Matteo Salvini Visits a Not-So-Clandestine Mosque in Milan

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]
 

One thought on “Matteo Salvini Visits a Not-So-Clandestine Mosque in Milan

  1. Rules? Regulations? Planning consent?

    “If we are practicing Muslims, we are above the law of the land,”
    Mustafa Carroll,
    CAIR, Dallas-Fort Worth

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