Italy Mosque Put Off, Rightists Rejoice
Islam Online ^ | September 20 2007
islamonline.net
ROME — Bowing to pressures from right-wing groups, Italian authorities have put off plans to build a mosque in the northern city of Bologna pending consultations with local residents.
Bologna's mayor Sergio Cofferati said local residents will be surveyed about the construction of the mosque in the San Donato neighborhood, Reuters reported.
"We will take into account the feelings of the neighborhood and then we will decide," he said.
He said that residents should have a chance to vet the plans and "discuss the size of the building and its exact location".
Local authorities have asked residents, the Islamic community and neighborhood associations to submit proposals by Oct. 18 on how to proceed with the construction.
The city council will give its verdict by the end of October.
Construction work of the mosque had been scheduled to start in January next year.
Cofferati, however, said that the mosque's construction would go ahead as scheduled.
"I insist the mosque will be built and it will be built in that area," he said.
Rightists Celebrate
The far-right Northern League party, which has campaigned against the mosque construction, rejoiced the halt.
Northern League parliamentarian Roberto Marini called the halt to the Bologna mosque a "victory".
He, however, said that "the battle is not yet won".
"We must make sure Cofferati's council doesn't use some trick to build the mosque against the will of the people," he said.
Last week, far-right senator Roberto Calderoli of the Northern League party has outraged Muslims by calling for a "Pig Day" protest against the mosque construction in Bologna.
He said that he was ready to bring his own pig to "defile" the site where the mosque is due to be built.
Muslims and Jews do not eat pork and consider pigs and their meat too filthy and unhealthy to eat.
Tensions have flared repeatedly between communities in predominantly Catholic Italy over the sites of new mosques to serve a growing Muslim population.
Residents in Genoa protested earlier this month at plans to build a mosque in the town, claiming that the mosque would be offensive because it is near a church.
Last year, protesters left a pig's head at a mosque building site in Tuscany.
And most of the non-Muslim locals in the town of Colle di Val d'Elsa see a planned grand mosque a symbol of "occupation".
Muslims in Colle di Val D'Elsa have for years been praying in a small, dark room with Oriental rugs on the floor and pictures of the holy city of Al-Madinah on the walls.
Italy has a Muslim population of some 1.2 million, including 20,000 reverts, according to unofficial estimates. |
