“Islam Incompatible with Europe” Old Statements of Italian PM Go Viral

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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni recently became controversial after an old video of her rebuking Islam and arguing that it has no place in Europe resurfaced on social media.

The video from 2018 went viral after Italy’s first female prime minister held a political festival organized by her far-right Brothers of Italy party on December 16th. Figures like British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak were in attendance. 

In the video, which was taken before Meloni became prime minister, the far-right politician spoke in Italian to reporters, where she scoffed at Islamic culture and contended that Islam is incompatible with European values.

In the video, Meloni stated, "I believe there is a problem of compatibility between Islamic culture or a certain interpretation of Islamic culture and the rights and values of our civilization. "

She also lamented the presence of Islamic cultural centers in Italy, which she claimed was financed by Saudi Arabia, further adding that the ultraconservative kingdom is applying Sharia law, which meant the death penalty for those found guilty of apostasy or homosexuality and stoning for those guilty of adultery.

"It does not escape my mind that most of the Islamic cultural centers in Italy are financed by Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is a nation that, at home, applies Sharia.” Meloni said.

“Sharia means lapidation for adultery and the death penalty for apostasy and homosexuality,” she added.

However, Meloni claimed that raising these issues doesn’t necessarily mean generalizing on Islam but instead raising the problem of Islamization, which she insisted was very distant from the values of European civilization.

“I believe that these should be raised, which does not mean generalizing on Islam. It means raising the problem that there is a process of Islamisation in Europe that is very distant from the values of our civilization," Meloni said.

These remarks, while controversial, were not the first time Meloni made scathing comments against Islam. During a political rally in Spain in June 2022, months before she was elected as Italy’s prime minister, Meloni was heard shouting the phrase, “No to the violence of Islam. Yes, to safer borders.” She maintained strong rhetoric against immigration and Islam throughout her campaign and constantly alluded to the Great Replacement Theory, a white-nationalist conspiracy theory.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met during the rally by Brothers of Italy that was hosted in Rome, where the two leaders discussed plans to finance the repatriation of migrants to Tunisia. The two leaders also met with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama to discuss migration.

"If we do not tackle this problem, the numbers will only grow. It will overwhelm our countries and our capacity to help those who actually need our help the most," Sunak said during a speech. "Making that deterrent credible will mean doing things differently, breaking from consensus. And both Giorgia and I are prepared to do that."

Elon Musk also made a rare appearance, meeting world leaders during the event.

“Immigration isn’t enough to combat population shrinking,” Musk explained. “There is value in cultures, we don’t want Italy as a culture to disappear; we want to maintain a reasonable cultural identity of those countries, or they won’t be those countries.”

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