From The Christian Science Monitor
by Nick Squires
For hundreds of years Venice was at the crossroads between east and west, alternately trading with and then fighting against the Ottoman Turks for control of the Adriatic and the Mediterranean seas.
Venice grew rich from buying spices and textiles from theMiddle East and selling them to the rest of Europe for a tidy profit, while at the same time enthusiastically taking part in the Crusades against the Saracens. A cosmopolitan trading hub, it was known as The Most Serene Republic.
Centuries later, the lagoon city’s attitude toward Islam appears as undecided as ever, as evinced by reactions to a proposal to open a museum of Islamic art in a grand palazzo on the banks of the Grand Canal.
The initiative was announced by Enrico Letta, the prime minister of Italy, during a diplomatic and trade visit to Qatarthis month.
Speaking in Doha, Mr. Letta said the Italian government had “made a commitment to explore the opportunity to build an Islamic museum in Venice on the Grand Canal.” He gave few further details.
But as the news filtered back to Venice, it caused a furor, in particular with the Northern League, a conservative political party that has in the past campaigned for the rich north of Italy to secede from the rest of the country.
