Vandals burn imam's car outside Milan mosque -imam

ROME, Aug 6 (Reuters) Vandals set fire to a Muslim cleric's car outside a Milan mosque, the imam said today, describing it as a religiously-motivated attack following months of threats.

The overnight car fire shattered some of the building's windows and blacked its outer wall, but no one was injured, said Moroccan-born Hamid Zariate, the acting deputy director of the Islamic centre in Segrate, east of Milan's city centre.

The building houses the larger cultural centre and mosque where about 700 people gather for prayers, he said.

Zariate told Reuters that he saw one of the vandals at about midnight, hurling what could have been a petrol bomb. The vandal sped away in a vehicle driven by another person, he said.

''At midnight I heard the first blast, and looked out of the window and saw my car on fire ... The car exploded, there was nothing left of it,'' Zariate, 24, said.

Police declined comment. Italian media reported that police had not ruled out any possibilities yet -- including that the blast may have been accidental.

Zariate said he did not believe vandals targeted him specifically since he had only arrived at the centre several weeks ago.

''There's no reason for anyone to be against me specifically because I'm new. I don't know anybody,'' he said. ''So, it's not against me. It's against the mosque, and I think it's due to forms of xenophobia, forms of ideological-religious racism.'' The incident follows last month's high-profile arrest of an imam accused by police of leading a terrorism ''training school'' out of his mosque in Perugia, in central Italy.

Three politicians are pushing a bill that would create a national registry for imams with no criminal records, in an attempt to weed out fundamentalists.

Some politicians have called on police to keep a closer eye on imams practising in Italy.

Reuters PDS VP0116