A Mosque by Any Other Name

A large mosque that is currently under construction in Umbria appears to have acquired its property and the necessary permits by misleading the Italian authorities and concealing its funding sources. Local residents — not to mention Matteo Salvini, the leader of the Lega Nord — are not happy with what is happening in Umbertide.

Many thanks to Elle Bowlly for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Video transcript:

00:00   This is not a casual visit today but a symbolic one. —We’ve already been here, or not?
00:06   Yes, we have, and we’ll be back because this example of illegality should not be tolerated.
00:15   We’re in Umbertide, in the province of Perugia. 17,000 inhabitants. 3,000 foreigners,
00:19   of which a third are Muslim. An Islamic cultural centre
00:23   is under construction. More accurately, “a mosque”,
00:26   according to some. This one. —The project entails
00:30   a building with a higher level. 12.90 meters tall.
00:36   (Valerio Mancini, regional councillor of Lega Nord Umbria)
It was defined as an “equipment room”, but in my opinion it’s something
00:39   that traces back to something more akin to a minaret.
00:42   The matter began when this piece of land belonging to the town hall
00:45   (which for a long time hosted a greenhouse for disabled youths) was put up for sale and sold to
00:50   (Giampiero Giulietti, former Mayor of Umbertide)
the local Islamic association that purchased it. —In 2011
00:53   a public auction was held where they participated,
00:56   and won the auction, obviously. At the time the town hall
00:59   decided to sell that piece of land to allocate
01:02   the earnings towards the construction of a new greenhouse.
01:07   When the matter was presented to the city council,
01:12   (Giovanna Monni, centre-right Umbertide)
it wasn’t called by its true name. They weren’t calling it an “Islamic cultural association”,
01:17   they weren’t calling it a “mosque”, but a greenhouse for the disabled instead.
01:21   All in all, no one was informed about the identity
01:24   of the new owners (according to its opponents).
01:27   (Giovanni Codovini, Umbertide Cambia)
It wasn’t a very transparent procedure. —When we went to the town council and saw the papers,
01:33   we realized that the matter had been treated as a mere building procedure.
01:37   It’s an extremely significant cultural, social and political error.
01:44   There’s also a second matter agitating this small Umbrian community:
01:49   with what money is this structure being built? On a visit to Umbertide, Matteo Salvini talked about
01:55   funds from Qatar. He’s looking for the proof that no one seems to possess to this day.
02:00   So the official list of the financiers is not yet available? —No, we’ve requested it…
02:04   The imam let us know that the list of financiers was delivered to the prefecture as required
02:08   by a protocol that was signed last October. It’s never been made public,
02:12   however, and this feeds the suspicions.
02:15   (Chafiq El Oquayly, Imam of Umbertide)
Our funds mostly come from the Islamic community of Umbertide.
02:22   We provided all the registers. The money is fully traceable.
 

One thought on “A Mosque by Any Other Name

  1. very certainly the muslim community of Umbertide has raised the money for the purchase.Irony off.
    These losers can hardly ever feed their families, so trace back the money under RICO terms. The donors surely made mistakes when declaring their assets to the IRS , Guarda de financia at that, and that is how to get them by their b.. precious parts.Remember Al Capone.

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