A girl wearing a headscarf sits in front of a school in Pioltello, northern Italy. The students there were given a day off school at the end of Ramadan.
Image: picture alliance
At the end of Ramadan, a school remains closed, students want a day without lectures, and in Monfalcone evening prayers take place in front of the town hall in protest: Italy is discussing how to treat Muslims.
IThere are around 2.6 million Muslims living in Italy. Their number has grown in recent years, most recently due to many immigrants from North Africa and Asia, but also from European countries such as Albania. The fact that the Muslim community has grown is also reflected in the debates about the holy fasting month of Ramadan and the celebrations marking its end on the evening of April 9th.
There was heated debate over the decision of a school director in Lombardy to give his students a day off school for Eid al-Fitr. Muslim students now demanded a day without lectures to mark the festival. On April 10, lectures and seminars should be canceled in a “gesture of respect and integration that recognizes and values the cultural and religious diversity of the country,” according to a statement from the Association of Muslim Students at the Milan Polytechnic.