"No place for Islam in Europe": Italian PM Giorgia Meloni
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Rome: An undated video of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni arrived in which she states that there is no place for Islam in Europe, scoffing at Islamic culture, Hindustan Times reports.
She said that she believed that there was a problem of compatibility between Islamic culture and the values and rights of our civilisation.
She said that the Islamic cultural centres in Italy are financed by Saudi Arabia, where the law is Sharia. In Europe, there is a very Islamization process which is very different from the values of their civilisation, she said.
Her comments come up while she attends a festival organised by Brothers of Italy, a far-right party to which she belongs, in which UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was present.
This is not the first time Meloni has made a controversial reference to Islam.
In September 2019, Meloni wrote a foreword to the 'First Report on Europe's Islamisation', which was presented by the Farefuturo Foundation think-tank, where she wrote: "Because we fear the 'prophecy' of [Michel] Houellebecq, if Europe, and Italy which concerns us closely, do not decide to have policies and tools to preserve itself, may inevitably turn into reality," Wion reports.
When Sunak delivered his speech, he said that he would push for global reforms to the asylum system. He warned that the severe refugee problem in the world might overwhelm parts of Europe. Some enemies are deliberately driving people to Europe's shores, Sunak added.
He said that the refugee problem must be tackled or their numbers will grow, and it will degrade the country's capacity to help those who actually need help the most.
"If that requires us to update our laws and lead an international conversation to amend the post-war frameworks around asylum, then we must do that," Hindustan Times quoted Sunak.
Tesla founder Elon Musk, who was also present there, said that immigration isn't enough to combat population shrinking. There is value in cultures, and Italy as a culture must not disappear. "we want to maintain a reasonable cultural identity of those countries, or they won't be those countries," Musk was quoted.