Vatican ‘grants request for Muslim prayer room’

The Vatican has granted Muslim scholars’ request for a prayer room.

In an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Father Giacomo Cardinali, the Vice Prefect of the Vatican Library, said the ancient institution is now allowing academics an area to practice their own religion onsite.

He said: ‘Some Muslim scholars asked us for a room with a prayer rug, and we gave it to them.’

The Vatican Library, one of the oldest in the world, has been collecting religious texts from across the world since it was formally established in 1475 by Pope Sixtus IV.

It is now home to some of the oldest theological material in the world, a fact that Cardinali subtly bragged about.

‘We are a universal library, with Arabic, Jewish, Ethiopian collections, and unique Chinese pieces.

‘Years ago, we discovered we have the oldest medieval Japanese archive outside of Japan.’

Today, it is home to around 80,000 manuscripts, 50,000 archival items, 100,000 engravings, prints, coins & medals and nearly two million printed books.

And with an online requesting system, Cardinali said the library receives extraordinary requests from around the world.

He said: ‘We’ve been receiving the most absurd requests, especially from America: do you have the time machine? And the Menorah from the Temple of Jerusalem taken away by Titus? And the Holy Grail?’

But not everyone treats the Vatican with the same reverence.