Mattarella backs school giving students Eid off

(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 27 - President Sergio Mattarella has given his backing to a school near Milan that has sparked a row by giving its 40% Muslim students the day off on Eid al-Fitr on April 10, when Muslims celebrate breaking their month-long Ramadan fast.
    The school staff have received death threats from rightwingers and been accused of penalising non-Muslim students.
    Mattarella on Tuesday night replied to the deputy head of the school at Pioltello who wrote to him inviting him to visit the institute.
    In his reply to Maria Rendani, he said: "I received and carefully read your letter and, in thanking you, I would like to tell you that I very much appreciate it, just as - beyond the single episode, which is actually of modest importance - I appreciate the work that the teaching staff and the institute bodies do in carrying out a precious and particularly demanding task".
    The Iqbal Masih school is named after a Pakistani Christian child labourer and activist who campaigned against abusive child labour in Pakistan and who was assassinated at the age of 12 on 16 April 1995.
    It has stressed that the students will make the day up.
    Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara and the regional education office had urged the institute to rethink its move.
    photo: Mattarella inaugurates a show on 19th century Naples art (ANSA).