Italy: Crucifix out due to Muslim sensibilities

Replaced with Madonna. (and no, it's not that Madonna.)

Milan's top Mangiagalli hospital, which has one of the most highly regarded maternity wards in Italy, has decided to replace the traditional crucifix hanging in its rooms with an image of the Madonna as a sign of respect for the growing number of Muslim immigrant patients, reports said Wednesday. Some 30 percent of the approximately 7,000 births annually performed at the hospital are to foreign women, many of them Muslim.

At least they're not hanging pictures of Mecca. Yet. I wonder if they've painted pink and blue prayer arrows on the walls?

Update: Will this be next? Iran wants to keep sexes apart in hospitals.

Iran's conservative government is encouraging doctors and nurses to treat patients only of the same gender in a bid to bring healthcare in line with its Islamic laws, press reports said on Tuesday. Health Minister Kamran Bagheri Lankarani said hospitals should implement a 1998 parliament bill that stipulates segregation of sexes known as the "initiative to conform medical care with Sharia law. A council has been formed with two parliament members as observers to facilitate the enforcement of this law," the centrist Kargozaran newspaper quoted him as saying.