Stop lectures for Ramadan, university students in Bologna also consider the request

After Milan, Muslim students in Bologna could also embrace the idea of asking their university to consider suspending classes at the end of Ramadan. 'The Muslim students of the Politecnico had an excellent idea. The proposal should be extended to all Italian universities,' comment the Young Muslims of Bologna. "The feast at the end of Ramadan is known as Eid al-Fitr, which literally means the feast of the breaking of the fast,' they explain. 'It is one of the most important holidays in Islam and marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, during which Muslims fast from dawn to dusk. During Eid al-Fitr, Muslims gather to pray, thank God and celebrate the completion of the fast. This is why it is a very important holiday for us and gives Muslim students the opportunity to be with their families'.

They will therefore confront themselves with students from other cities and say they are 'ready to submit a request to the University of Bologna'. In the meantime, in the next few weeks the Muslim students of the Milan Polytechnic could put their request down on paper. 'We are still in a phase of discussion and planning,' explains a manager, 'we are considering writing a letter to the student council in the near future for the next academic year. For us it would be important to stop classes on that day'.

For her part, university rector Donatella Sciuto said that 'this request did not come at the time when the academic calendar is being made', adding: 'A request two days earlier is practically impossible to realise'. Sciuto went on to specify that at the university there is 'no obligation to attend and we also record lectures'. "So," he added, "students who want to celebrate can do so.

And while the Iqbal Masih Comprehensive Institute in Pioltello, in the Milan area, will close the day after tomorrow in Turbigo, the celebration for the end of Ramadan ends at the Prefecture. The celebrations will take place in the training area of the municipal sports chief. This solution was arrived at in the meeting convened today by the prefect of Milan Claudio Sgaraglia with the mayor of Turbigo Fabrizio Allevi and the cultural association Moschea Essa, which had appealed to the TAR after the municipality's rejection of the use of a public space. It was the Regional Administrative Tribunal that had put the diatribe back in the hands of the prefect.