According to the left’s moral compass, the only determining factor for whether something is right or wrong is whether it aids or hinders the leftist agenda. CNN demonstrated this anew on Sunday when its reporting about a gang rape in Italy was focused not on the horror of the crime itself, but on how those all-purpose bogeymen, the “far right,” would capitalize upon it.
CNN headlined its story this way: “An alleged gang rape shocks Italy, and provides fodder for an ascendant far right.” It was referring to an incident that took place on Jan. 30 in the Sicilian city of Catania. The Italian-language il Giornale reported on Feb. 3 that Catania was “in shock over what happened to a thirteen-year-old girl, raped by a gang of seven Egyptian boys in the municipal gardens of Villa Bellini, one of the two oldest gardens in the Sicilian city.” Three of the Egyptians were minors.
The girl “and her seventeen-year-old boyfriend were approached by the pack near the bathrooms of the municipal garden of Villa Bellini, at that hour almost deserted. At a later time, the foreigners threatened the couple: while the boy was beaten, immobilized and kept away, the thirteen-year-old was raped by two of the suspects while the other five looked on. Panicked and in pain, after the second abuse the young woman found the strength to free herself from her tormentor and escape with her boyfriend.” This appalling has shaken the entire nation of Italy and has become the linchpin for a national discussion about mass Muslim migration into the country.
As far as CNN is concerned, that’s the problem. Its Sunday report asserted that the gang rape “has become not only a symbol of violence against women in the country but a cause célèbre for Italy’s far-right government.” The crime “was soon seized upon as evidence that migrants should be blocked from entering the country.” In Italy, it seems, the right-wing “seizes”; in the U.S., Republicans “pounce.”
CNN noted that the accused gang rapists “entered Italy by boat in 2021 and 2022 as unaccompanied minors, according to Catania police. Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, one of the country’s most visible far-right figures, said on X that they should not have been allowed to stay.” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, meanwhile, “expressed her solidarity with the alleged rape victim and her family.”
This being CNN, we’re told that the real story here is not the heinous gang rape of a thirteen-year-old girl, but (you guessed it) racism: “the ways in which the cases between those with Italian suspects and those with Egyptian suspects are being handled are already drawing scrutiny.” This was because the Egyptians “have been granted fast-track trials, their lawyers told CNN, which means they will be held behind closed doors and sealed.”
What’s more, “the prosecutor in the case has already filed additional charges tied to illegal immigration.” The attorney for two of the suspects explained that as they were over 18 “and therefore not categorized as unaccompanied minors, [and they] no longer had the right to stay in the country because Egyptians do not qualify for asylum in Italy.”
Stop it, you’re breaking my heart. How will Italy survive without a substantial contingent of Egyptian gang rapists?
CNN’s story goes on to try to minimize the enormity of what happened and to place the blame on Italy for it, by quoting Elena Biaggioni, an advocate for abused women, claiming that “of course in countries where there’s a macho culture and sexism is stronger, like Italy, this violence is justified in a different way.”
CNN said nothing whatsoever, of course, about the fact that while sexual molestation happens all over, we see Muslim migrants involved in this kind of story on a not-infrequent basis. One reason for this is that such treatment of infidel women is sanctioned in the Qur’an.
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In France, a Muslim quoted Qur’an while raping his victim. A survivor of a Muslim rape gang in the UK has said that her rapists would quote the Qur’an to her and believed their actions justified by Islam. Thus it came as no surprise when Muslim migrants in France raped a girl and videoed the rape while praising Allah and invoking the Qur’an.
In India, a Muslim gave a Qur’an and a prayer rug to the woman he was holding captive and repeatedly raping. And the victim of an Islamic State jihadi rapist recalled: “He told me that according to Islam he is allowed to rape an unbeliever. He said that by raping me, he is drawing closer to God… He said that raping me is his prayer to God.”
In India, a Muslim kidnapped and raped a 14-year-old Hindu girl and forced her to read the Qur’an and Islamic prayers. In Pakistan, another Christian woman recounted that her rapist was also religious: “He threw me on the bed and started to rape me. He demanded I marry him and convert to Islam. I refused. I am not willing to deny Jesus and he said that if I would not agree he would kill me.” Rapists demanded that another girl’s family turn her over to them, claiming that she had recited the Islamic profession of faith during the rape and thus could not live among infidels.
This shows that this case in Italy has far-reaching implications, as it is the sort of thing that could easily happen again. Immigration policies should indeed be reevaluated in its wake. And that’s what worries CNN.
In the U.S., Democrat failures and crimes are only unfortunate because they’re an occasion for Republicans to “pounce.” And in Italy, a gang rape is only wrong because it provides fodder for opposition to mass Muslim migration into the country. For CNN and other far-left propaganda outlets, the sole focus is preserving and advancing the left’s narrative.