'Dangerous' to fuel anti-Islam sentiment says Grasso

(ANSA) - Rome, March 3 - Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso said Thursday equating Islam with terror is "dangerous" and is fueling a rise in hate crime. "We must reject with the utmost firmness the... linking of migration with terrorism, diversity with radicalism," he told an Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) conference. "(We must reject) suspicion and resentment against Islam, foreigners and refugees, which citizens at a loss understandably feel and which some political forces are irresponsibly fueling. It is not by chance that hate crimes, intolerance and violence motivated by religious, ethnic and cultural hatred are on the rise in Europe". He added that "as we know, the genesis of the Paris attacks was largely internal to Europe - therefore it is a mystification to reduce the security issue and the fight against terror to a matter of controlling the flow of refugees and migrants. Of course border control will be essential, but in concert with intelligence and security interventions, with diplomatic action and while guaranteeing the rights of all: citizens, migrants, and refugees".