Italy rules out burkini ban, wants home-trained imams

Italy will not follow France by allowing burkini bans on public beaches, but is planning tighter regulation of imams and mosques, the country's interior minister said in comments

Rome: Italy will not follow France by allowing burkini bans on public beaches, but is planning tighter regulation of imams and mosques, the country's interior minister said in comments on Wednesday.

France banned burka in public in 2010 and has since been a divisive subject in the country

Angelino Alfano said that he regarded France's restrictions on Islamic clothing as counter-productive. Asked specifically about the burkini bans recently introduced by several French seaside towns, Alfano added: “It doesn't seem to me, alas, that the French model has worked for the best."

Alfano, who is planning to table a new security law in September, also said he wanted all imams preaching in the country's mosques to be trained in Italy, and for all mosques to be fully compliant with the law.

"Enough already with these homemade mosques springing up in garages," he was quoted saying.

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