Damned Italians...

As you can tell by my name, I am one by ancestry. And although the Italian government has come out in favor of Israel's right to exist, there still exists the Italian counterpart of the moonbat, ready and waiting to come to the aid of Hezbollah and other like-minded terrorists and terrorist supporters. And to add insult to injury, one of the idiots is an Italian cardinal (yeah, I'm a Catholic, too):

How Will Rome Face Mecca?

By Joseph D'Hippolito
FrontPageMagazine.com | April 6, 2006

One of the Catholic Church's most controversial figures inflamed public debate in Italy with a typically off-handed comment -- and inadvertently exposed the Vatican's problems in crafting a coherent, comprehensive response to Islamic imperialism.

Cardinal Renato Martino -- the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the Vatican's former ambassador to the United Nations -- said that the Italian government should allow the Koran to be taught during the hour mandated for Catholic religious instruction.

"If there are 100 Muslim children in a school, I don't see why they shouldn't be taught their religion," Martino said in a press conference March 9. "If we said 'no' until we saw equivalent treatment for the Christian minorities in Muslim countries, I would say that we were placing ourselves on their level."

Martino's comments came as campaigning in Italy's April 9 general election entered its final push. Two significant issues are the effect of massive Muslim immigration on Italian society and the ensuing place for government-sponsored Catholic religious education, mandated by the 1929 concordat between the Vatican and Italy that was renewed in 1984.

And here we are, a Catholic Cardinal, in cahoots with the beheaders and the anti-semites:

Two days before Martino's press conference, the president of Italy's largest Muslim group -- the Community of Islamic Organizations in Italy, which controls that country's mosques and has connections to the Muslim Brotherhood -- asked the government to substitute Muslim instruction for Catholic instruction where appropriate.

That president, Mohammed Nour Dachan, also refused to sign a document in which Muslims pledged to accept Italy's constitution (Sharia law, anybody?), denounce terrorism and recognize Israel's right to exist. His organization demands Islamic schools, Islamic banks and clerical supervision of textbooks. (surprise, surprise?)

It should be noted, however, that Martino's views are not necessarily in line with the Holy See:

...Enhancing the controversy are remarks Pope Benedict XVI made while greeting Morocco's new ambassador to the Vatican on Feb. 20. During the audience, the pope advocated religious freedom "in a reciprocal manner in all societies," a reference to oppressed Christian minorities in Muslim nations.

How Martino got to be a Cardinal is still beyond me. IMO, he's not fit to be altar boy, and should be excommunicated.

I'll tell you "how Rome will face Mecca" if Martino gets his way--prostrate, with their necks against the edge of a dull blade.


(Filed under the fifth column, Israel, moonbat adventures, Religion of Peace?)