The Long Path from Recognition to Representation of Muslims in Italy

Abstract

The Muslim community in Italy does not benefit from official recognition, which could, among other things, provide it with access to state funding. Nor does its fragmented nature favour a process of aggregation leading to the formation of a single representative body delegated to dialogue with the institutions. The government initiative establishing the Council of Italian Islam (Consulta) sought to encourage an original course in this direction, but it seems that the body is unlikely to solve the problem. The solutions adopted in various European countries and the proposals put forward by experts suggest that legal recognition cannot sidestep the question of representation and therefore calls for a process of cultural mediation.

Notes

¹3,690,000 foreign citizens is the maximum estimated by the 2007 Caritas/Migrantes report and calculated on the data of the Ministry of the Interior. The largest number of immigrants (556,000) come from Romania, accounting for one sixth of the total (15.1 percent), followed almost five points behind by Morocco (387,000) and Albania (381,000). Caritas/Migrantes, Immigrazione. Dossier statistico 2007. See the article in this issue by Guarneri, 117.

²Considering for simplicity sake that all 387,000 Moroccan citizens in Italy with stay permits are Muslim.

³With approximately 95,000 and 74,000 permits, respectively, as of 31 Dec. 2006; again according to Caritas/Migrantes.

⁴Allam, “Percorsi identitari”, 76–8.

⁵The difference between the Concordato and the agreements (Intesa) with other religions is the legal nature of the former as part of a broader international treaty (Lateran Pact) regulating the relations between two states (Italy and the Vatican). This puts the Catholic Church on the same plane as the Italian state, making it not just the representative of a religious confession, but a state body to all effects.

⁶Basdevant-Gaudemet, “Islam in France”, 68.

⁷Pace, L’Islam in Europa, 64.

⁸Bousetta, “Immigrant ethnic mobilisation”, 242.

⁹Pace, L’Islam in Europa, 101.

¹⁰Pursuant to Art. 8 of the Constitution, the Italian state has reached agreements with the following religious communities: the Waldese Table, God's Assemblies in Italy, Union of Christian Adventist Churches of the 7th Day, Union of Jewish Communities, Christian Evangelical Baptist Union, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Italy. Moreover some agreements have been signed but not approved by law and some agreements are still being negotiated with religious communities recognised as religious entities.

¹¹Casuscelli, “Le proposte d’intesa”, 85.

¹²Law no. 1159/1929.

¹³Aluffi Beck-Peccoz, “Muslim minority in Italy”, 135.

¹⁴Ferrari, “Statuto giuridico dell’islam”, 37.

¹⁵Pacini, “I musulmani in Italia”, 26.

¹⁶Decree of the Interior Ministry, 10 September 2005.

¹⁷Allievi, “Islam italiano”, 990.

¹⁸Ferrari, “Introduzione”, 12.

¹⁹Guolo, “La questione delle intese”, 68.

²⁰Ferrari, “Introduzione”, 16–7.

²¹Spreafico and Coppi, La rappresentanza dei musulmani, 173–86.

²²Gritti, “La politica italiana”, 126–7.

²³ Ibid., 131–2.

²⁴Spreafico and Coppi, La rappresentanza dei musulmani, 54. “Shura” is generally translated as “consultation” or “consensus”. It does not necessarily have anything to do with forms of representative or democratic government, even though it does not exclude them. It is a term that expresses a request for participation and distrust of the autocratic power that was typical of pre-Islamic Arab tribes. According to this concept, power is legitimated from below: the notables and the people together choose the political head by means of a process of collective deliberation. Basically, it is a manifestation of popular consensus officially recognising the leader's authoritativeness.