July 1, 2013
“It’s just a matter of money” some members of the Moroccan community in Padua say they quarreled among themselves about economic issues and, it seems, can no longer pray together. For this reason they want another mosque, in a district which is already suffering, where integration is made impossible by immigrant riots who are without work. Numerous places of worship are transformed, little by little, into shelters, kitchens and hotels, as seen in the Bengali mosque in Via Jacopo da Montagnana. So Bitonci Massimo, president of the Northern League, has submitted an urgent request to ministers Alfano and Kyenge: “Padua is dying. Tourists and young people do not know how to spend thier free time. Do you want a curfew imposed on the center premises, because there is little investment into the city. The case is emblematic of Via Bernina: where there was a disco, now you want to raise another mosque. The project of the municipality is revealed: to transform our city to another Mecca, from which young people and entrepreneurs are forced to flee, while the various forms of humanity that revolve around places of worship create makeshift shelters.”
