ITALY: Following Islamic terror attacks in Paris, the mayor of Padua has declared a ban on construction of any more mosques in the northern Italian city
Massimo Bitonci, a Northern League member who earlier this year said crucifixes must be hung on the walls of all schools and offices across the Veneto city, said in a tweet on Friday: “No to new mosques.”
No a nuove Moschee http://t.co/ufhrH9G7P6
— Massimo Bitonci (@massimobitonci) January 9, 2015
The Local (h/t Marina) The mayor was quoted in Corriere as saying that unlike in the past, “the council will not grant any more public space for the construction of mosques and Islamic places of worship.”
He added that controls on private establishments used for worship will also be tightened.
In a sign of solidarity with France over the shooting, in which 12 people died, a French flag has been hung outside the town hall.
There has been an anti-Muslim backlash in parts of Europe in the wake of the attacks in Paris.
A Swedish politician was reported to police on Friday after he wrote “the religion of peace shows its face” on his Facebook page, while a survey in Germany showed that a growing majority of Germans felt threatened by Islam. The survey was carried out in November – before the massacre of journalists in Paris by Islamist gunmen – but as the numbers attending anti-Muslim rallies in Dresden and other cities began to escalate.
In Austria, a mosque in a building used by the Vienna Islamic Centre was defaced by Islamophobic graffiti on Thursday.
Muslims make up Italy’s second-largest religious group but their faith still lacks official national recognition. The country is home to 1.7 million Muslims and the country has over 700 mosques.
In January last year, a court in Lombardy ruled that urban planners must give space to non-Catholic groups, sparking a backlash from the Northern League, which branded the decision as “disgraceful judgement.”
Muslims praying in the public square in Milan
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