Interior minister upsets Sicilians
Amato in trouble over wife- beating comment
(ANSA) - Rome, July 11 - Interior Minister Giuliano Amato upset
Sicilians on Wednesday by saying that wife beating was a traditional part of
their culture.
Amato made the gaffe during a conference here on the integration of
Muslim immigrant communities.
"No God ever authorised a man to beat a woman. It's a Sicilian-Pakistani
tradition which would have us believe otherwise," the minister said.
Amato, a former Socialist premier now serving in the centre-left
government of Premier Romano Prodi, went on to liken the "customs and
traditions" prevalent in Sicily up until the 1970s to "those that have been
imported by certain groups of Muslim immigrants". The remarks immediately
landed Amato in hot water.
Opposition MP and ex-minister Stefania Prestigiacomo, who is Sicilian,
threatened to sue him.
"Amato talks off the top of his head. Either he immediately apologises to
Sicilians or I'll sue him for libel," she said.
Another Sicilian MP belonging to opposition chief Silvio Berlusconi's
Forza Italia party also demanded an apology.
"Our island's culture acknowledges women's primary role in society and no
one has the right to define a lack of respect towards women a Sicilian
characteristic," lawmaker Giuseppe Marinello said.
"No such Sicilian-Pakistani tradition exists," he added indignantly.
Ignazio La Russa, the House Whip for the rightist National Alliance
party, said that "in all societies in the past, chauvinism led to disrespect
and sometimes violence against women but it is a huge whopper to say that in
Sicily, the name of God was ever invoked to justify such abuses".
Last December, Amato offended Muslim communities with comments on the
sharia, the Islam-inspired law system.
Speaking at another Rome conference on cross-cultural integration, the
minister said that "sharia is an expression of a chauvinistic culture which
belongs to certain backward societies".
http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2007-07-11_111102081.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuliano_Amato
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