At least 100 Moroccans are returning home after the area in northern Italy where they were residing was struck by an earthquake five days ago.
The immigrants were forced to abandon their homes in the town of Finale Emilia in Italy's Emilia-Romagna region where a 5.9-magnitude quake early Sunday morning killed seven people and left around 5,000 homeless. A Moroccan working a night shift in a factory was among the dead.
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Police have arrested two Tunisians after urban warfare broke out late Tuesday in the central city of Perugia between gangs of immigrants when a North African was stabbed.
The two Tunisians face charges of resisting arrest and of causing damage when gangs of immigrants ran amok, smashing store windows and overturning rubbish bins in one of Perugia's main shopping streets.
Witnesses reported hearing several shots being fired around midnight, shortly before the North African was stabbed in the stomach and the head.
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According to Ucoi (the Union of Islamic communities in Italy) about 70,000 Italians converted to Islam, a real boom of conversions heightened by the crisis of values but also by the economic crisis in Italy, as Elzir Izzedine commented during the Youtube programme KlausCondicio, by the anchorman Klaus Davi, who is carrying out a report on the Italians espousing Islam.
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Immigrants held at a reception center in the southern Italian town of Bari said on Thursday that they were treated "worse than animals" by authorities at the structure.
The center for identification and expulsion, with a capacity of 119 people, is currently occupied by 196 foreigners awaiting deportation, the immigrants said.
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The Italian Supreme Court on Friday upheld a sentence for abuse and aggravated assault by a Moroccan father against his 12-year-old daughter.
Defense lawyers maintained that the father, who allegedly beat his daughter with a broom handle for "corrective" purposes after she could not properly recite the Koran, did so because of "cultural" reasons and should be given a lighter sentence accordingly.
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A group of Kurds belonging to the banned Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) was arrested in Venice on Tuesday on suspicion of extorting money to use for armed operations in their native Turkey.
The suspects are accused by Italian investigators of using violence to force Kurdish immigrants living in northern Italy to pay a ''revolutionary tax'' to fund the PKK's fight against Turkey.
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A step forward has been taken to unify the Italian Islamic community. It's also a move towards picking up once again the dialogue with the State and work towards signing an agreement document. After a long planning period, the first Italian Islamic Confederation is born, unifying 250 mosques all over the nation and who have chosen to share common values. The Italian Islamic Culture Centre and great mosque of Rome have wanted and worked on this project since 2009 - as also its Secretary General, Abdellah Redouane.
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Police arrested a suspected terrorist in the northern city of Brescia early on Thursday who they believe may have been planning an attack on Milan's synagogue.
The 20-year-old, a Moroccan citizen who has lived in Italy since he was six, is also suspected of setting up secret Facebook pages providing training on making bombs and using weapons for budding terrorists.(source)
Racism is on the rise in Italy, especially in the media and on the Internet, said a report by the National Office against Racial Discrimination (UNAR) presented to Parliament on Thursday.
One out of four victims of racially-motivated discrimination in Italy comes from Eastern European countries and the Balkans, the report said. North Africans are the targets of 16.6% of discriminatory acts and Latin Americans 13.8%, it said.(source)
Italy's Council of Imams and Islamic Leaders named its first woman to serve on the board of directors Wednesday.
The daughter of an imam, 35-year-old Nibras Breigheche is also in charge of the association's intercultural and interrelgious dialogue programs.(source)
The Higher Judicial Council (CSM) has ruled that the veil may be worn on religious grounds in Italian courts. In their plenary session this morning, the majority approved a resolution establishing that "full respect must be assured to to those behaviours which, without causing disturbance to the regular and correct court proceedings, constitute a legitimate exercise of the right to profess one's own religion, including those precepts that relate to clothing and other outward signs."
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Four people including a judge were convicted Thursday of defrauding investors, including the Iraqi government and top Italian bank Unicredit, in a mosque that was announced but never built in the Tuscan city of Massa Carrara.
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After mapping the city's Muslim community needs, the city of Milan has decided not to approve a grand mosque. Instead, the city will approve and recognize about a dozen existing small 'garage' mosques as neighborhood mosques.
A major mosque becoming a place of worship for all Muslims in Sicily could be built in Salemi. The proposal has been made by the mayor of the city, Vittorio Sgarbi, to the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Ben Kaliffa Al Thani.
The mayor this morning formally agreed to make an area of the Rabato district in the centre of the town available for construction. The project would see the fulfilment of a scheme pushed through by Sgarbi himself as early as 2009. "Financing for the construction of the mosque is guaranteed by a bilateral agreement between the town of Salemi and Qatar," Sgarbi said.
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