Christians Under Attack

ANSA) - Rome, January 21 - Italy is moving to prevent any more recurrences of mass Muslim prayers in front of Catholic places of worship following incidents in Milan, Bologna and Rome this month.

All three incidents took place during protest marches against the Israeli offensive in Gaza, but a mass pray-in in front of the Duomo in Milan grabbed the most headlines. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said Wednesday he was working on a directive that would improve ''control'' during demonstrations, without revealing full details of the measure.

''I have prepared a guideline that will be sent to all city prefects so that what happened in front of the Duomo in Milan will not be repeated,'' Maroni told parliament.

The minister added that his aim was to ''guarantee the right to protest but also the right of citizens to peacefully use the spaces in their own cities,'' Maroni said.

Hundreds of Muslims took part in prayers in front of Milan's Duomo on January 3 when the hour for prayer arrived during the march.

On the same day a similar incident occurred in Bologna, where hundreds of Muslims prayed to Allah in front of the Basilica of San Petronio.

In a third incident, around 50 Muslims prayed in front of the Colosseum in Rome last weekend during another protest march for Gaza. The Roman amphitheatre has close ties with the Catholic church and forms part of the Good Friday Stations of the Cross procession.

Right-wing politicians have reacted angrily to the three events, although Muslims have said they had no choice since they were obeying Islamic prayer times.

BOLOGNA PROTEST ORGANISER INVESTIGATED.

On Wednesday Bologna public prosecutor's office confirmed that the protest organiser, Mohamed Rafia Boukhbiza, will have to answer to charges of public security violations after a Forza Italia politician lodged a complaint.

According to law, police must be notified ahead of any public prayer event.

Rafia Boukhbiza is accused of having advanced knowledge of the pray-in, since many of the Muslims used prayer rugs.

In the wake of the Milan pray-in, Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa staged a Catholic mass in Piazza Duomo the following Sunday in order to ''reclaim'' the area, while the Northern League's Attilio Fontana said he ''would like to see what would happen if I went to recite the rosary in Mecca''. Maurizio Gasparri, Senate whip for Premier Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL) party, earlier this week said all three incidents were ''pseudo-prayers''.

''They have nothing to do with religion - they are threatening and intimidatory acts towards the Italian people,'' he said, adding that those who took part should be ''identified and possibly expelled from the country''.

A former interior minister, the PDL's Beppe Pisanu, described the incidents as ''a fundamentalist operation, the preliminaries of terrorism''.

But Milan Archbishop Dionigi Tettamanzi has refused to condemn the mass pray-in in Milan, describing prayer as an ''inalienable right''.

Photo: Muslims pray in front of Milan's Duomo.