Religious Minorities and Faith-Based Schools in a Quasi-Religious Monopoly - the Difficulties of Inclusion

Abstract

Italy, which has been defined as a quasi-religious monopoly, is experiencing an increase in religious diversity in the last decades, mainly due to the growing presence of immigration-related religious minorities. As in other countries, in Italy too faith-based as well as secular schools have become a central place for managing religious diversity. In this article, we firstly record on religious diversity in Italian schools and how it is dealt with, showing the primary role of Catholicism in handling religious diversity. Then, we present an overview of Italian faith-based schools, and we focus on how Islam faith- based schools struggle to find a place in the Italian system of education. The results show the quasi-absence of non-Catholic faith-based schools and the strong suspicion against schools based on faiths other than Catholicism. Hence, we argue that actors related to the Catholic Church are in charge of dealing with religious diversity in secular and faith-based schools.

Keywords:

• religious education
• religious diversity
• secularization
• Italian Islam

Notes

Notes

1 Luca Diotallevi, “Internal Competition in a National Religious Monopoly: The Catholic Effect and the Italian Case,” Sociology of Religion 63, no. 2 (2002): 137–55.

2 Roberto Mazzola, “La religion á l’école en Italie: état des lieux et evolutions,” in Le défi de l’enseignement des faits religieux à l’ecole, edited by Jean Paul Willaime. (Paris: Riveneuve, 2014), 103–20.

3 Enzo Pace, “Achilles and the Tortoise. A Society Monopolized by Catholicism Faced with an Unexpected Religious Pluralism,” Social Compass 60, no. 3 (2013): 315–31.

4 Alberta Giorgi and Pasquale Annicchino, “Genuine" Religions and Their Arena of Legitimation in Italy - the Role of the ECtHR,”Religion, State and Society 45, no. 3–4 (2017a): 284–96.

5 Alberta Giorgi and Pasquale Annicchino, “Do Not Cross the Line: The State Influence on Religious Education,” Politics and Religion 12, no. S1 (2017b): S55–78.

6 Maria Chiara Giorda, “Religious Diversity in Italy and the Impact on Education: The History of a Failure,” New Diversities 17, no. 1 (2015): 37–53.

7 Luca Ozzano and Alberta Giorgi, European Culture Wars and the Italian Case. Which Side Are You On? (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016).

8 Simone Martino, “L’Italia: un Modello Concordatario Nell’epoca Del Pluralismo,”Quaderni di Sociologia 66, (2014): 27–53.

9 Alessandro Ferrari and Silvio Ferrari, “Religion and the Secular State: The Italian Case,” in Religion and the Secular State: National Reports, edited by Martínez Torrón Javier and W. Cole Durham, Jr. (Madrid: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad Complutense, 2015), 445–65.

10 See: http://presidenza.governo.it/USRI/confessioni/intese_indice.html. Accessed 15 November 2017. It’s worth to notice that in January 2017 a “Patto nazionale per un islam italiano” was signed:http://www.interno.gov.it/sites/default/files/patto_nazionale_per_un_islam_italiano.pdf. Accessed 15 November 2017.

11 Luca Ozzano and Alberta Giorgi, European Culture Wars and the Italian Case. Which Side Are You On? (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016).

12 Maria Chiara Giorda, “Il ‘Caso’ Italia: storia, Attualità, Progetti,”Studi e Materiali di Storia Delle Religioni 2, (2009): 469–96.

13 Maria Chiara Giorda, “Religious Education in Italy. Themes and Problems,” in Religious Education Politics, the State, and the Society, edited by Jödicke Ansgar (Würtzburg: Ergon-Verlag, 2013), 177–97.

14 Maria Chiara Giorda, “Religious Education in Italy. Themes and Problems,” in Religious Education Politics, the State, and the Society, edited by Jödicke Ansgar (Würtzburg: Ergon-Verlag, 2013), 177–97.

15 Alberta Giorgi and Pasquale Annicchino, “Genuine" Religions and Their Arena of Legitimation in Italy - the Role of the ECtHR,”Religion, State and Society 45, no. 3–4 (2017a): 284–96.

16 Alberta Giorgi and Pasquale Annicchino, “Do Not Cross the Line: The State Influence on Religious Education,” Politics and Religion 12, no. S1 (2017b): S55–78.

17 Maria Chiara Giorda, “Religious Diversity in Italy and the Impact on Education: The History of a Failure,” New Diversities 17, no. 1 (2015): 37–53.

18 We have no data for private and faith-based schools: see Giorda 2015.

19 See, for example the IDOS reports (http://www.dossierimmigrazione.it/); and the Caritas-Migrantes reports (http://www.caritas.it/home_page/tutti_i_temi/00000404_Dossier_Statistico_Immigrazione.html) Accessed 15 November 2017.

20 ISTAT. 2012. Appartenenza e pratica religiosa tra i cittadini stranieri. Url: www.istat.it Accessed 15 November 2017.

21 http://www.ismu.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Rapporto-Miur-Ismu-2014_15.pdf, p. 19. (23/06/2017).

22 Luca Bossi and Maria Chiara Giorda, 2016. “Mense scolastiche e diversità religiosa. Il caso di Milano.” Stato, Chiese e Pluralismo Confessionale: https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/statoechiese/article/view/7319. Accessed 15 November 2017.

23 Source: http://www.ismu.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Rapporto-Miur-Ismu-2014_15.pdf, p. 54. Accessed 15 November 2017.

24 Paolo Branca and Milena Santerini. eds, Alunni arabofoni a scuola (Roma: Carocci, 2008).

25 Innocenzo Siggillino, L’islam nella scuola (Milano: FrancoAngeli, 1999).

26 Nicola Colaianni, “L'istruzione religiosa nelle scuole pubbliche,” in Musulmani in Italia. La condizione giuridica delle comunità islamiche, edited by Ferrari Silvio (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2000), 157–73.

27 The data come from MIUR and Istat 2015 in the article “L'islam in classe che fare?” In TuttoScuola.com 15 November 2015. See also the ISMU Foundation report - http://www.ismu.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Rapporto_CNI_Miur_Ismu_2013-14.pdf. Accessed 15 November 2017.

28 http://grassrootsmobilise.eu/ Accessed 15 November 2017.

29 Interview IT_19, 16/09/2015, in the context of GRASSROOTSMOBILISE project.

30 Alberta Giorgi and Pasquale Annicchino, “Genuine" Religions and Their Arena of Legitimation in Italy - the Role of the ECtHR,”Religion, State and Society 45, no. 3–4 (2017a): 284–96.

31 Alberta Giorgi and Pasquale Annicchino, “Do Not Cross the Line: The State Influence on Religious Education,” Politics and Religion 12, no. S1 (2017b): S55–78.

32 Marco Ventura, “Italy.” In International Encyclopaedia of Laws: Religion edited by RikmTorfs (Alphen aan den Rijn, NL: Kluwer Law International, 2013).

33 Marco Ventura, Creduli e credenti. Il declino di Stato e Chiesa come questione di fede (Torino: Einaudi, 2014).

34 Luca Ozzano and Alberta Giorgi, European Culture Wars and the Italian Case. Which Side Are You On? (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016).

35 Michelle Striepe and Simon Clarke, “Faith-Based Schools in Australia: A Fertile Setting for Research Endeavour,” Education, Knowledge and Economy 3, no. 2 (2009): 107–19.

36 Ben Clements, “Attitudes towards Faith-Based Schooling Amongst Roman Catholics in Britain,” British Journal of Religious Education (2016) http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2015.1128393. Accessed 15 November 2017.

37 Ben Clements, “Understanding Public Attitudes in Britain towards Faith Schools,” British Educational Reasearch Journal 36, no. 6 (2009): 953–73.

38 Robert Jackson, “Should the State Fund Faith Based Schools? a Review of the Arguments,” British Journal of Religious Education 25, no. 2 (2003): 89–102.

39 Harry Judge, “Faith-Based Schools and State Funding: A Partial Argument,” Oxford Review of Education 27, no. 4 (2001): 463–74.

40 Robert Jackson, “Should the State Fund Faith Based Schools? A Review of the Arguments,” British Journal of Religious Education 25, no. 2 (2003): 89–102.

41 Jana Pecenka and Floya Anthias, “Minority Faith Schools as Claims for Cultural Recognition? Two Examples from England,” Identities 22, no. 4 (2015): 433–50.

42 Victoria Clement, “Faith-Based Schools in Post-Soviet Turkmenistan,”European Education 43, no. 1 (2011): 76–92.

43 http://benvenutiinitalia.it/pensiero/pubblicazioni/irinews/ Accessed 15 November 2017.

44 http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/documents/key_data_series/134en.pdf Accessed 15 November 2017.

45 Paola Guerin and Marco Lepore, “La presenza della scuola paritaria in Italia: dati e tendenze,” in S.O.S. educazione. Statale, paritaria: per una scuola migliore. Fondazione per la sussidiarietà, edited by Luisa Ribolzi and Giorgio Vittadini (Brescia: La scuola, 2014), 33–58.

46 Davide Nizza, Scuola ebraica (Milano: Comunità ebraica di Milano-ORT, 1993).

47 Alessandro Ferrari, Libertà scolastiche e laicità dello Stato in Italia e Francia (Torino: Giappichelli, 2002).

48 Giorgio Peyrot and Armand Hugon, “Origine e Sviluppo Degli Istituti Valdesi di Istruzione Nelle Valli Del Pinerolese,” Bollettino Della Società di Studi Valdesi 117, (1965): 3–44.

49 Data: Italian Ministry of Public Education and the Catholic schools federation FIDAE 2011-2012.

50 Anna Acquaviva, “Scuola pubblica e privata e islam,” in Comunità islamiche in Italia. Identità e forme giuridiche, edited by Carlo Cardia and Giovanni Dalla Torre (Torino: Giappichelli, 2015), 451–78.

51 Alessandro Ferrari, “Le scuole musulmane in Italia: tra identità e integrazione,” in Musulmani in Italia. La condizione giuridica delle comunità islamiche, edited by Ferrari, Silvio. (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2000), 131–56.

52 Nicola Colaianni, “L'istruzione religiosa nelle scuole pubbliche,” in Musulmani in Italia. La condizione giuridica delle comunità islamiche, edited by Ferrari Silvio (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2000), 157–73.

53 See: http://www.studivaldesi.org/dizionario/evan_det.php?evan_id=195 Accessed 15 November 2017.

54 http://grassrootsmobilise.eu/. Accessed 15 November 2017.

55 Anna Acquaviva, “Scuola pubblica e privata e islam,” in Comunità islamiche in Italia. Identità e forme giuridiche, edited by Carlo Cardia and Giovanni Dalla Torre (Torino: Giappichelli, 2015), 451–78.

56 Non-Catholic faith-based schools in Italy include: five Jewish schools and two Waldensian; as in other countries, home-schooling due to religious reasons seems to be increasing. Unfortunately, though, we do not have data, yet.

57 A groundbreaking study is that of A. Ferrari (2000), and its bibliography.

58 The full text is available here: http://www.osservatorioantisemitismo.it/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/dossierislamita.pdf. Accessed 15 November 2017.

59 See report pp. 99–100. Similarly, in the article ‘Così l’islam più radicale si è preso l’Italia. Il pericolo si nasconde tra moschee e scuole coraniche’, published on the daily Il Tempo: http://www.iltempo.it/cronache/2015/11/28/il-dossier-il-pericolo-si-nasconde-tra-moschee-e-scuole-coraniche-cosi-l-islam-piu-radicale-s-e-preso-l-italia-1.1484037. Accessed 15 November 2017.

60 Luca Ozzano and Alberta Giorgi, European Culture Wars and the Italian Case. Which Side Are You On? (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016).

61 Renzo Guolo, “Islam e Scuola Pubblica: Orientamenti di Genitori di Regione Islamica in Piemonte,” Ricerche e Pedagogia Didattica 4, no. 2 (2009): 1–16.

62 Anna Acquaviva, “Scuola pubblica e privata e islam,” in Comunità islamiche in Italia. Identità e forme giuridiche, edited by Carlo Cardia and Giovanni Dalla Torre (Torino: Giappichelli, 2015), 451–78.

63 Ibid.

64 I.e.: From the website of the Historical Archive of Italian Emigration (ASEI) an article of the 15 November 2007 states: "Indoctrinate the immigrant youth. Islamic schools in Italy today – Italian schools in the United States between two world wars: a comparison". The article compares schools in Italy where Koran is taught and Italian schools in the United States during the migrations of the first half of the twentieth century. Such migrations had caused similar fears in American society, concerned with fascist teaching in Italian schools not controlled by local government: http://www.asei.eu/it/2007/11/indottrinare-la-gioventmigrata-scuole-islamiche-in-italia-oggi-scuole-italiane-negli-stati-un/ Accessed 15 November 2017.

65 Antonio Angelucci, Maria Bombardieri, and Davide Tacchini. eds, Islam e Integrazione in Italia (Venezia: Marsilio, 2014).

66 Alessandro Ferrari, “Le scuole musulmane in Italia: tra identità e integrazione,” in Musulmani in Italia. La condizione giuridica delle comunità islamiche, edited by Ferrari, Silvio. (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2000), 131–56.

67 We interviewed Antonio Cuciniello on this case on the 21st January 2016, teacher of Italian language L2 for adults for a few months in 2005 at the school, then put in charge by the Provveditorato degli Studi di Milano to manage the transition of minors from that school to Italian state schools (this activity lasted three days).

68 P. Branca, “Da via Quaranta a via…Inganni”, in Yalla Italia! Le vere sfide dell’integrazione di arabi e musulmani nel nostro paese, edizioni Lavoro, Roma 2007, pp. 106 – 113. The news was reported in the national press: http://www.repubblica.it/2005/i/sezioni/cronaca/allertaitalia3/bloccaisla/bloccaisla.html. Accessed 15 November 2017.

69 http://kas-roma.sch.sa/En/. Accessed 15 November 2017.

70 We thank Valeria Fabretti for making available the text of the protocol.

71 The school of Mazara has 4 teachers and a decreasing number of students year on year, due to the migration of the Tunisian community from Mazara towards other cities in Italy. In 2014/2015 there were around 150 students, down to 100 the following year, as informed by our source dott. Vito Pipitone, of CNR in Mazara del Vallo. The two schools differ greatly as the one in Palermo is attended by children of diplomats and children from high-middle class backgrounds, on which there is little information, while the school of Mazara is attended by children whose mothers work in the home and do not speak Italian and whose fathers are immigrant workers in the fishery industry.

72 Giovanni Filoramo and Flavio Pajer, Di che Dio sei? (Torino: Sei, 2012).

73 Franco Garelli, Gustavo Guizzardi, and Enzo Pace. eds, Un singolare pluralismo. Indagine sul pluralismo morale e religioso degli italiani (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2003).

74 Giuseppe Giordan and Enzo Pace. eds, Religious Pluralism. Framing Religious Diversity in the Contemporary World (New York: Springer, 2014).

75 Enzo Pace, Vecchi e nuovi dei. La geografia religiosa dell’Italia che cambia (Roma: Carocci, 2011).

76 Enzo Pace, “Achilles and the Tortoise. A Society Monopolized by Catholicism Faced with an Unexpected Religious Pluralism,” Social Compass 60, no. 3 (2013): 315–31.

77 Anna Acquaviva, “Scuola pubblica e privata e islam,” in Comunità islamiche in Italia. Identità e forme giuridiche, edited by Carlo Cardia and Giovanni Dalla Torre (Torino: Giappichelli, 2015), 451–78.

78 Alessandro Ferrari, “Le scuole musulmane in Italia: tra identità e integrazione,” in Musulmani in Italia. La condizione giuridica delle comunità islamiche, edited by Ferrari, Silvio. (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2000), 131–56.

79 Alberta Giorgi and Pasquale Annicchino, “Genuine" Religions and Their Arena of Legitimation in Italy - the Role of the ECtHR,”Religion, State and Society 45, no. 3–4 (2017a): 284–96.

80 Alberta Giorgi and Pasquale Annicchino, “Do Not Cross the Line: The State Influence on Religious Education,” Politics and Religion 12, no. S1 (2017b): S55–78.

81 Alessandro Ferrari. 2011. “Libertà religiosa e nuove presenze confessionali (ortodossi e islamici): tra cieca deregulation e super-specialità, ovvero del difficile spazio per la differenza religiosa”, Stato, Chiese e Pluralismo Confessionale: https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/statoechiese/article/view/1213. Accessed 15 November 2017.

82 Carlo Cardia, “Le ragioni di una ricerca. Le originalità dell’Islam, le difficoltà dell’integrazione,” in Comunità islamiche in Italia. Identità e forme giuridiche, edited by Carlo Cardia and Giovanni Dalla Torre (Torino: Giappichelli, 2015), 3–27.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maria Chiara Giorda

Maria Chiara Giorda, Department of HUMANITIES, University of Roma Tre, Via Ostiense 234, Roma, Italy. [email protected]

Alberta Giorgi

Alberta Giorgi, Department of Letters, Philosophy and Communication, University of Bergamo, Via Pignolo 123, Bergamo, Italy. [email protected]