May be if the Scholar was Wahabi
Local population needs their weekly guidance in
their own language
Well I do understand arabic (conversational) so during Kutba's given in many arabic mosque the statements given by the Imam are generally speaking about
day to day things muslims should do to be better followers of faith. Just as if you are being instructed by your dad or mom when you were kids. However this process is done at community level on weekly basis
I did realized the "lack of understanding my many of my peers" on these Arabic Khutbas , as many of my collegues later admited they did not understood what was being stated in the Friday Khutba, when I heard their statement I was a bit "Shocked" but later realized , I was just lucky to pick up the language and build up vocabolary over time others just understand 2-4 words or 10
The benefit from the Khutba is
not just sit there are
shake your head like bobble head , the idea behind is to learn about your faith and examples from past and hear why as muslism you need to focus on your religion and do "GOOD", so if person in attendence can't understand a word of the language then the gains from the Khutba are lost
*The Prayer itself uses Quranic verses which of course are in Arabic and most Muslims memorize these so these are not changable (Translations are available in books)
With Khutba's language being not the language of Listner , the benefits of spirituality is lost the "advice" the call "to do good" to help others etc does not transfers to listener as they can't understand the language in Khutbas if strictly done in Arabic (generally not understood by many folks in non Arabic countries )
So seems like good initiative by Italy more Italians will benefit from Italian Khutbas / Sermon