(Al-Jazeera) On Friday after midday, on a tree-lined residential street in southeastern Rome, people speak an assortment of languages and dialects, from north African Arabic to the local Roman slang.
The bottom floor of a peeling post-war building hosts a “prayer home.”
On the Muslim holy day, worshippers lay out their prayer rugs as far as the pavement and listen to a sermon.
Officially recognised mosques in Italy can be counted on one hand, but there are many unofficial “prayer homes” like this — more than 50 in Rome.
Islam isn’t formally recognised in Italy, despite being the country’s largest religious minority.
While other religions have underwritten an accord with the Italian state, attempts to reach one for Islam have been inconclusive.
