Sergio Romano concludes – in his advice column – that Italians have essentially two choices regarding the teaching of Islam in public schools:

1. Get used to it. Muslims are second only to Catholics in number, and growing.  In Italy we must teach religion in school. It’s in the Constitution – duh! So it’s only fair that majority religions get a bigger slice of pie. Screw the Jews, Buddhists, atheists and Lutherans. They’re ballbreakers anyway.

2. Abolish religious teaching in public schools. Be fair to everyone by giving priviledges to no one. The only obstacle to this benign and wise solution is the Constitution, which recognizes the Lateran Pacts signed with Mussolini’s government, giving the Catholic church the priviledge of teaching its dogma in Italian schools.

So the answer to this conundrum is the same as it was before we tuned in: the Lateran Pacts must be abolished.

Let the church teach its Catechism in Catholic schools. Let the Qur’an be taught in Muslim schools. Let public schools be a place where children are taught to think for themselves, reason, and learn universal knowledge like scienc and mathematics, history and languages. We will have a better society for it in the end.