Foreign Policy Blogs

Limiting Islam in the Heart of Catholicism

On September 5, this blog discussed the social debate over the construction of a sensationally beautiful mosque in Cologne. Now, there is news that conservative forces in Italy are also attempting to limit the construction of mosques. Reuters reports that "polls show Italians mistrust Muslims, and a third do not want a mosque in their neighborhood." The main question now is whether the Northern League will be able to push through a bill of regulations on the construction of mosques. The law will , for example , ban minarets, block mosques from being built near churches, and forbid loudspeakers. There are more than one million Muslims in Italy.

 

Author

Karin Esposito

Karin Esposito is blogging on religion and politics from her base in Central Asia. Currently, she is the Project Manager for the Tajikistan Dialogue Project in Dushanbe. The Project is run through the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies with the support of PDIV of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. The aim of the project is to establish practical mechanisms for co-existence and peaceful conflict resolution between Islamic and secular representatives in Tajikistan. After receiving a Juris Doctorate from Boston University School of Law in 2007, she worked in Tajikistan for the Bureau of Human Rights and later as a Visting Professor of Politics and Law at the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics, and Strategic Research (KIMEP). Ms. Esposito also holds a Master's in Contemporary Iranian Politics (2007) from the School of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Iran and a Master's in International Relations (2003) from the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (GIIDS) in Switzerland.

Areas of Focus:
Islam; Christianity; Secularism;

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