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Careful wording or abject dhimmitude? "Libya/Italy: Calderoli 'sorry': Berlusconi confident migrant coooperation will resume," from ANSA (thanks to Insubria):
(ANSA) - Rome, May 9 - An Italian government minister whose reappointment was opposed by Libya on Friday apologised for an incident during his last term which many observers have linked to the north African country's decision to halt cooperation on stopping immigrants.''I'm sorry for the consequences (of the incident),'' said Roberto Calderoli of the regionalist Northern League, who was forced to resign from Silvio Berlusconi's last government after sporting a T-shirt with one of the notorious Danish cartoons that lampooned the Prophet Mohammed.
A Libyan charity run by one of Muammar Gheddafi's sons last week strongly urged Berlusconi not to reappoint Calderoli because of the stunt, which led to riots outside the Italian embassy in Tripoli in which 11 protesters were shot by police.
It said the consequences could be ''disastrous''.
But the premier, fortified by a bipartisan stance that Libya should not interfere in Italy's internal affairs, went ahead and appointed the League heavyweight to a new post aimed at hacking back Italy's jungle of laws.
In the wake of Libya's Thursday night statement on stopping immigrant cooperation - a statement in which the cartoon incident was not cited - Calderoli said Friday his cartoon gesture had been ''misunderstood''.
The freshly sworn-in minister went further than previous claims that he had only wished to defend free speech, calling the display of the offending cartoons ''a message of peace'' between Christianity and Islam.
Speaking on Berlusconi's flagship private TV channel, the minister voiced the hope that ''there won't be problems with Libya''.
''It's over; for me the incident is closed,'' said the minister, who upset Muslims again last September when he suggested pigs should be brought in to thwart plans for the construction of a major mosque in Bologna.
Berlusconi and his foreign minister, Franco Frattini, played down the affair and said they were sure it would soon be cleared up.
''I'm confident we'll be able to clarify the situation and reassure the Libyan authorities,'' said Berlusconi....
What will they be doing to reassure us?
Posted by Robert at May 9, 2008 5:40 PM
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Where can I get one of those T-shirts? Maybe they could be a part of our next disaster relief shipment.
Posted by: tanstaafl![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 9, 2008 5:51 PM
I guess that the reaction to the T-shirt proved the message of the cartoon doesnt matter at all.
Posted by: Elric66 at May 9, 2008 5:53 PM
"''there won't be problems with Libya''.
...He doesn't know Libya too well, it is plain to see.
Posted by: pulsar182 at May 9, 2008 6:21 PM
Nobody should ever apologize to the scum of Tripoli.
Gaddafi & sons have been involved in just about every jihad around the world and aided & abetted every other terrorist attack.
Ronald Reagan did the only thing you can do with these swine, but even he failed to bomb them out of existence.
Italy cannot rely on Libya on the migrant issue, this extortion racket has gone on far too long. Whoever believes that Gaddafi doesn't support mass-migration from Islamic countries into EUrabia is delusional.
What Italy and Spain need to do is to take a stand and blow some of these 'immigrants' out of the water, so they get the message. The bleeding hearts lunatics who force this ill conceived, misguided humanitarian open borders diversity on us should be treated as self-destructive criminals.
Posted by: sheik yer'mami at May 9, 2008 6:37 PM
Since almost everything we do (so long as we refuse to 'submit') and everything we are, offends the 'sons of allah', I think we should simply stop caring whether they take offence at this or that.
If the Italian members of parliament had the spirit that enabled their ancestors to defeat Moloch-worshipping child-sacrificing Carthage, and raze it to the ground [see G K Chesterton, "The Everlasting Man", chapter entitled 'the war of the gods and the demons'], then every last man jack of them would get one of these T-shirts (I hope it was the 'Mohammed ha-Meshugga' turban-bomb picture, Kurt Westergaard's satirical masterpiece), and WEAR IT IN PARLIAMENT.
Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at May 10, 2008 3:23 AM
Calderoli was right then and was right now. Italy needs Libia's cooperation on the immigration issue. So a treaty with Gaddafi is essential for us.
Remember Hudaybiyya!!! If it's right for them why not for us?
All the best
Buraq
Posted by: Buraq at May 10, 2008 6:35 AM
In the wake of Libya's Thursday night statement on stopping immigrant cooperation - a statement in which the cartoon incident was not cited - Calderoli said Friday his cartoon gesture had been ''misunderstood''.I can just see Calderoli's 'tongue in cheek' here. Rather cheeky to turn it around on the Musselmen's "out of context" gripe. Not a fan of B'sconi, but you got to hand to him. He's not one to back down, or listen to Libyan complaints. Anyway, no Musselmen's word's worth a damn. They lie.
at May 10, 2008 4:04 PM
I have just bought, and read, Oriana Fallaci's "The Force of Reason". A splendid book. I particularly liked her choice of epigraph for the post-script, her speech on November 28th 2005 - "the secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom is courage".
She would have been delighted by Calderoli's wearing of that defiant T-shirt; horrified by his being asked to resign; enormously relieved by his reinstatement.
I am sure that she would have bought one of those t-shirts herself, and flaunted it.
And if other Italian parliamentarians, and mayors, and town councillors, yes, and can we say parish priests? - were to find the cojones to emulate Calderoli, and obtain the cartoon T-shirt, and defiantly wear it in parliament, or on the street, then I think Oriana, who loved nothing better than a brave man, would have laughed, and wept, and sung alleluias for sheer joy to behold the beginning of a resurrection of Italian manhood.
Come on, men of Italy! Do her fiery spirit proud!
Perhaps Italians, reading this, can write to Calderoli and Berlusconi and remind them of the words of Pericles as reported by Thucydides and seized upon with passion by Oriana Fallaci: 'the secret of happiness is freedom and the secret of freedom is courage'.
Coraggio!
Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at May 12, 2008 4:22 AM
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