
Milan’s Duomo: possibly a target
Several imams have been arrested on suspicions of terror plotting in Italy. The spectacle of religious teachers being arrested for this kind of activity has become so commonplace as to escape notice. But it points up vividly the problem that Muslims face globally: radicalism is coming from those who should be most familiar with the supposedly peaceful teachings of the religion. Global reform is needed, but it is not at all on the horizon. From the BBC, with thanks to Jean-Luc.
Italian police have arrested three North Africans suspected of plotting to bomb Milan’s metro and a cathedral in the north of the country.
Arrest warrants had been issued for five men from Morocco and Tunisia, who served as Muslim religious leaders in the city of Cremona.The suspected cell members are under investigation for conspiracy to commit “international terrorism”. . . .
The crackdown targeted an alleged cell linked to a mosque in the city of Cremona.
Investigators believe the men planned to blow up the Milan metro stop below the cathedral in December 2002 and also to bomb the Cremona cathedral.
“The subversive cells have maintained themselves over time, working out of the mosque of Cremona and led by the successive imams,” Brescia’s attorney general said.
Another ex-imam of the Cremona mosque was arrested last October, after being accused by Morocco of links to the suicide bombings in Casablanca that killed 45 people in May.