The envelope containing two partially burnt Quran pages created a shocking effect. By then, Muslim citizens in the Adriatic port city of Monfalcone had lived in relative peace for more than 20 years.
The envelope, addressed to the Darus Salaam Muslim cultural association in Via Duca d’Aosta, was received shortly after Monfalcone’s far-right mayor, Anna Maria Cisint, banned prayers there.
“This was painful, a serious insult that we never expected,” said Bou Konate, the association’s president. “But this was no coincidence. “The letter was a threat generated by a hate campaign that fueled toxicity.”
Monfalcone’s population recently surpassed 30,000. Such a positive demographic trend would normally represent good news in a country struggling with a rapidly falling birth rate; But this increase was not welcomed in Monfalcone, where Cisint has fostered an anti-Islam agenda since he first took office in 2016.
The town’s population growth is mostly attributed to the expanding shipyard owned by state-controlled giant Fincantieri. Fincantieri’s policy of outsourcing its workforce over the last two decades has led to a large influx of skilled foreign workers, primarily to Bangladesh. Cheap immigrant labor far outnumbers Italians, especially during peak periods of construction of large cruise ships.
Monfalcone’s Bangladeshi community was further strengthened by relatives and their Italian-born children arriving through the family reunification policy that Cisint wanted to restrict.
Today, this community accounts for 6,600 of Monfalcone’s total foreign-born population of 9,400, according to figures provided by Cisint during an interview with Monfalcone. Observer.
Immigration changed the structure of the town. There are a number of foreign-owned shops and restaurants, as well as a network of cycle paths used mostly by Bangladeshis, whose bicycles are their main means of transport.
“Without the contribution of the foreign community, Monfalcone would have turned into a ghost town,” said Enrico Bullian, a left-wing councilor for the Friuli-Venezia Giulia district.
Cisint, a politician backed by Matteo Salvini’s League party and the Brothers Italy party led by Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, won an easy re-election in 2022, thanks mostly to the anti-immigrant list that facilitated his rise to power. Italy is on the far right.
One of his first policies was to remove benches from the main square, allegedly because they were mostly used by immigrants. Cisint was excluded from the cricket sports festival popular with Bangladeshis as it seeks to limit the number of foreign children in schools. Last summer, it banned Muslim women from wearing burkinis on the beach.
But what resonated most was Cisint’s ban on worship in November, which also applied to a second Muslim cultural center in the town.
“It had a tremendous impact,” said Konate, an engineer who has lived in Italy for 40 years. “We have been praying in peace here for over 20 years. But this was not just a place of worship; People would come to meet and chat. Children came to after-school classes. “There are many Islamic cultural centers across Europe where you can pray and no one is stopping you from doing so,” he said.
Cisint claimed that Muslims were violating urban planning rules because the buildings were for commercial use and not for worship. He said security was another factor after citizens sent in photos showing “hundreds” of people entering.
“I didn’t say, ‘Close your door, you shouldn’t pray,'” Cisint said. Observer. “The space was being used in a distorted way; This was a mosque. “They need to respect the law,” he said.
The ban coincides with Meloni’s proposal by the Brothers of Italy to close hundreds of Muslim places of worship, not including mosques, across the country. Meloni, who has long opposed “Islamization” in Europe, said at a press conference in early January when asked to comment on the “Monfalcone situation”: “Those who choose to live in Italy must respect Italian norms.”
Konate said Muslims in Monfalcone have always respected the law, evidenced by the town’s extremely low crime rate, and that the mayor’s aim was to restrict Italian constitutional rights to worship.
But after years of living passively with hostility, he said the ban was a “watershed” moment.
On 23 December, an estimated 8,000 people protested this move and Cisint’s anti-Islam campaign; many believe that this campaign is being used to raise Cisint’s profile in the hope of qualifying for the European elections in June.
The Muslim community is also objecting to the prayer ban through the regional administrative court. Konate, who is an Italian citizen like many Muslims in Monfalcone, said, “For the first time we said ‘we must defend ourselves’.”
Cisint said the rapid increase in the foreign-born population is putting pressure on Monfalcone’s social services. But he has no problem with the town’s other significant foreign community, the Romanians. “They come, they integrate and they respect Italian norms,” he said.
Cisint recounts a list of stereotypes about Muslims, such as women being forced to wear masks and walk behind men. He claims to have done a lot for society; this includes building more schools “because they’re having too many babies.” He accuses Muslims of not wanting to learn Italian and says that if they do, the real goal is to obtain citizenship.
However, a Muslim woman in an Italian class taught by volunteers said it was difficult to find a seat in classes run by the authority. His teacher Cinzia Benussi said: “It seems like everything is being done to make life difficult for Bangladeshis.”
Amid the tension, a women’s group of native-born and foreign-born Italians emerged to bridge the divide caused by Cisint’s policies.
“It’s important to have this group to share ideas and help change people’s minds,” 27-year-old student Nahida Akhter, the daughter of a Fincantieri worker who has lived in Monfalcone since childhood, said at a recent meeting. those who remain stuck in the same prejudices.”
Financial advisor Fulvia Taucer added: “There has never been a problem with this community… Monfalcone is everyone’s home.”