Italians React to Muslim Street Prayers in Rome

Hat tip Vlad Tepes

Below is a video from an Italian news outlet that I translated and sub-titled for Vlad Tepes blog. (They did some editing after I submitted it.) In this video, a reporter asks Italians in Rome about the possible opening of a new mosque. Clearly, the people interviewed are angry because local Muslims, not having a large enough space to pray in their mosque, are blocking the sidewalks with their prayers. You will see that those interviewed have no tolerance for the newcomers, there mosques and their businesses. I don’t know whether the reporter interviewed others who expressed more moderate feelings. My inference from the video is that the media wanted to show the local Italians in a bad light as being racists. It is instructive however, that the residents did not hold back their feelings.

The Muslim community in this video consists mostly of Bangladeshis. There is now a large Bangladeshi population in Rome, which I had not been aware of. In researching then, it seems that they are not legally in Italy, and that many of them begin as street merchants, and some have graduated into opening their own stores.

A note on the translating. I have no problem translating the reporters since they are using standard Italian. In some cases, those being interviewed on the street use local slang words and expressions, which I have had to mark down as unintelligible. Curse words were edited out by Vlad Tepes.

http://vladtepesblog.com/2016/11/23/italians-not-only-running-out-of-patience-for-muslims-but-willing-to-show-it/