Suwaidan is no longer scheduled to be in Italy

EFD Senior Fellow Valentina Colombo once more writes about the extremist imam Tareq al-Suwaidan, this time to inform her public that he will no longer be touring Italy as was scheduled for this May. This has been confirmed by the Italian foreign minister, Angelino Alfano.

Mr. Alfano, continues Colombo, also stated that Suwaidan, back in 2004, was inserted in the Schengen Information System, which clearly implies he is denied access to any of the countries within this area.

But most importantly, Mr. Alfano underlined that Suwaidan was already a well-know figure to the Italian police offices as well as to all police authorities within Schengen.

The question, at this point, is rather obvious, says Colombo: how could Suwaidan have been invited to Italy in the first place? There are many inconsistencies with Mr. Alfano’s last statement and the facts leading to Suwaidan’s scheduled events.

Curiously enough, the flyer that was created to promote Suwaidan’s events by the Islamic Italian Association of Imams and Religious Guides also cites the European Institute for Science and Humanities, an association that has been classified by many expert scholars, such as EFD Senior Policy Advisor Lorenzo Vidino as linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Colombo shares her hopes that this sort of incident is not left as it is, but that Italy will be more demanding and uncompromising with organisations such as the Islamic Italian Association of Imams and Religious Guides. This, she claims, is the work of Mr. Alfano.

This article is in Italian and can be read here.