The following report from Italian television describes a tiny basement storeroom under an apartment building in Milan that is now being used as an illegal mosque. The reporter interviews local residents to get their outraged reactions.
Many thanks to FouseSquawk for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:
Transcript:
| 00:00 | We are in Via Cavalcante at Civica 8 | |
| 00:05 | in the area of the Central (train) Station. We are on the fourth floor of a condominium | |
| 00:10 | where in the interior of this courtyard, in a basement | |
| 00:14 | under those grates, there has been a clandestine mosque for a few months, | |
| 00:20 | and like every Friday, a gathering for the traditional prayer begins. | |
| 00:24 | This is the entrance for the clandestine mosque, | |
| 00:28 | and these are the residents of this neighborhood who are protesting precisely | |
| 00:32 | against the realization of this | |
| 00:36 | new cultural center. | |
| 00:40 | They have prepared some posters where they have written | |
| 00:44 | things why they are protesting. —We are protesting because we want the law respected. | |
| 00:50 | We have… are in the presence of a mosque | |
| 00:54 | that receives hundreds of persons — at this moment they are meeting | |
| 00:58 | for Friday prayers, and (unintelligible) | |
| 01:02 | It is not possible, because of the fact that it is dangerous | |
| 01:06 | It is a storage room eight feet deep. | |
| 01:10 | There is no security, and this is something that is absolutely | |
| 01:14 | unaccountable. You can’t… In your opinion, is it better | |
| 01:18 | that a mosque (unintelligible) that the groups… | |
| 01:21 | No (unintelligible) discussions of this type. | |
| 01:26 | There are so many faiths, so many people who pray, but they have to do so | |
| 01:30 | in my personal judgment and also ours, in proper places. | |
| 01:34 | In whatever proper places there are, I don’t have anything against them. I don’t have any problem. | |
| 01:38 | Certainly, if they put a mosque under an apartment building, | |
| 01:42 | where there can be some 50 people, and they put 200 inside | |
| 01:46 | in a storage place, I remember when I did work for the company, | |
| 01:51 | I had to put a lavatory, excuse the expression, for the handicapped | |
| 01:55 | in a company that didn’t receive handicapped (people). | |
| 01:58 | And these people here, instead, do what they want. | |
| 02:01 | We don’t have anything against anybody. We want a C2 storeroom | |
| 02:05 | to be treated as such, and a C2 storage room must remain a C2 storage room. | |
| 02:08 | Therefore, we don’t understand why nobody acts. | |
| 02:13 | Therefore, we are not making a political issue, only a security issue | |
| 02:17 | for the apartment building, and because at this time they are frequenting this area. | |
| 02:21 | Here this evening, at all hours all these people have keys for this entry. | |
| 02:25 | The problem is… all of us sleep at night | |
| 02:29 | (Unintelligible) bags They arrive with bags, | |
| 02:32 | go and come with bags in the apartment building, understand? | |
| 02:36 | By God, we don’t have anything against them, but we don’t know these people, | |
| 02:40 | and it is this we fear. We don’t know these people. | |
| 02:44 | I believe these places must be placed under surveillance by the police, | |
| 02:49 | and as I requested today in the community committee, that they suspend | |
| 02:53 | the ban that could note the spaces for (unintelligible) the grand mosque of Milan, | |
| 02:57 | because at this time, nobody is able to guarantee that these mosques | |
| 03:02 | in the middle of all these people as has happened in Milan in Via Lierna, | |
| 03:06 | terror (unintelligible) potential terrorist that we have already seen, | |
| 03:09 | very often, they go into these countries to fight | |
| 03:12 | to create an Islamic state through a war and then they return to their country of origin | |
| 03:16 | and carry out attacks. —If there was a place (unintelligible) these people, | |
| 03:22 | these other places, let’s say, clandestine, alternative, | |
| 03:26 | probably would end up ceasing to exist. | |
| 03:29 | (unintelligible) In the meantime, there is no answer, irregularity or | |
| 03:34 | illegality. If (unintelligible) close, it’s not irregular or illegal, | |
| 03:38 | therefore the only possible answer is this. |