Councillors from Italy's
anti-immigrant Northern League party faced criticism from
political opponents on Tuesday after they removed a prayer rug
that Turin's city hall had provided for Muslim attendants of a
conference.
Fabrizio Ricca and Roberto Carbonero from the Northern
League said they had removed the rug because the city office is
a secular building, while insisting they had nothing against
Islam as a religion.
"If someone wants to pray, Turin has many religious centres
where they can go," League councillors said.
"Why is it that no one ever bothers to set up a chapel when
conference participants are Christians?," they added.
The city council had set up a Muslim prayer room during an
international conference on Islamic fashion.
Michele Paolino, head of the centre-left Democratic Party
(PD) on Turin council, said the League's action was a "violent
gesture that offends believers of any religion".
The president of Turin Council, Giovanni Porcino, sent the
League councillors a letter condemning their "unjustified and
unseemly actions".
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