Leave it to the Italians. Please.
The
Italian government has implemented a plan to give over 500,000 18-year-olds in the
country a voucher worth more than $500 each. The vouchers allow recipients to
visit cultural venues and museums for free, pay reduced prices for concerts and
take in movies gratis. The money is being distributed to every 18-year-old
European Union citizen in the country, but is at heart an attempt to send a
message to militant groups.
Prime
Minister Matteo Renzi announced the program last year, stating that it would be
a way to defeat terror organizations
on an ideological level, as opposed
to just engaging in military efforts. We all know that military efforts haven’t
been the Italian’s forte since the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, but
this is inanity on steroids. Renzi forwarded the proposal just days after the
recent Paris attack killed 130 people. Italy’s youth unemployment rate is 35%.
The idea behind the program is to keep the youths occupied so they don’t become
radicalized.
“They
imagine terror, we answer with culture. They destroy statues, we love art. They
destroy books, we are the country of libraries,” Renzi stated. They don’t just imagine terror, Prime Minister. What
could possibly go wrong with paying
for thousands of Islamic youths to enter your iconic cultural venues?
Maina
Kiai, United Nations special “rapporteur” commenting on the rights to freedom
of peaceful assembly and association, exclaimed in a recent interview: “It is
hard to say what is the best approach. But what we can say is what is the wrong
one: a spying system that stigmatizes and excludes people.”
Mr.
Renzi and Mr. Kiai, with all due respect, what the hell are you thinking? Do
you actually believe that Muslims that are otherwise prone to commit terrorist
acts will flock to the Vatican Museums, the Basilica of Saint Mark, the Duomo
di Milano, the Chapel of the Holy Shroud, and the Sistine Chapel because they
have been bribed? Or that they harbor a deep-seated desire to catch an REO
Speedwagon or Andrea Boccelli concert or to ooh and ahh to the marvels of
Western cinema?
You do realize that you’ve just decided to
spend $300 million to encourage potential Islamic extremists to reconnoiter your
ancient landmarks and other important cultural venues, right? You are on record as saying: “They imagine
terror, we answer with culture. They
destroy statues, we love art. They destroy books, we are the country of
libraries,” and you are trying to get more of them into your museums and libraries?!”
What’s
next in the West? Are we going to pay people not to commit murder? Not to rob a
bank? Not to jaywalk? Not to engage in breaking and entering? Not to have an
abortion?
Maybe
we should just re-legitimize the Ten Commandments.
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