Berlusconi: Milan will be 'full of Muslims and Gypsies' if Left takes power

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi may have outdone even himself with his latest inflammatory comments. Rallying supporters in Milan ahead of local elections later this month, he warned people that if the centre-Left candidate for mayor wins, the city will be handed over to Muslims and Gypsies. According to Italian news agency AKI he told the Milanese,

"Milan can't become, on the eve of the Expo 2015, an Islamic city, a city of Gypsies, full of Roma camps and swamped by foreigners, a city that gives voting rights to immigrants in municipal elections."

The comments, which were not an off-the-cuff remark but rather part of a prepared speech that was also posted on the website of Berlusconi's conservative People of Freedom party, were met with open-mouthed disbelief by the leader of Italy's largest centre-left opposition Democratic Party. "Your words are laughable..you're going to need to wear a burqa to avoid people recognising you in the street," he told the Italian leader.

Europe’s far right calls for ban on mosques

Far-right groups in Belgium, Germany and Austria today launched a drive calling for a ban on the building of new mosques in order to stop the spread of radical Islam in Europe.

Belgium's far-right Vlaams Belang has joined with radical groups from Austria and Germany to launch a Charter to, “fight the Islamisation of West-European cities.” They announced their new coalition Thursday in the Flemish city of Antwerp. Vlaams Belang’s Filip Dewinter told Radio Netherlands Worldwide, “"We are not opposed to freedom of religion but we don't want Muslims to impose their way of life and traditions over here because much of it is not compatible with our way of life."

Tensions between Muslim communities and the majority populations in Western Europe have been growing in recent years as these largely secular societies struggle to absorb populations with deeply held religious beliefs. The crisis has been exasperated by incidents such as the 2004 murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh (a relative of Vincent Van Gogh) by a jihadist after Van Gogh made a movie dealing with violence against women in Islamic societies. Tensions between Muslims and the secular Dutch have been particularly strong since then.