World IN BRIEF : ITALY : Rome’s First Mosque Officially Opens
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Religious leaders, foreign dignitaries and politicians, including the president of Italy, shared in the long-awaited formal opening of Rome’s first free-standing mosque, the largest such temple in Europe. More than 20 years in the planning and a decade in construction under Italian architect Paolo Portoghesi, the domed structure, in a suburb a few miles from St. Peter’s Basilica, can accommodate 2,000 worshipers. It is the centerpiece of an Islamic Cultural Center that also includes a 128-foot minaret and a library in a city whose Muslim community has grown to about 50,000.
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