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Italy's Terror School
Italian police have charged a Moroccan iman and two aides on suspicion of running a "terror academy" which trained children to make bombs - and an observer claims that 90 percent of European mosques are run by extremists.
Police say they found 60 types of suspicious chemicals, bomb-making manuals, a pilot's guide and a manual on sending encrypted messages during the raid in Perugia. There are also reports that electronic devices capable of detonating bombs were found, though the Italian authorities say that they do not suspect an attack was imminent. Rather, they claim, the mosque was being used as a training facility for violent Islamists who were drawn to it. Perugia is home to an international university popular with Middle-Eastern students.
The three men - Korchi el-Mostapha, 41, Mohamed el-Jari, 47, and Driss Safika, 46 - were caught after a two-year surveillance operation. A fourth suspect is on the run. Police say they suspect them of links with the Moroccan Islamic Combat Group which is believed to be behind a series of attacks in Morocco and the 2004 Madrid train bombings.
20 others - mostly foreign students - in the Ponte Felcino mosque where the men were captured were put under investigation.
The BBC story also carries a surprising claim from Sheikh Abdul Adid Palazzi, director of the Cultural Institute of the Italian Islamic Community.
"It is the top of the iceberg in our country - like in the rest of Western Europe. Most mosques are controlled by extremist pro-terror organisations - 90% of mosques," he said.
"And I think the percentage is more or less the same in Italy, Britain, France and Germany."
However, the broadcaster adds, the iman of Perugia's largest mosque says that the community "appeared peaceful."
