Italy takes heat as racist voices rise

Italy is fighting allegations of institutional racism by the editor of a major French newspaper. In a letter published last week in the left-leaning Italian daily La Repubblica, Le Monde's Jean-Marie Colombani accused Italian border police at Venice's Marco Polo airport of "harassing" his 20-year-old adopted son, a French citizen of Indian origin. Guards went through his luggage, questioned him about his private life, and challenged his nationality, he wrote, saying this sort of thing happens every year.

The Frenchman's allegations come on top of the release of a new anti-Islamic book by an Italian war correspondent, which sold half a million copies in a matter of hours last week. The author, Oriana Fallaci, says she is simply giving voice to a growing sentiment here. Over the past 15 years, Italy has seen a massive influx of immigrants from the developing world and commentators say this society, almost 100 percent white half a century ago, is struggling to adapt to rapid change.

Mr. Colombani's letter and Mr. Fallaci's book have thrown a harsh light on the state of ethnic relations here. While other parts of Europe have seen a rise in tension between races, Italy, with its close proximity to North Africa, is a prime gateway for the wave of immigrants entering the Continent. Now a fresh debate over the place of these newcomers is igniting in a country that has long been more accustomed to emigrating than hosting foreigners.

"It is almost as if Italy is also falling into a populist atmosphere that is in fashion, with the same old temptation towards xenophobia," Colombani wrote in La Repubblica.

The open letter offended Italian leaders and members of the public.

"I cannot deny this risk [that Italy is sliding into xenophobia]," Italy's interior minister, Giuseppe Pisanu, responded in letter published in La Repubblica. "But I see a culture of welcome and respect for others that is still well rooted in our country."

Mr. Pisanu apologized for any isolated incidents but insisted his police forces were not racist, inviting visitors to Italy to report any unjustified excesses or harassment.

Justice Minister Roberto Castelli, of the antiimmigrant Northern League, was more indignant, defending the Italian police for doing their job in times of high security and pitying them for having had the misfortune to "disturb" an intellectual of the "gauche française."

The national media have rejected Colombani's accusation, complaining that racism is not Italy's but Europe's big problem, especially since the global war on Islamic fundamentalist terrorism began. Newspapers pointed out that Israel's Ariel Sharon has recently called on French Jews to move to Israel to escape rising anti-Semitism in France.

But the massive success of a new anti-Islamic tract by Ms. Fallaci, entitled "Oriana Fallaci interviews Oriana Fallaci,"says Europe is being turned into "Eurabia" by immigrants, added fuel to fears that unabashed racism is becoming increasingly acceptable in Italy.

"I say what I think and that is what people think but almost never say," says Fallaci. "They have found someone who gives a voice to their silence." A new edition is being prepared.

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