1. Richard Owen reported in The Times of London that Muslim leaders in Italy are demanding the removal or destruction of a priceless 15th Century fresco in Bologna because it offends Islam. This may threaten the already strained relations between the Roman Catholic Church and members of Italy's immigrant Muslim community. The recently established Union of Italian Muslims has written to the Pope and Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, the Archbishop of Bologna, complaining that "The Last Judgment" of Giovanni da Modena in Bologna Cathedral, clearly shows Mohammed, the founder of Islam, among those condemned to burn in eternal flames. In the letter they called for the "barbarous" fresco to be removed from the wall of the chapel inside the cathedral of San Petronio. The protesters said that Giovanni da Modena had shown Mohammed "thrown into hell, completely naked, with a snake wrapped around his body and a demon next to him about to torture him." They claimed that Muslims "never had depicted Jesus or the Virgin Mary" on the walls of a mosque. True, Muslims do not depict human beings or animals on the walls of mosques, and do not regard Jesus as born of a virgin. A spokesman for Cardinal Biffi claimed that it was "absurd to suddenly discover after 600 years that our most famous treasure is offensive to the Islamic religion." Meanwhile, the leader of the "Union of Italian Muslims", Adel Smith, has demanded that the teaching of Dante, Italy's national poet, be banned in immigrant areas because he placed Mohammed in the ninth circle of Hell in his "Inferno."

Southern France has more mosques than churches. In Lyons, Muslims demanded that Islamic law be observed for swimming. Food for thought — especially for Europeans who still do not regard Islam as a threat to Western civilization.

2. We are devoting much of this issue to Macedonia because is yet another proof that, despite its war against Islamic terrorism, the West still tends to back the territorial demands of Moslems against non-Moslems and to regard Moslem terrorists as "freedom fighters" — especially in the Balkans, in Kashmir and in Palestine, where its insists on "political solutions" and negotiations in which the non-Moslem side is expected to cede territory. The growing impudence of the Moslems in Europe is a direct result. (See Macedonia section)