Minister irks Italians while defending Muslims

ROME, July 11 (Reuters) An Italian minister trying to warn Italians against stereotyping Muslims over terrorism found himself in hot water when he said that wife beating was an old ''Sicilian-Pakistani'' custom.

Interior Minister Giuliano Amato enraged Sicilians and the Catholic right when he lamented that Islamic culture is still ''alien'' to Italians and that Muslims face prejudice because of terrorism.

''Italians know what it is like to be confused with Mafiosi and when they first emigrated abroad ... parents changed their children's surnames to avoid them being singled out,'' Amato said in a speech.

''No God authorises a man to beat his wife. This is a Sicilian-Pakistani tradition which tries to make it seem that the contrary is true,'' he said -- provoking furious reactions from politicians on the island and from the Catholic right.

Amato, 69, later tried to clarify his remarks, saying he was referring to ''a Sicily that no longer exists''. But his attempt to undo negative preconceptions about Sicilians and Muslims appeared to backfire.

''I am sure Giuliano Amato will correct his comments and apologise to Sicilians,'' said Sicilian member of parliament from the ruling centre-left Rino Piscitello, before adding that Amato probably had ''the best intentions'' in his speech.

Another Sicilian deputy, Ignazio La Russa from the rightist opposition, said that Amato ''in order not to offend his Muslim interlocutors had invented that in Sicily there is or was a tradition of permitting violence against women in God's name''.

Amato, who has been prime minister twice, is leading the centre-left government's integration drive. He wrote a ''Charter of Values'' for immigrants with guidelines on issues such as women's rights and knowledge of Italian language and culture.

The centre-right opposition says the current government is too soft on illegal immigrants, many of whom come from Muslim countries, while also harbouring anti-Roman Catholic prejudices.

Amato put their backs up by saying ''too many of my fellow citizens reject others in the name of Christian values''.

REUTERS SSC PM2240