The Mosque of Segrate located on the outskirts of Milan has called on Muslims to vote for the centre-left coalition and parties favourable to granting birthplace citizenship.
The Segrate mosque, also known as Masjid al-Rahmàn or Mosque of the Merciful, released a bulletin to followers urging them to vote for parties which support granting citizenship to anyone born within the borders of Italy, known as Jus Soli, Italian newspaper Il Giornale reports.
The mosque told believers “they have a fundamental interest in going to the polls and in the secrecy of the voting booth, where nobody, except Allah, shines the splendour of his light, sees them express carefully on the valid ballot, putting the X on the symbol of parties favourable to Jus Soli.”
The mosque is not the only authority telling Muslims to vote for left-wing parties. A recent issue of the Italian Muslim magazine Il Messaggero dell’Islam featured an article on who Muslims should vote for, reiterating many of the points of the mosque bulletin.
The author of the article then writes: “Muslims must not lose this political occasion that Allah, the most high, puts at their disposal to consolidate them on this territory.”
The Muslim population of Italy has grown largely due to mass migration, but many who have come from the Middle East and North Africa who do not qualify for asylum will likely face deportation if the right-wing coalition of populist Lega leader Matteo Salvini and former Prime minister and Forza Italia leader Silvio Berlusconi win Sunday’s election.
Both centre-right coalition leaders have promised to deport hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants with the next five years.
Current Italian citizenship laws largely follow the jus sanguinis, or right of blood, law which currently states that a child’s mother or father must be an Italian citizen for them to receive automatic citizenship with the only exceptions being stateless persons born in Italy.
Muslims are also less likely to vote for Lega leader Matteo Salvini as he recently stated: “The Islam of today is a danger. I don’t want it.”
“Either it evolves and opens itself or it is a danger. Once in office, I will put a halt to every irregular or abusive presence of Islam in Italy,” he added.