Can you accidentally do a Nazi salute?

[Magda Hassan]

Yes, di Canio has expressed admiration for Mussolini and Mussolini held some obnoxious beliefs, including a desire to create a master race. But there are no grounds for believing di Canio shares those beliefs. Indeed, his pronouncements on the subject suggest he almost certainly doesn't. Consider this from an article in the Independent:

There is no denying the DVX tattoo on his shoulder (the Latin appellation for Benito Mussolini). It's the symbolic expression of an opinion expressed in his autobiography, in a passage which has frequently been misquoted so as to appear more incendiary than it actually is. "I am fascinated by Mussolini," Di Canio wrote. "I think he was a deeply misunderstood individual. He deceived people. His actions were often vile. But all this was motivated by a higher purpose. He was basically a very principled individual. Yet he turned against his sense of right and wrong. He compromised his ethics."
The truth is that today at least you don't have to spend long with Di Canio to realise he is not a demented fascista; neither does he have any time for the sort of repugnant racial opinions held by at least two English Premier League footballers I can think of (and that's without even trying). While he was in Italy, his column in the national sport newspaper Corriere dello Sport routinely took the form of a rant against the idiocy of racism.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people...73526.html

He is a self declared fascist. If some one is a self declared christian, for example, one can assume that they accept the teaching of christianity, that they believe in Jesus as their saviour, they accept the 10 commandments etc. You don't expect them to face Mecca when they pray or say that god does not exist or that they are still waiting for the one true messiah to come. If some one is a self declared fascist then one is correct in assuming that they hold fascist beliefs. All of which are repugnant and anti life and anti humanity. So he says he is not racist. So what? It just means he is media savvy and knows how to dog whistle. Hitler liked dogs and was vegetarian too. Both admirable traits in my book but not enough to let him off the hook either.