A religious uproar erupted in Italy after a statue of Jesus was covered with a cloth during Eid al-Adha prayers held by local Muslims in a church in Monfalcone. Approximately 4,000 worshippers gathered for the prayer service at the Church of Marcelliana, which had been offered to the Muslim community for the holiday. The act of covering the statue sparked harsh criticism from former Monfalcone mayor and current European Parliament member for the right-wing League party, Anna Maria Cisint.
"This is an act of desecration and unacceptable contempt," Cisint told Il Tempo. "Italy is in a constant state of retreat, and that is a serious mistake. We must work to bring people back to churches instead of yielding such important spaces to Islam."
Gesù coperto con un telo durante la preghiera islamica a Monfalcone. L'europarlamentare della Lega Anna Maria Cisint: "INACCETTABILE!" pic.twitter.com/Jn34WehY2s
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Don Flavio, the priest in charge of the church, said he would review the image documenting the event, but noted, as quoted in Il Giornale, "Clearly, no one should have done something like that."
Cisint emphasized, "No Islamic edict requires the symbols of other religions to be concealed in order to pray." She described the act of covering the statue as "ostentatious, brutal and provocative," adding that it amounted to a "deep insult to devout Christians."
"The West, meanwhile, extends a hand to its executioner in a gesture of peace that is, first of all, useless and, second, ridiculous - or rather, tragic," she continued, as cited in Il Tempo. She warned that "relations between peoples and religions must be managed with extreme caution, without granting concessions."
"Respect means knowing where you are, whose house you are in, and what the rules of the game are," Cisint concluded.
