Islam Italiano: Prospects for Integration of Muslims in Italy's Religious Landscape

Abstract

Despite daunting political and social challenges to the insertion of Islam in Italy's spiritual geography, there is much evidence to suggest that integration is already underway and will move slowly but steadily forward to realization. Factors that impede the efforts of Muslims to achieve integration in the Italian religious landscape include the diversity and divisions found within the Muslim community itself, deep-seated mistrust of Islam in Italian society, media coverage that tends to be biased and inaccurate, and ambivalence on the part of the Catholic Church hierarchy toward Islam and other religious minorities. Among the factors that portend eventual accommodation of Muslims in Italy are the relatively tolerant attitudes among Italians toward immigrants and religious minorities, the increasingly effective measures adopted by Muslims to promote their cause in the public arena, the role of second-generation Muslims in reconstructing Islamic identity for the Italian context, and examples from the history of religion that illustrate how religious minorities in other societies have been successfully integrated.