Italian atheists are ready to sue for freedom of speech after seeing a 'No God' bus slogan turned down across the country.
''Freedom of expression is a constitutional right that is routinely swept aside whenever someone publicly says God doesn't exist,'' said Raffaele Carcano, head of the Italian Union of Atheists, Agnostics and Rationalists (UAAR).
''We are ready to go to court over this,'' he said after public transport advertising agencies turned down the slogan: The Bad News Is God Doesn't Exist, The Good News Is You Don't Need Him.
In the meantime, Carcano said, the UAAR has launched a Web campaign to choose an alternative slogan.
''Supporters will put their ideas on our website and then they'll vote on them,'' he said, stressing that sympathisers had donated more than 30,000 euros to get an atheist message out on Italian buses following similar initiatives in other countries.
The UAAR has succeeded in starting up one 'atheist' bus, in the northwestern city of Genoa, but only after watering down the message in the face of religious protests last month.
The slogan that is currently appearing on two Genoa bus routes until mid-March is: The Good News Is There Are Millions of Atheists In Italy; The Excellent News Is They Believe In Freedom Of Expression.
However, the atheists did manage to gain approval for their first, stronger message in another northern city - but only for wall posters, not buses.
The posters will appear until mid-April in Pescara, on the Adriatic coast.
The UAAR lauded the city for granting them permission but the town council subsequently stressed, amid rising polemics, that they had had nothing to with the decision.
A Facebook group in favour of the UAAR's drive has drawn thousands of supporters.
The Italian campaign follows similar ads in London, Barcelona and Washington where the slogan was: ''There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life''.
The UAAR has 4,000 members across Italy.
