Trojan horse mosque in Rome?

Submitted by Dale Brown (United States), Sep 21, 2010 at 11:59

Churches are banned in Saudi Arabia and no Bibles are allowed but now the Mosque of Rome, with an area of 30,000 m², is the largest mosque in Europe and can accommodate twelve thousand people. According to Wikipedia the mosque was jointly founded by the exiled Prince Muhammad Hasan of Afghanistan and his wife, Princess Razia Begum [1] and was financed by Faisal of Saudi Arabia, head of the Saudi royal family, as well as Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. The project was designed and directed by Paolo Portoghesi, Vittorio Gigliotti and Sami Mousawi.

Its construction took more than ten years: the Roman City Council donated the land in 1974, but the first stone was not laid for another ten years, in 1984 (1405 AH), in the presence of then President of the Italian Republic Sandro Pertini, with its inauguration on June 21, 1995.

This appears to be a Trojan horse in Rome. Sandro Magister reported that the imam who preaches the "khutba" there every Friday was sent by the theologians of the Al Azhar university in Cairo, the most authoritative university in the Muslim world. And the things said in the Rome mosque are no small matter. The sermon of June 6, 2003, culminated with the following invocations, interspersed with the "Amen"s of the congregation:

"O Allah, grant victory to the Islamic fighters in Palestine, Chechnya, and elsewhere in the world! O Allah, destroy the homes of the enemies of Islam! O Allah, help us to annihilate the enemies of Islam! O Allah, make firm everywhere the voice of the nation of Islam!"

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".