Milan Calls for Summit on Sexual Assault

In a last ditch attempt to stem this week's long list of sexual assaults, and calm what many now see as an inevitable immigration backlash in Italy, the Milan prefect has called for an emergency meeting addressing sexual assault, scheduled for Wednesday, August 30.

In the past week alone there have been a half dozen assaults. On August 20 at 6 a.m. a 40-year old woman was raped on the street by a North African; on August 26 a 50-year old woman was sexually molested by an Egyptian -- but her screams for help saved her; yesterday two 20-year old French tourists were offered a ride by two Algerians -- a common language breaking the ice -- and subsequently sexually violated for 5 hours; on August 22, in Chieti, a 17-year old girl was brought into a discoteque bathroom and raped by an Algerian. This week's violence, however, has not all been sexual: the NYTimes reported that on August 21 a Moroccan was arrested in Brescia for killing a notable Italian painter, Aldo Bresciani; on August 18 a 21-year old woman, Elena Lonati, was strangled to death in a church in Brescia by a Senegalese immigrant; on August 24 an Algerian immigrant stabbed his pregnant wife to death, and commited suicide, launching himself off of their third-floor balcony; today, hours ago in Rimini, a Polish immigrant violently assaulted and stabbed his sister's Italian fiance.

Italians, as are many Western Europeans, are becoming increasingly skeptical of successful U.S.-style integration, and recent sexual assaults -- and non-sexual assaults -- are strengthing their convictions. As a result of problems linked to immigration, Italy's Northern League has grown in popularity (much like Le Pen's Front National has in France), and the Italian culture war is heating up.

European supporters of U.S.-style immigration often point to the U.S.'s success of integrating "its immigrants", but European opponents contend that the U.S.'s immigrants from Asia, the Mideast and Africa are usually wealthier and better educated than their European counterparts; and that the U.S. was built on immigration, and therefore, naturally more open to it.

Italian intellectual Emanuele Severino spoke to Milan's Il Corriere della Sera last week, denying that Italy's immigrants are any different from Italians or other Europeans, explaining, "It's natural that when vastly different cultures coexist the probabilty of friction increases."