Excerpt:
The Islamic Cultural Conference Room inside Rome's Grand Mosque is packed with people. All are keenly awaiting the arrival of President Giorgio Napolitano.
There are high representatives of the Islamic community in Italy, as well as men and women who just want to celebrate an historic moment: the visit by Italy's head of state. President Napolitano arrives with Interior Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri and the Minister for Integration, Andrea Riccardi. And it is Riccardi's speech that puts the seal on a new pact of "integration" and living together. Riccardi recalls the 1970s, when the decision was taken to build this great mosque in Rome: "The times and people's outlooks have changed so much since then". The laying of the first stone by President Sandro Pertini in 1984 has been followed by a visit by President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro in 1997, and now this one by President Napolitano today. Riccardi remarks how "the mosque's dome fits in well with all the other church domes in Rome," making the capital city "a model for integration between religions and cultures".