Italian minister quits over Prophet T-shirt
Last Updated Sat, 18 Feb 2006 11:02:48 EST
CBC News
Italian cabinet minister Roberto Calderoli resigned on Saturday after wearing a T-shirt printed with cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. News that he had the shirts made sparked a five-hour riot outside the Italian consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on Friday. At least 10 people died as police tried to disperse the crowd of more than 1,000 demonstrators.
Police fired live ammunition and tear gas at protesters, who hurled rocks and bottles before storming the compound and setting fire to the building and cars parked nearby. Libya's parliamentary secretariat on Saturday voted to suspend the interior minister for "excessive use of force" in the riot.
Calderoli, a member of the anti-immigration Northern League party, wore the T-shirt underneath a suit this week. He told the Italian news agency ANSA it was a "personal initiative" that was meant to invite "real dialogue.''
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi later asked for Calderoli's resignation, saying the minister's position "isn't that of the government and it's evidently incompatible with an institutional role."
"I respect all faiths and support dialogue between religions and civilizations,'' Berlusconi said in a statement published on the government's website Saturday.
The cartoons, first published by a Danish newspaper in September, have angered Muslims around the world. Protesters have burned Danish flags and attacked embassies. Devout Islamic beliefs prohibit any depiction of the Prophet Muhammad.
More than 10,000 people took part in an angry but peaceful protest against the cartoons in central London on Saturday. Buses brought participants from cities around Britain to gather in Trafalgar Square and they marched through central London toward Hyde Park.
Last Updated Sat, 18 Feb 2006 11:02:48 EST
CBC News
Italian cabinet minister Roberto Calderoli resigned on Saturday after wearing a T-shirt printed with cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. News that he had the shirts made sparked a five-hour riot outside the Italian consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on Friday. At least 10 people died as police tried to disperse the crowd of more than 1,000 demonstrators.
- INDEPTH: Timeline: Muhammad cartoons
Police fired live ammunition and tear gas at protesters, who hurled rocks and bottles before storming the compound and setting fire to the building and cars parked nearby. Libya's parliamentary secretariat on Saturday voted to suspend the interior minister for "excessive use of force" in the riot.
Calderoli, a member of the anti-immigration Northern League party, wore the T-shirt underneath a suit this week. He told the Italian news agency ANSA it was a "personal initiative" that was meant to invite "real dialogue.''
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi later asked for Calderoli's resignation, saying the minister's position "isn't that of the government and it's evidently incompatible with an institutional role."
"I respect all faiths and support dialogue between religions and civilizations,'' Berlusconi said in a statement published on the government's website Saturday.
- FROM FEB. 17, 2006: 10 killed in Muhammad protests in Libya
The cartoons, first published by a Danish newspaper in September, have angered Muslims around the world. Protesters have burned Danish flags and attacked embassies. Devout Islamic beliefs prohibit any depiction of the Prophet Muhammad.
More than 10,000 people took part in an angry but peaceful protest against the cartoons in central London on Saturday. Buses brought participants from cities around Britain to gather in Trafalgar Square and they marched through central London toward Hyde Park.