RedWine
08-23-2007, 06:36 AM
Authorities in Rome have refused to allow a building next to a Catholic church to be converted into a mosque.
The planned mosque, in a densely populated and multi-ethnic quarter in the centre of the Italian capital, was supposed to open next month.
Municipal police said the community of Bengali Muslims who were carrying out the building works did not have the necessary permit.
Local right-wing politicians have applauded the police action.
Biggest mosque
The mosque was scheduled to open in Esquiline hill, one of the seven hills of ancient Rome.
The quarter houses people of widely different ethnic origins.
They are already served by seven Catholic churches, a Buddhist temple, a synagogue, a Zain prayer centre and a Chinese Evangelical church.
Rome also boasts the biggest mosque in Europe, built with Saudi money outside the city centre, about 3km (2 miles) from St Peter's Basilica.
There are another three mosques and three Islamic prayer centres in the city, frequented by the growing number of Muslim residents.
A Rome city official in charge of ethnic policies has supported the opening of the new mosque but says authorities already had previous applications dating back nine years for the opening of new centres of worship from Buddhists, Hindus and Romanian Orthodox believers.
So the new mosque may have to wait its turn.
As the tomb of the first pope and the principal church of his 264 successors, St. Peter's Basilica is Roman Catholicism's greatest shrine. It's also a treasure trove of artistic riches, with works by such artists as Michelangelo, Raphael and Bernini.
At over 600 feet long, with a dome 450 feet high, it is one of the biggest churches in the world and a huge tourist draw.
Keeping the mother church of Catholicism running -- and tidy -- is, not surprisingly, a monumental task. Yet it's a job entrusted to a corps of just 75 men. Whether the job is reminding visitors to doff their baseball caps or dusting a cornice 175 feet above the marble floor, it falls to one of the basilica's "Sanpietrini."
The rare vacancies are filled with those trained in a certain skill, such as carpentry or painting trompe-l'oeil marbling on plaster walls.
An average of 20,000 people per day pass through the main part of the church, rising to 30,000 in the peak periods of Christmas, Easter and the summer tourist season.
The planned mosque, in a densely populated and multi-ethnic quarter in the centre of the Italian capital, was supposed to open next month.
Municipal police said the community of Bengali Muslims who were carrying out the building works did not have the necessary permit.
Local right-wing politicians have applauded the police action.
Biggest mosque
The mosque was scheduled to open in Esquiline hill, one of the seven hills of ancient Rome.
The quarter houses people of widely different ethnic origins.
They are already served by seven Catholic churches, a Buddhist temple, a synagogue, a Zain prayer centre and a Chinese Evangelical church.
Rome also boasts the biggest mosque in Europe, built with Saudi money outside the city centre, about 3km (2 miles) from St Peter's Basilica.
There are another three mosques and three Islamic prayer centres in the city, frequented by the growing number of Muslim residents.
A Rome city official in charge of ethnic policies has supported the opening of the new mosque but says authorities already had previous applications dating back nine years for the opening of new centres of worship from Buddhists, Hindus and Romanian Orthodox believers.
So the new mosque may have to wait its turn.
As the tomb of the first pope and the principal church of his 264 successors, St. Peter's Basilica is Roman Catholicism's greatest shrine. It's also a treasure trove of artistic riches, with works by such artists as Michelangelo, Raphael and Bernini.
At over 600 feet long, with a dome 450 feet high, it is one of the biggest churches in the world and a huge tourist draw.
Keeping the mother church of Catholicism running -- and tidy -- is, not surprisingly, a monumental task. Yet it's a job entrusted to a corps of just 75 men. Whether the job is reminding visitors to doff their baseball caps or dusting a cornice 175 feet above the marble floor, it falls to one of the basilica's "Sanpietrini."
The rare vacancies are filled with those trained in a certain skill, such as carpentry or painting trompe-l'oeil marbling on plaster walls.
An average of 20,000 people per day pass through the main part of the church, rising to 30,000 in the peak periods of Christmas, Easter and the summer tourist season.