Rome’s First Mosque Officially Opens

Politicians, foreign dignitaries and religious leaders, including the president of Italy, shared in the long-awaited opening Wednesday of Rome’s first free-standing mosque, the largest such temple in Europe.

Moroccan Ambassador Zine el Abidine Sebti hailed the center, in a suburb a few miles from St. Peter’s Basilica, as a major step “toward demolishing the campaigns of information which paint Islam as a violent and extremist religion while Islam has proclaimed equality and peaceful coexistence.”

More than 20 years in the planning and a decade of construction under Italian architect Paolo Portoghesi, the graceful domed structure, which has the same proportions as the ancient Roman Pantheon, can accommodate 2,000 worshipers.