Morocco’s King Funds $18 Million Mosque Project in Turin, Italy

After years of praying in abandoned garages and workshops, the Muslim community of Aurora will have a decent place of worship in a few months. The district will host the first "official" mosque in Turin with a minaret, comprising in addition to the place of worship, a student residence, a library and an exhibition hall.

After all the required administrative authorizations, the future Aurora mosque will be built on the site of the former Nebiolo factories and will have a capacity of 1,000 seats. The project, initiated by the Italian Islamic Confederation (CII), requires an investment of 17 million euros. An amount that King Mohammed VI of Morocco has committed to providing. The monarch is said to have already released eight million of this budget.

"As in Milan or Verona, we received an impetus from the city that, in Turin, we wanted to seize for its social and cultural context. The Kingdom of Morocco has grasped the spirit of the project, which is not just about building a place for the community, but about opening up innovative spaces with a new way of acting," explained Mustapha Hajraoui, president of the CII. The work could start in 2026.

Ten years ago, Morocco was to finance the construction of a mosque in the 7th District, a project that never materialized. The Italian Islamic Confederation is representative of the Moroccan community in this country where it has 233 places of worship.