Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is not happy with the decision made by the headmaster of Garofani comprehensive school in the small town of Rozzano near Milan to ban Christmas concerts and carols this year in the name of multiculturalism.
According to The Guardian, headmaster Marco Parma, 63, made the decision to ban the celebration of Christmas despite strong protests from parents and media just because of one unpleasant incident that occurred last year.
"In a multi-ethnic environment, it causes problems," Parma told the Sunday edition of the Italian publication Corriere della Sera. "Last year we had a Christmas concert and some parents insisted on having carols. The Muslim children didn't sing, they just stood there, absolutely rigid. It is not nice watching a child not singing, or worse, being called down from the stage by their parents."
Because of this, Parma decided to rebrand the concert this year and simply call it a "winter concert." He also postponed the event until January next year.
Students will no longer be allowed to sing religious songs. As such, Parma rejected the offers made by two mothers to teach Christmas carols to children during lunch breaks.
The school, which has primary and middle school sections, has around 1,000 pupils. One out of five of these pupils belong to non-Christian faiths, particularly Islam.
Not everybody agrees with the decision made by Parma. "Christmas is much more important than a headmaster being provocative," Renzi said. "If he thinks he is promoting integration and co-existence in this way, he appears to me to have made a very big mistake."
Meanwhile, Matteo Salvini, leader of the right-wing, anti-immigration Northern League, has already called for Parma to be sacked immediately.
But Parma remains adamant about his decision, and said he would rather resign than back down from the action he took to resolve a sensitive issue.
