Last December we posted a report about a clandestine mosque in Milan situated in a basement under an apartment building with an entrance down the stairs from a parking lot. Eight months later, the mosque is still there, only it’s no longer really clandestine: there is a sign (in English) on the wall above the stairs announcing its presence.
The following video shows Matteo Salvini, the leader of the Northern League in Italy, taking a group of reporters and interested citizens to the mosque.
Many thanks to FouseSquawk for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:
Video transcript:
00:00 | Good day, good day, friends directly from Via Cavalcanti, illegal mosque in Milan, | |
00:06 | the nth case of irregularity exposed to the sunlight. The residents called us, | |
00:11 | business people, mothers and fathers, worried because beneath the stairs there are up to hundreds | |
00:15 | of people; it seems that there are even children in a clandestine Islamic school. | |
00:19 | Now we are going to take you inside. We will show you what life is like in a quarter of Milan | |
00:23 | on the edge of reality, totally irregular, identified, reported. | |
00:28 | It is a storage area, without permanent residents, that has been turned into a mosque, | |
00:32 | a religious center, a school, they sleep here, they eat here, Who knows what they do.? | |
00:35 | and they [community leaders] obviously don’t care. | |
00:40 | …You see, we are in the center of Milan. Here there are citizens, | |
00:44 | here there are buildings and offices of the area. | |
00:48 | This is… Now together with some residents, we accompany them inside. I leave the management. | |
00:54 | Go, Go, [unintelligible] and follow —We go? —We’ll put it later. —OK | |
00:59 | Later — OK, Let’s go inside. Go… | |
01:09 | We’re going in… On the side, no…on the side. —We are entering the illegal mosque… | |
01:16 | in Via Cavalcanti with Matteo Salvini, also Milanese [unintelligible] | |
01:20 | Regional Assessor Bordonali, municipal Samuel Fucina [?] | |
01:25 | and citizen commissar Fabrizio Cecchetti. | |
01:29 | So many citizens [unintelligible] Here we are; | |
01:33 | there are also [unintelligible] of angry Milanese. | |
01:42 | “No illegal mosques” | |
01:47 | There are also Milanese…Now we are entering to see what is happening | |
01:54 | in a Milan basement where there is an illegal mosque. | |
02:00 | [unintelligible] so many citizens… and so many journalists. | |
02:07 | [unintelligible] | |
02:17 | In this… In this courtyard, in a basement where we are going | |
02:23 | now to see [unintelligible] of Milan. During prayer times | |
02:27 | [unintelligible] some hundreds — some hundreds | |
02:30 | of Muslims praying in a completely unlawful way. | |
02:34 | We are in the interior [courtyard]) of a building, of a private building. | |
02:39 | You will ask, ‘Where is the mosque? | |
02:43 | And here it is not seen. Where is the unlawful religious place, | |
02:46 | where hundreds of people enter, violating every rule, and in a moment, we will see. | |
02:57 | One moment. There are also citizens. There. Excuse me. | |
03:05 | There the mystery, the mosque is here below. | |
03:10 | Here is where the unlawful mosque is, and here is where… the residents | |
03:18 | explain to us… | |
03:21 | If you push we change —Who has the key? —Me. | |
03:26 | Here is also the citizen for the key, that I imagine is not… | |
03:30 | We’ll take a walk around. [unintelligible] | |
03:35 | Imagine here, down these stairs, hundreds of people go to pray | |
03:40 | without any authorization. | |
03:52 | Matteo, this way. | |
03:57 | Thank you, Thank you. | |
04:00 | Now we’ll go to the boiler room because [unintelligible] | |
04:08 | So many, so many inspectors directly… | |
04:15 | You see an absolutely normal building and you also imagine the dangerous conditions. | |
04:22 | If there were a fire or collapse, the hundreds and hundreds of citizens | |
04:27 | who, I repeat, here downstairs at the bottom of this stairwell, | |
04:31 | meet so many, many, many times to pray. and perhaps to do other [things]. | |
04:40 | Let’s go. | |
04:43 | Now we’re going to look for another entrance to this mosque. | |
04:46 | Therefore, that small dark room is where they enter and leave. | |
04:51 | Therefore, [unintelligible]security. [unintelligible] fire… | |
04:56 | Matteo, We can’t all enter there in the basement. | |
05:02 | Then we just go. —[unintelligible] —We’ll just go | |
05:08 | Where? —Attention. | |
05:11 | The others here. Nobody enters. —Matteo. —Hi. — Hi. | |
05:15 | Two minutes —Thanks. —I thank you. Here nobody enters. | |
05:18 | We’ll go in and come out in two minutes. | |
05:21 | Matteo Salvini, for the interest… And now, we are covering where | |
05:25 | there is another entry to this unlawful mosque. | |
05:30 | So, you see the condominium [unintelligible] this way, | |
05:36 | [unintelligible], under the stairway | |
05:42 | Citizens [residents] hope desperate… | |
05:47 | Here there is another storage area [unintelligible] | |
05:51 | in an apartment and used by South Americans [unintelligible] | |
05:56 | …Via Cavalcanti… | |
06:02 | Today [unintelligible] |
Rules? Regulations? Planning consent?
“If we are practicing Muslims, we are above the law of the land,”
Mustafa Carroll,
CAIR, Dallas-Fort Worth