On Sunday, May 10, after church mass, a group of young Muslim immigrants interrupted a Catholic procession in honor of the Virgin Mary. They hurled verbal insults, shouts, and threats as the group passed in front of the Islamic Cultural Center in Conselice, a small town in lower Romagna.

Approximately 100 Catholic Christians, including several small children, were preparing to receive their first Holy Communion, when Muslims from the Islamic Center began howling verbal abuses and threats at the passing procession.

According to an eyewitness, “During the slow procession of the sacred image, some kids on the ground floor of the building of the headquarters of the Attadamun Islamic Cultural Center began shouting a kind of chorus like “Get out of here” and “Go away from here.”

The Catholic participants, especially the children, were reportedly stunned and confused; they halted the procession before regrouping and hurrying past the Center.

Muslim attacks on Christians and Christian symbols are on the increase in Italy. Earlier this year, a crucifix was violently destroyed “in close proximity to a populated mosque” and a statue of the Virgin Mary was destroyed and urinated on by a group of North Africans in Italy.