Italy's justice minister, a member of the right-wing Northern League party, was accused of fuelling anti-Islamic sentiment in Italy on Sunday after saying he would fine women wearing the all-covering burka. Roberto Castelli said an Italian law banning the covering of a person's face in public would be applied to women wearing the full-length religious robe that hides the head and face.
"To go around with your face covered is a crime, you can't do it," Castelli told reporters.
"Women who do so must be reported to the police and fined."
Castelli's outburst is the latest in a series to make headlines as overwhelmingly Catholic Italy comes to grips with a growing Muslim population some see as a blessing for the economy and others as a threat.
Opposition politicians demanded his resignation and that of other Northern League ministers, whose party has come to be defined by its anti-immigrant rhetoric.
They said the comments were irrelevant because it was rare to see a woman dressed in a burka on Italian streets and that Castelli was fanning hysteria.
"Northern League ministers are ... feeding a culture of fear and defensiveness against migrants of Islamic origin," said Paolo Cento, vice chairman of parliament's justice committee.
Italy, with a population of 57 million, is home to an estimated 1 million officially registered Muslims, making Islam the country's second-largest religion. But social services groups say the number is much higher and growing.
Some fear the nascent multiculturalism is already being met by a backlash, prompted in part by attacks against Italian troops and aid workers deployed in Iraq.
A judge last month ordered celebrated Italian writer and journalist Oriana Fallaci to stand trial on charges she defamed Islam in a recent trilogy written in response to the September 11 attacks on US cities.
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