti-immigrant rhetoric.

They said the comments were irrelevant because it was rare to see a woman dressed in a burka on Italian streets and that Castelli was fanning hysteria.

"Northern League ministers are ... feeding a culture of fear and defensiveness against migrants of Islamic origin," said Paolo Cento, vice chairman of parliament's justice committee.

Italy, with a population of 57 million, is home to an estimated 1 million officially registered Muslims, making Islam the country's second-largest religion. But social services groups say the number is much higher and growing.

Some fear the nascent multiculturalism is already being met by a backlash, prompted in part by attacks against Italian troops and aid workers deployed in Iraq.

A judge last month ordered celebrated Italian writer and journalist Oriana Fallaci to stand trial on charges she defamed Islam in a recent trilogy written in response to the Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. cities.

In the books, which sold more than 1 million copies in Italy, Fallaci complained Muslim immigrants had "multiplied like rats."

Castelli said Fallaci, who lives in New York, would not be found guilty because the government would change the defamation law to clear her, local news agencies ANSA and AGI reported.