Monfalcone must guarantee places of worship says CoS

(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 21 - The northeastern port town of Monfalcone, where many of the population are Muslim shipbuilding workers, must ensure they have adequate places of worship, the Council of State said Thursday after the town council shut down the town's two allegedly irregular mosques housed in shop facilities.
    Italy's highest administrarive court upheld appeals from the Islamic cultural associations Darus Salaam and Baitus Salat of Monfalcone.
    In its order the CoS stated that "the (city) administration is required to identify, in consultation with the interested parties and in a spirit of mutual and loyal cooperation, alternative sites that are accessible and dignified to allow believers to pray".
    It set a round table for discussion within seven days.
    The dispute between the municipality and the associations concerned two buildings used for prayers, for which the restoration of their use was ordered.
    Monfalcone is the main base of the giant Fincantieri shipbuilding group.
    A majority of the workers are now immigrant Bangladeshis of Muslim persuasion.
    Monfalcone's rightwing League party Mayor Anna Maria Cisint has been on a crusade against what she says as a chronic lack of integration by mainly Muslim immigrants, who she says refuse to learn Italian, send their women to work outside the home, or integrate in any way with the local community.
    She was recently placed under a police escort after receiving death threats over her closure of the mosques. (ANSA).