ROME: As a new centre-right government that has vowed to be tougher on immigration prepares to take office, a new study on Tuesday showed that most Italians have negative views about having immigrants from Muslim countries.

According to the study carried out by the Makno research organisation, and commissioned by the interior ministry, 55.3 per cent of those asked said immigration from Islamic countries was more problematic than that from other, Christian, countries.

Only 39.7 per cent said Muslims should be allowed to practice their religion and build mosques unconditionally.

Nearly 10 per cent were firmly against allowing Muslim religious practices or mosques and the rest posed various conditions, such as reciprocity for Christians in Islamic countries to practice their religion.

On the Islamic side, nearly 40 per cent of Muslim immigrants said they found it difficult to respect their religious traditions in Italy while 30.2 per cent feared they would lose their culture.

Italy, a predominantly Catholic country which once sent millions of immigrants to the world, is still grappling with how it should integrate immigrants of different cultures, languages and religions.

—Reuters