Italy: A Muslim rights advocate has scored a victory over the Catholic Church and conservative Italians, winning a court ruling that will remove crucifixes from the state primary school his children attend.
"The presence of the symbol of the cross shows the will of the state to put Catholicism at the centre of the universe as the absolute truth," Judge Mario Montanaro ruled in the central town of L'Aquila.
A concordat with the Vatican confirmed in 1984 that Catholicism was no longer the state religion. And laws introduced in 1920s fascist Italy, making crucifixes mandatory in classrooms, have been interpreted loosely since then, though not revoked. The cross is still a permanent fixture in many government offices and hospitals.
The judge argued that the 1920s norms were out of date and that the crucifix culture in schools showed that the state had "not the slightest respect" for the role of other religions.
The ruling flies in the face of Italy's conservative leaders. Mr Roberto Maroni, a Labour Minister and member of the rightwing Northern League, said: "This is outrageous. It is unacceptable that one judge should cancel out thousands of years of history." Many teachers, however, have hailed the ruling as a sign that the education system should be made truly secular.
The case was brought by Mr Adel Smith of the Union of the Muslims of Italy. Of a Scottish family, he converted to Islam in 1987. He said he wanted Koran prayers displayed at his children's school and lobbied to have an "offensive" 15th-century Giovanni di Modena fresco removed from Bologna cathedral, and Dante's Divine Comedy deleted from the syllabus. He said both showed the prophet Mohammed cast into hell. - (Guardian Service)