xenophobic italy?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article5622156.ece

Italy is going further and further into this direction...

In my city there were only 2 small mosques, one of them was so small that it is only for men. It couldn't afford any space for women. And yet still, on friday prayers, the rows of people would spill to the street in front of it.

The second mosque is bigger than the first. At least there is a small room for women. On Ramadhan we would be tightly packed on tarawih prayers in that room. It was usually hard to properly sit and bow during the prayers.

For Eid-ul Fitr and Eid-ul Adha prayers these years an indoor sport hall was always rented. Thus, bigger number of people could be accommodated.

Last year the moslem community of my city began to build a masjid from scratch. Not in the city, but rather in the outskirt. It was planned to become a centre of activities not only for people in my city but also for moslem in other cities in this region. It was planned that on last Ramadhan we would have our Eid-ul Fitr prayer there, and not in the sport hall. But the masjid building was still not yet finished by that time.

During all the process of this building there were already some movements to object having a masjid in this region. I heard there was one moment where they hold a petition signing event in a piazza, talking about the act of terrorism and ask people to sign their petition to object to masjid building.

I read in the paper that actually there was a statement from the church in the region that support the building of this masjid. They recognize that it is a facility for prayer and people with religion needs such facility (CMIIW my italian is not that good). I talked once with my professor too, (an Italian, and he was the one who brought up the topics) and he expressed how ridiculous and made non-sense it was to object a facility of prayer to be built.

But, then... the government decision was issued. The building process had to stop, they withdrew the permission to build the masjid.

That was last year.

I just recently came back from a vacation in my home country. And upon coming back I learnt that now the small mosque is closed. There is only one mosque allowed now in this city...

And here comes the banning of food...

I enjoyed staying in Italy because the people are warm, just like Indonesian.
they smile and say ciao to strangers, they chitchat on the bus. All italians I came into contact with are nice, friendly, and kind.

CMIIW but I think how the situation advanced now is scary...