A radical imam based at an
Islamic community centre in the northern city of Vicenza has
been expelled from Italy after it emerged that he had told
pupils at a local primary school to cover their ears during
music lessons on pain of committing a sin, police said Thursday.
The expulsion order against the 36-year-old Algerian
national was executed on Wednesday.
Investigations began in January following the episode at
school.
Witness accounts confirmed not only that the imam, a Salafi
Muslim, had told children attending his Islamic centre that
listening to music and playing musical instruments is a sin, but
also suggested that he had induced hostility to western culture
and the desire to carry out violent gestures against the West as
adults.
Police also allegedly discovered that the imam had close
contact with exponents of radical Islam and none whatsoever with
Italians who had not converted to Islam.
He had been in Italy since 2002.
Police said after being rebuked by their teachers the
pupils now participated fully in music lessons.
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