The pontiff warned that removing symbols of religious heritage is "a cause of conflict"

ROME, November 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – An Italian judge suspended Friday, October 31, an earlier verdict on removing crucifixes from a kindergarten, after it triggered uproar across the secular but largely Catholic country.

L'Aquila magistrate Mario Montanaro had ordered Antonio Silveri public nursery in Ofena to take off all crucifixes following a complaint by a Muslim activist, though mainstream Muslim leaders distanced themselves from the controversy.

Issuing the new ruling, the presiding magistrate in L'Aquila said it came after the Italian education ministry challenged the earlier verdict in court, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The judge, who used his discretionary powers to temporarily suspend the original ruling, has invited the parties to a new hearing on 19 November, reported the BBC News Online.

Adel Smith, an Italian-Egyptian who converted to Islam in 1987, had asked the nursery to place an Islamic symbol alongside the crucifix in his children's classrooms.

When his request was turned down, the 43-year-old activist took the issue to court.

The verdict he obtained sparked off an uproar and heated debate over religious identity in the legally secular state, which is home to the heart of Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican.

A Fascist-era law, that has never been repealed, requires the cross to be displayed in state schools.

Vain 

At a meeting Friday with several European Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders,  Pope John Paul II of the Vatican warned that removing symbols that evoke the religious heritage of a society was "vain and hardly democratic" and "a cause of conflict".

"Recognizing (a nation's) religious heritage means recognizing the symbols that set it apart," noted the 83-year-old pontiff.

He cautioned that "the fragmentation of today's multi-ethnic and multi-cultural societies could easily turn into a cause of instability and even conflict."

Muslims Distance Themselves

The majority of Italian Muslim figures distanced themselves from Smith's case, including Abdel Hamid Shaari, head of Milan's Islamic Institute.

Shaari warned earlier this week that the row "only risks creating resentment against us and enflaming debates that do nothing to encourage integration".

Sociologists have expressed concern that the crucifix debate could inflame relations between Catholic Italians and an estimated one million Muslim community made up mostly of immigrants, the Washington Post said.

The controversy also threatens to fan tension over a controversial bill to give voting rights for immigrants with valid residency papers, which has already sharpened tension inside Italy's ruling conservative coalition.