Excerpt:
Increase training opportunities for imams in Italy and Europe to enable them to act as 'bridges' between mosques and communities is the recommendation from the international conference 'Imams in Western Europe' held on Thursday in Rome.
The conference, organized by the LUISS Guido Carli University and John Cabot University, will end on Friday. Many researchers are taking part to discuss the issue of social, cultural and political integration of Islam in European society, including Paolo Branca, Arabic language instructor at Milan's Universita' Cattolica. Illustrating his idea by comparing it to the day's bad weather conditions, Branca said that "Italy is experiencing the spread of Islam as if it were an atmospheric phenomenon, without planning any mid-term intervention to improve coexistence." "When the rain end we'll discover the damage," he added, underscoring that "the situation in mosques is very chaotic.