In events that received scant attention from the English language press, last week protests in Libya against those cartoons resulted in rioting, an attack on an Italian consulate, the death of up to 11 protesters (shot by police). The fallout in Italy led to the resignation of a high-profile minister in Berlusconi’s government.
Enough column space has been devoted worldwide at this stage to examining the rights and wrongs of publishing the cartoons. That the cartoons have been used and manipulated by fundamentalists and governments throughout the middle east, for disparate ends, seems a given. What has escaped comment, certainly in Italy, is the political use to which the cartoons issue has been put by our own hardliners.
On the 13th of February, Umberto Eco, arguing for moderation (and good manners) in his regular opinion column (in L’Espresso magazine), commented that “it seems that in Copenhagen some NaziSkins proposed burning the Koran in the town square, but if for some reason the police hadn’t stopped them, what sensible Muslim would have confused these demons with European public opinion?”. At the same time, the Minister for Reforms, Roberto Calderoli, a member of the xenophobic Lega Nord party started a campaign to defend ‘freedom of speech’. This culminated with his appearance on prime time TV on Wednesday 16th, participating in a taped current affairs programme, when he unbuttoned his shirt to reveal his paunchy chest covered in a t-shirt bearing one of the satirical cartoons. An act of solidarity with the Danish people and Government, we were told.
This, it’s worth repeating, was not the act of a private citizen, but that of a government Minister and leading figure in one of the main coalition parties. The Lega Nord from the outset have been the most vociferous defenders of the Danish cartoons in Italy, offering free Danish beer and biscuits throughout their political heartland of Northern Italy*, at meetings organised to collect signatures for a petition to block voting rights for immigrants[1].
This crusading zeal, to protect freedom of speech, on the part of the Lega had been inexplicably absent previously, at least when dealing with the numerous cases of political censorship that have occured in the public broadcasting sector – Italy, we should remind our readers, currently ranks #77 (between Bulgaria and Mongolia) in the World Press freedom rankings calculated by Freedom House. The cynical might suggest that the Lega defend freedom of speech, when they like the speech…
On Friday the 17th, in the North Eastern Libyan town of Bengasi, a protest against the cartoons (organised by the local Mosques) diverted from its original route and arrived in front of the local Italian consulate. Reports differ as to how events proceeded from here – what is certain is that one youth attempted to rip down the Italian flag, and that (Libyan) armed police started firing into the crowd killing up to 10 protesters. Rioting ensued and Italian nationals were advised by their ambassador to leave the country for their own safety.
Berlusconi, and his Deputy PM, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and leader of the ‘post-fascist’ Alleanza Nazionale party, Gianfranco Fini(TIFOF