Greek statue ‘censored’ for Islamic meeting

THE covering up of a marble statue of a muscular, half-naked Greek warrior for an Italian conference on Islam has drawn accusations of overly zealous cultural censorship.

The reclining statue of Epaminondas, a fourth-century BC general who fought for the liberation of the Greek city-state of Thebes, was draped in a red satin sheet to spare the sensibilities of Muslim delegates.

Conservative politicians seized on the case, claiming it was an example of Italy going too far to accommodate the sentiments of immigrant communities.

“Am I the only one who thinks this is madness?” said Matteo Salvini, the leader of the Right-wing League party, which has been involved in tortuous negotiations to form a new government after last month’s general election produced no clear winner.

Organisers of a weekend conference in Cairo Montenotte in the Liguria region, for the Islamic Confederation of Italy and the Islamic Federation of Liguria denied that religious sensibilities were behind the decision to obscure the figure’s nether regions which, in any case, were covered by a cloth carved from marble on the statue itself.