ROME: Leftist politicians on Sunday pinned blame for a racist shooting spree in central Italy on the far-right League Party that looks set to make major gains in a March 4 national election.
Six African migrants were shot and injured on Saturday in the city of Macerata by an Italian man named as Luca Traini, who last year stood as a League candidate in a local ballot, but failed to win any votes.
Police said Traini, who has a neo-Nazi symbol tattooed above his eyebrow, admitted to carrying out the drive-by shootings and had shown no remorse.
League leader Matteo Salvini, who has forged an electoral pact with former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, distanced himself from the attack, but said the violence was the direct result of mass immigration into Italy in recent years.
“If anyone is to blame, it is the government which has allowed hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants to come here without any limits,” Salvini told La Stampa newspaper on Sunday.
Leftist politicians accused Salvini of stirring dangerous sentiment in a country that struggles to get to grips with the legacy of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943.
“Salvini has created fear and chaos and should apologize before the Italian people,” said Laura Boldrini, speaker of the lower house of parliament and a leading figure in the left-wing Free and Equal party.
Seeking the moral high ground, the ruling center-left Democratic Party (PD) called for calm. “It would be easy to stir controversy against those who fuel hatred against us every day, but it would be a mistake,” said PD leader Matteo Renzi.
Opinion polls say the PD will lose next month’s Parliamentary election, with Berlusconi’s center-right bloc set to win the most seats, lifted in part by rising support for the League though short of an absolute majority.
After taking charge of the League in 2013, Salvini shunted the party to the far right, adopting an uncompromising anti-immigration stance and allying himself with the National Front in France and the anti-Islam Freedom Party in the Netherlands.
His strategy appears to be paying off — polls suggest the League will win up to 14 percent of the vote against 4.1 percent at the 2013 national election, challenging Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party for supremacy in their center-right bloc.
Shooting attacks are very rare in Italy and it was not clear if Saturday’s violence would damage Salvini.
However, pollsters say his calls for mass deportations resonate in a country — with Europe’s fourth largest economy — that has taken in more than 600,000 mainly African migrants over the past four years.
The six people injured on Saturday came from Nigeria, Mali, Ghana and Gambia. None suffered life-threatening wounds.
Traini’s attack came just days after a Nigerian migrant was arrested in connection with the death of an 18-year-old Italian woman, whose dismembered body was discovered stuffed into two suitcases near Macerata.
Italy’s League under pressure over racist shootings
Italy’s League under pressure over racist shootings
8 in 10 British Muslims face ‘financial faith penalty’ when seeking home finance, survey finds
- Restricted choices plague potential buyers
LONDON: Eight in 10 British Muslims say their home finance choices are restricted because of their faith, according to a new national survey that highlighted what researchers describe as a growing “financial faith penalty” in the UK housing market.
The report, published by Islamic home finance fintech firm Offa, found that 80 percent of Muslim respondents believe their religious beliefs limit their access to suitable home finance, while those who do use Islamic products often face slower decisions, heavier paperwork and poorer customer experiences than in the conventional mortgage market.
Based on surveys of 1,000 British Muslims conducted by Muslim Census, and 2,000 non-Muslims carried out by OnePoll, the research calls on providers, brokers and policymakers to modernize Islamic home finance and improve access to Sharia-compliant products.
Among the 24.3 percent of British Muslims who have used Islamic home finance, just 5 percent said they had received a same-day decision.
Some 62 percent waited up to two weeks, while 33 percent waited more than 15 days, including 16 percent who waited over a month.
Long decision times were cited as the biggest challenge by 28 percent of respondents, followed by excessive paperwork (22.6 percent) and poor customer service (18.9 percent).
Islamic home finance differs from conventional mortgages by avoiding interest and steering investment away from sectors considered harmful to society, including gambling, alcohol, tobacco, arms trading and animal testing.
Sagheer Malik, chief commercial officer and managing director of home finance at Offa, said the findings showed British Muslims were being underserved by outdated systems.
Malik said: “Property is the asset class of choice for many of the UK’s 3.87 million Muslims, both as a route to generational wealth and as a long-term financial foundation, yet our insightful research report reveals that British Muslims are being underserved and deterred by slow, outdated and opaque Islamic home finance provision.
“This is not a niche concern. It goes to the heart of financial fairness and inclusion in modern Britain.”
He added that Muslims deserved Sharia-compliant products that matched mainstream standards on “price, speed and simplicity.”
Despite strong demand, uptake remains low.
Only 12.8 percent of British Muslims surveyed said they currently use Islamic home finance, with a further 11.5 percent having done so in the past. More than three quarters (75.7 percent) have never used it.
Faith plays a central role in financial decisions, with 94.2 percent saying it is important that their financial products align with their ethical or religious beliefs. Yet more than half of those using conventional mortgages said they felt unhappy or uneasy about doing so because of their faith.
The study also found that British Muslims share similar home ownership aspirations to the wider population, with 79.1 percent citing the desire to provide a stable home for their family, while 18.6 percent said building generational wealth was their main motivation. Only 2.2 percent said they did not want to own a home.
The report suggests Islamic finance could appeal beyond Muslim communities. While 64 percent of non-Muslim respondents had never heard of Islamic home finance, 63 percent said they favored its ethical principles once explained.
Younger generations were the most receptive, with 43 percent of Generation Z and 37 percent of millennials saying they would consider using Islamic home finance, compared with just 7 percent of baby boomers. More than three quarters of Gen Z and 72 percent of millennials also said it was important that their finance provider avoided investing in ethically harmful sectors.
Offa said the findings pointed to an opportunity to expand ethical finance in the UK, provided the industry can deliver faster, simpler and more transparent services.
