MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Italy will crack down on illegal places of worship of Islam, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said.
"In Italy, we have four mosques and more than 800 of Muslim places of worship…We have a system of supervision and control that allows us to understand what’s happening. We shall close illegal and abusive places of worship, not to impede religion but to make it is practiced in places which comply with legal regulations," Alfano said Friday, as quoted by Il Giornale newspaper.
The minister was speaking at a security issues forum dedicated to the phenomenon of "garage mosques." There are hundreds of illegal places of worship across Italy, according to the newspaper, located in garages and basements.
The international community is currently on high alert in the wake of the deadly attacks in the French capital, explosion on board a Russian Kogalymavia-operated A-321 airliner and the spike of violence in many other regions of the world incited and committed by radicals, extremists and terrorists.
