Pathetic Italian minister steps down

Among widespread criticism, Italian minister for constitutional reforms Roberto Calderoli resigned on Saturday. Italy's Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini met senior Islamic clerics at the Great Mosque in Rome in the attempt to defuse tensions.

This is what a local Christian Conservative newspaper wrote on its front page on Saturday (A forza di scherzare col fuoco by Ettore Ongis, in "L'Eco di Bergamo", Saturday, February 18, 2006, page 1), in my own translation:

After playing with fire for so long, this time fire did flare up. Eleven dead, dozens injured, hundreds of people in revolt and a widespread rage against Italy, all because of a vulgar bravado. Calderoli accomplished his mission of inflammatory provoker. Here is the T-shirt with the Prophet Muhammad drawings, look at me, I have no fear and I slam it in the face of the whole Muslim world. It wasn’t long before the reaction came. In a few hours, the last of countless acts of defiance of an embarrassing character turned minister degenerated into tragedy. At the same time, it was able to risk the safety of Italian nationals living in Islamic countries and to force the cabinet to find a last-minute remedy, although it was already too late. Never had anyone seen so much irresponsibility in the political top ranks. In the case of Calderoli, however, all the signs were there to be recognized. A foreseen fiasco. For years, the Northern League minister had been trespassing all limits of decency with his words and his deeds. For years, the MP from Bergamo and former President of the Lombard League had been allowed to insult, offend and deride Southern Italians, then immigrants, and eventually Muslims. It was part of his political persona and, in some way, his excesses were forgiven because he was Umberto Bossi’s number two and because he somehow managed to be appreciated as Senate [deputy] chairman. Somehow, we got used to him, and on the stage of Italy’s politics such a character could have been tolerated. But domestic tolerance wasn’t enough for him: he wanted to aim higher and higher, until he decided to test the Islamic religious sensitivity, which had already been humiliated by the publication of the [Prophet Muhammad] drawings by some European newspapers. Now we are counting the dead. Among the Libyan population, today. Hoping we won’t have to count on this shore of the Mediterranean, tomorrow.
Berlusconi, for his part, at first tried to patch up this worldwide blunder distancing himself from his minister: ‘It was absolutely his own personal initiative, we totally disagree with it’, he said. Too little, too late. Later, as the events were coming to a head, he loudly demanded Calderoli’s resignation. Only in the middle of the night, the latter communicated that he could be inclined to resign, not without some ambiguity. Until then, the only reaction of the minister to the havoc made had been a disconcerting statement pronounced in the afternoon [of Friday]: ‘Regretful? Are you kidding?’. Not even after the assault to the Italian consulate in Benghazi, not even after eleven dead, he did understand that the farce was over for good.

(Update, March 5: La Repubblica reported that former minister Roberto Calderoli tried to define his stance on the issue. These are his words, in my own translation:

I do not want to offend and I did not mean to offend the believers of Islam, or of any other faith. If anything, we should thank Muslims, because their religiousness has eventually awaken a Christian awareness that had been drowsing for too long in a materialistic and consumerist society. In fact, I hold believers, Muslims included, in high esteem, because they are individuals of principles who defend their values. It is quite a different matter, though, if you consider those who exploit religion for different purposes, like those individuals who, while being well hidden and sheltered, excite the minds of plain people, send them to massacre, and use [them] as cannon fodder for delirious attacks against the Western countries. [...] Whoever commands a slaughter of innocent civilians in a city or sends youngsters to die as suicide bombers is not a military leader, he's a terrorist. Period. With my T-shirt I did not mean to offend Muslims as a whole, I wanted to claim the right to express a different point of view. I wanted to raise my voice against the insanity of those who have other targets, under the false pretext of religion. Those who use fundamentalism as a pick in order to destroy our civilization.

Nice words. Even something one can agree with. Just a question: who is the ghost writer?)