The deportation of an Imam from Turin, Italy has spurred demonstrations from pro-Palestinian activists, left-wing movements and immigrant communities amid a growing crackdown of groups perceived to be Hamas supporters.
On the morning of November 25, Italian police picked up Mohamed Shahin from his home in the city to send him back to Egypt, his home country, following an expulsion decree citing security reasons signed by the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi. The Imam was arrested and taken to the Turin repatriation centre. His residence permit was revoked and he was ordered to be immediately deported to Egypt.
As officers arrived, Shahin contacted the representatives of Torino per Gaza, a collective of activists that has organised numerous large demonstrations in support of Palestinians in the city.
The group quickly mobilised, condemning what it described as a political move: “His only crime is shouting for freedom for Palestine,” one statement read.
A demonstration was organised in front of the city prefecture to demand the Imam’s release. The Sì Cobas Turin, the local branch of the Sindacato Intercategoriale Cobas, an independent Italian labour union, also joined the initiative.
Their shared statement read: “Mohamed was arrested after two years of protests during which he never stopped publicly speaking out against the ongoing genocide in Palestine.”
“This is not an isolated case,” said Claudio Bertolotti, an Italian security analyst and director of the Observatory on Radicalism and Counter-Terrorism (ReaCT).
“It is part of a series of measures aimed not only at countering radicalisation but also at monitoring the activism of organisations linked to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood network.”
Many of these groups, especially after the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, have played a leading role in Italian pro-Palestinian solidarity movements and exerted influence in political circles and immigrant communities.
Shahin was leader of the Omar Ibn Al Khattab mosque in Via Saluzzo in Turin. He had been resident of the city for more than 20 years and had recently emerged as one of the main organisers of protests against Israel.
During these demonstrations, he described the October 7 2023 attack as “not an act of violence” and later added, “I cannot speak only about October 7, because it is the result of 80 years of occupation and 11 previous wars,” framing the attack as “a reaction” rather than a criminal act.
For Italian authorities, these statements were deemed sufficient to justify his deportation.
This episode reflects a significant shift in Italy’s traditional approach, historically sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.
While firmly aligned with the west since 1945, Rome has long maintained independent and often positive relations with the Arab world, particularly with the Palestinians.
A notable example was the “Lodo Moro”, a secret deal allegedly made by the Italian secret services on behalf of the late politician Aldo Moro in order to shelter Italy from the wave of Arab-Palestinian terrorism that shook Europe in the late 1960s.
It allowed Palestinian factions to transport arms through Italy in exchange for a promise not to carry out attacks on Italian soil.
Journalistic accounts have described this Italian ambiguity as “a Western bride, an Arab lover.”
“In recent years, while maintaining privileged relations with certain Arab countries, Italy has shifted from its previously more pro-Arab positions toward closer alignment with American and Israeli policies,” said Bertolotti.
At the same time, he added, “Italian intelligence has been increasingly vigilant regarding Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood because of their influence within growing foreign-origin communities and the broader spread of political Islam.”
The Muslim Brotherhood is a transnational organisation aiming to spread Islam globally through grassroots “Islamisation” of societies.
Hamas serves as its Palestinian branch. Present in all western European countries, the Muslim Brotherhood arrived in Italy with the first waves of immigrants in the 1970s, establishing one of the most important networks in terms of size and organisation among Italian Muslims.
Their presence was further highlighted by the 2019 publication of the investigative book Qatar Papers. It revealed that between 2011 and 2014, Qatar Charity financed over 140 projects in Europe, with a particularly high concentration in Italy, totalling around €22 million.
Documents suggest that part of these funds passed through networks linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, consolidating the organisation’s presence in Italy.
Despite representing less than 3 per cent of Italy’s resident population, the Muslim community is expected to grow significantly.
“In many ways, the situation in Italy is not very different from that in France or Belgium, although it is chronologically and generationally behind,” according to Bertolotti.
“With the native population shrinking while the Muslim population grows, movements linked to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood have considerable potential to embed themselves within immigrant communities.
“Today’s intelligence efforts aim to prevent such networks from taking root too deeply, so they do not ‘Islamise from below’ or develop into a parallel society, as has happened in other countries,” he told Brussels Signal.
Since October 7, 2023, many groups linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas sympathisers have organised and led numerous large-scale demonstrations in support of Gaza and the Palestinian people.
Sometimes they strengthen their influence within immigrant and activist communities, creating new political footholds. Yet the majority of participants —tens or even hundreds of thousands — have no direct ties to these organisations.
Italian authorities continue to monitor these networks to prevent them from embedding too deeply within Muslim communities.
In this context, Shahin’s deportation reflects not just an individual case but a wider policy aimed at curbing the influence of political Islam within Italy’s growing Muslim population.
