TEL AVIV – A senior official at the Islamic University in Lucca, Italy, posted a series of inflammatory comments on Facebook, including a call for “a final solution for Zionists.”
Rafelo Vilni went on to say that “the real Jews are the victims are Zionism.”
The Israeli embassy in Italy took a screenshot of the post which was later deleted.
The embassy also took a screenshot of another post by Vilni attacking Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
The latter was sent to the Italian Senate’s vice chairperson of the Israeli-Italian interparliamentary cooperation foundation.
The Italian interior and education ministers were subsequently asked by the Senate to state what they intended to do with regards to the anti-Semitic post.
An article in Newsweek last year contended that the establishment of the Islamic University was highly controversial in Italy.
However, the university’s founder, Muslim convert Giampiero Paladini, said that the school aims to bridge the philosophical divide between the Western and Islamic worlds.
“This will allow these worlds to speak to each other, to fight against terrorism,” Paladini told Newsweek.
“Instead of studying the Bible, we will study the Koran. … Instead of a church, we will have a mosque, and we will study subjects that are influenced by Sharia (Islamic law),” he said.
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