By certain people at the top darkness has probably come into or over their minds.
It might sound unbelievable, but we should look at it seriously ... In a country where vegetables are often dressed with anchovies and tomato sauce may involve anywhere from one to three kinds of meat, being vegan would appear to be somewhat of a challenge.
Can you imagine it that a country is going to dictate what parents are allowed to give their children to eat physically and spiritually. In England and France there are already parents fined because they wanted to bring up their children in the biblical truth. In Italy the governement wants to penalise also those who want to bring up their children in the vegan way of life.
In France, Belgium and Italy the governement wants to have more say over what people are allowed or not allowed to wear in public. Whilst in our childhood everything had to be covered now they seem to find that those who want to go back to those times and want to have their body parts covered, should be fined.
If the center-right Forza Italia party has its way, raising future generations of Italians on a vegan diet could become a crime. And if France and Belgium continue the path they want to go on, Italy shall follow to prohibit the bourkini or burkini/burqini.
Imam Izzeddin Elzir had good reason to place the photograph of bathing nuns in their clothes, where no European seems to protest against, though if ordinary women would wear covering clothes everybody seems cross with it and complains. When those women in bourkini have to take those body coverings off should the nuns also not do that? When in Belgium the N-VA (by Nadia Sminate) says such covering is against our morals and values should we also not penalise such nuns and priest who enter our country in their habit?
It is also strange that Europeans make such a fuss about women who want to cloth themselves as in the old times. Why would those people not be free to cloth themselves how they want?
It is good to hear that on Thursday, Austrian politician Ahmet Demir caused uproar after publishing a photo of two nuns and joking that they were "oppressed women" in burqas. Later, he took the post down and apologized, but defended his post saying that he was attempting to convey the message that
"every woman should be able to wear what they want as long as they chose the clothes themselves."
It can well be that on Tuesday, Italy's Interior Minister Angelino Alfano told Corriere Della Serra that Italy wouldn't follow France's suit and ban the burqini, but will step up regulations of imams and mosques, but there are enough who would like to see a prohibition of the burqini.
When we hear all such controversy we should take care to keep an open mind and to show others how respectful we do have to be for others their opinion but also for their personal rights what to eat or wear or how to bring up their children. If that is going all to be decided by the state apparatus we shall be living a a dictatorial state.
Let it no come so far and let us make sure darkness does not come over our minds – for surely Jesus, in heaven, will very soon come, as we read his predictions yesterday in Mark 13, but he has also shown how we do have to behave against others and have to love them, even when they have an other way of life than ours.
