Abdel Hamid Shaari, president of the Islamic Institute in Milan, is asking to Letizia Moratti, mayor of Milan, for the authorization to build a new, proper and dignified space of worship for Muslims just outside the city. It would be a small mosque, well connected to Milan and totally self-financed. Letizia Moratti, in turn, is asking Roberto Maroni, the Italian interior minister, to issue an official directive to manage homogeneously the worship spaces of those religious communities that don’t have official relationships with the Italian state. In the meantime, Letizia Moratti guarantees Milanese citizens that she will prevent Muslims from praying in the sidewalks of a notorious area of the city (Viale Jenner, at the center of clashes and public demonstrations in the past). The Northern League component of the municipality, however, starkly refuses to recognize any other space for Muslims and declares a strong opposition.

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