Italy’s highest court on Wednesday nullified a regional law in lombardy dubbed “anti-mosque” by critics, easing regulations on the construction of places of worship in the country.
The law, drawn up by the anti-immigrant party Northern league and voted in at the start of 2015, tightened rules regarding all religious buildings, but was widely believed to target the wealthy region’s Muslim community. It required new places of worship fit into the “architecture of the lombard landscape” and be voted in by local referendum. It also stipulated the religion in question be officially recognised by the state — which Islam is not, because it lacks a signed agreement with the government.
According to the interior ministry, at the start of 2015 there were 1.6 million Muslims in Italy, 26.5 per cent of whom lived in lombardy, which boasts the country’s oldest and second largest mosque.