Italy's League blocks Muslims from buying and converting chapel
Source: Reuters
WORLD NEWS OCTOBER 28, 2018 / 1:05 PM / UPDATED 20 MINUTES AGO
Italy's League blocks Muslims from buying and converting chapel
ROME (Reuters) - Italys far-right League party intervened on Sunday to block efforts by a Muslim association to turn a former hospital chapel into a mosque.
The Muslim group last week made the highest offer for the chapel in the northern city of Bergamo at an auction organized by a local hospital, outbidding the Romanian Orthodox Church which had been using the building for its religious services.
But the project proved short-lived, with League leaders in the wealthy Lombardy region, which includes Bergamo, announcing they would halt the sale by using a 2004 law that enables them to intervene and safeguard cultural sites.
I would never put a Church on sale and I am amazed that the hospital management did not realize what a sensitive issue this is, Lombardy President Attilio Fontana, a League politician, wrote on Twitter.
However, we will exercise our right of first refusal (for the sale) and there will be no space for any appeal, he added.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-mosque/italys-league-blocks-muslims-from-buying-and-converting-chapel-idUSKCN1N20LJ