Italy

Despite the long history of Christianity in Italy, for many decades the influence of the faith has been declining. Many Italian communities lack significant evangelical witness. At the same time, Italy is also experiencing a flood of Muslim immigrants and refugees who mostly do not seek to assimilate into Italian culture. Saudi oil money has built more than 500 mosques across the country with plans for many more to accommodate the growing Muslim population. Imams are finding especially fertile fields in Italian prisons where inmates turn to the Koran and militant forms of Islam as an antidote to the boredom of incarceration.