Italy: Protests against mosque plans in Siena

A prominent Italian Muslim will join a protest to be held in the central Italian city of Siena on Friday against a proposal to construct a new mosque.


Khaled Fouad Allam a former member of the Italian parliament will join Gaetano Quagliariello, senator for the centre-right Forza Italia party to oppose the mosque.


"I am against the building of the mosque, not because I believe the faithful should not have the right to a place of worship but because it is premature to have mosques without controlling the imams," said Allam in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI)


Algerian-born Khaled Fouad Allam a former MP in the outgoing parliament is an author and lecturer at the University of Trieste and specialises in the history and politics of Islamic countries.


He was recently excluded from the newly formed centre-left Democratic Party.


Allam's opposition to the mosque was endorsed by the senator, who added that before building the mosque, imams should follow a multi-disciplinary training like imams in neighbouring France.


The senator was referring to a course for would-be imams at the Catholic Institute in Paris, endorsed by the president of France's largest Muslim group the Union of French Islamic Organisations (UOIF),Thami Breze, and other prominent Muslims.


Many Islamic universities in the Muslim world have endorsed the course curriculum, which includes sociology, psychology and history among other subjects.


Source: AKI (English)

See also: Italy: Far-right candidate of Moroccan origin says there are too many mosques

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