Abdul Hadi Palazzi - Manipulating Muslims III


This text on a certain Abdul Hadi Palazzi is taken from a website ( http://www.ifrance.com/amipalazzi) which shows how the Muslim community is being manipulated by some quite surprising characters, for political reasons which have nothing to do with the faith I and no doubt some other people in this forum were born in.

I can say nothing as to the reliability of the information provided here, but there are a lot of footnotes and links, and it certainly appears to be extremely well documented: very little comments or rants. Unfortunately I don't know Italian, which most of the site is in.

I am putting this article up in several instalments, as it is quite long - bear with me and skip if you find it boring.


Abdul Rahman T.

...................


 http://www.ifrance.com/amipalazzi/gb/palazzi02_gb.htm


A Muslim knight for the Mussolinis

On February 20th, 2003, Romano Mussolini, the son of the late Benito, appointed a new Knight of Grand Cross with Silver Plate of the Order of the Roman Eagle in Gremio Religionis: this is one of the countless self-styled chivalric orders which are fashionable today, founded in this case by Benito Mussolini:

"The Civil and Military Order of the Roman Eagle, now suppressed, was established by King Victor Emanuel III, King of Italy, Albania and of the Kingdom of Ethiopia, on March 14th, 1942, by Royal Decree, in order to reward those foreigners, civilian or military, who had earned special merits towards the Kingdom of Italy, at war in alliance with Germany and Japan [...]




Symbol of the Order of the Roman Eagle


This order was conferred later by the Republic of Salò [Mussolini's pro-German government in Northern Italy] and is today granted by the Head of the MUSSOLINI Family as a "Family Order", although many authors call it a "Dynastic" Order".

The website of the Order, a wonderful example of Neo-Fascist trash, with pictures of Roman toy soldiers, eagles and links to "hymns and songs of Fascist Italy", tells us that one of the purposes of this Order is to "promote and develop the history of Imperial and Italian Rome during the first half of the twentieth century", i.e. Mussolini's ephemeral empire.




It will come as a surprise to some to read that the new Mussolini knight is a Muslim: a certain Massimo Palazzi. Actually, the document granting the title ( http://www.ifrance.com/amipalazzi/it/aquilotto.htm)specifies that Palazzi will have to wait until March 18th to actually enjoy his Grand Cross:

"This is the anniversary of March 18th, 1937, the day that the founder of the Order, His Excellency the Knight Benito Mussolini, before 2000 Roman Arab-Muslim knights, received the Sword of Islam."

So let us see who is supposed to wield the Sword of Islam for the Third Millennium.

Palazzi is an Italian who in recent years has become quite famous, especially outside Italy, as "the moderate Muslim", "moderate" merely meaning someone who is in favour of the current policies of the US government. Palazzi generally prefers to be called Professor Doctor Shaykh Abdul Hadi Palazzi, meaning "The Elder, Servant of the Peaceful One". Palazzi takes advantage of the various nicknames he uses - especially " Abu Ibrahim Kalim" - to call himself "Maulana", literally "Our Master".

A search on Google for Abdul Hadi Palazzi will bring up hundreds of references. What is surprising is that few of these are from Muslim sources; nearly all are from US apocalyptic evangelicals, Christian Zionists or Zionists tout court. One example out of hundreds: one anti-Islamic religious web site puts a link to Palazzi's site right below another one to a website which proudly speaks of "Islam and it's Final Annihilation predicted in the Bible". People that believe every Muslim is on his way to Hell love Palazzi. The reason why will soon become apparent.

Massimo Palazzi is regulary presented as an "eminent Muslim cleric" and - quite often - as the leader of Italy's Islamic community. Of course, Islamic communities have no leaders, but if they did, this would mean something quite important: there are probably over one million Muslims living in Italy today. In any case, in different interviews Palazzi has claimed a number of follower ranging from 3.000 to 6.000 [1]. Palazzi is the Secretary General of the Association of Italian Muslims (Associazione Musulmani Italiani or AMI) and runs the Cultural Institute of the Italian Islamic Community, the Islamic Community School and the Majlis al-Ulema, the "Council of Islamic Sages" of Italy. What these actually amount to, we shall soon see.

Palazzi's attitude has won him widespread recognition. In February 2001, he was even received by the President of Israel, Moshe Katsav. A gushing article in the right-wing Jerusalem Post says:

PALAZZI, 40, was born in Italy to a Moslem mother whose grandfather immigrated from Aleppo and an Italian father who converted to Islam. He holds a doctorate in Islamic Sciences, granted by the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia and studied at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, and currently serves as the imam of the Italian Islamic Community. Since 1991, he has directed the community's Cultural Institute, which promotes Islamic education in Italy, fights Islamic fundamentalism and fanaticism, and advocates interreligious dialogue. For Palazzi, pluralism starts at home: He is married to a Catholic, and they are raising their two-year-old son Omar as a Moslem. Palazzi also teaches at the Institute of Anthropological Research in Rome, and was formerly a lecturer of religious history at the University of Velletri, also in Rome.

Which takes us to the very interesting issue of Palazzi's titles.



FOOTNOTES

[1] First figure: Giacomo Galeazzi "Lite tra leader musulmani a Roma", 2.10.01, La Stampa.
Second figure: "Polemiche: l'Irpef e i fedeli di Allah", Sette settimanale del Corriere della Sera, N. 29 - 2002 - pp. 54-55.

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