Muslim Diversity in Italy: An Unacknowledged Reality

Abstract

Immigration towards Italy is on the increase and, as a part of it, the Muslim presence is too. The range of countries of origin of Muslim immigrants in Italy is very broad and this multi-ethnicity, along with the divisions in the Muslim faith itself make the Muslim presence difficult to understand and quantify. In addition, this fragmentation poses a dilemma for the state between considering immigrants an unicum or devising different policies for specific immigrant groups or communities. It also makes it easier for the uninformed Italian public, with the help of the media, to equate all Muslims with fundamentalism, terrorism and crime, spawning ungrounded fears. While waiting for a comprehensive bill on freedom of worship that would facilitate official recognition of Islam, Italian society will have to become more knowledgeable and open towards the Muslims in its midst.

Notes

¹Dassetto and Bastenier, Europa: nuova frontiera dell'Islam; Allievi and Dassetto, Il ritorno dell'Islam; Allievi, Musulmani d'occidente.

²There is no “minister” in the Christian sense of the term. The imam is the person who leads the prayer and is not, therefore, part of any hierarchical structure.

³Bill no. 1576 on Freedom of Worship and Abrogation of the legislation on admitted cults retabled proposals first put forward by the “Maselli” Bill presented during the Prodi government in 1997 and later also taken up in a bill tabled by the Berlusconi government. Although repeatedly tabled, the bill has not been passed because of opposition from the right-wing National Alliance and Northern League parties (especially the latter which has openly manifested its hostility towards the Islamic community), as well as from a transversal Catholic following in Italy's political arena, which has proven particularly protective towards the Catholic Church.

⁴Only the official census taken every 10 years can give a broader picture of the presence of immigrants in Italy. But since the unregistered immigrants are more likely to try to avoid the census, the figures for this sub-population may be under-estimated.

⁵As of 1 January 2007, there were 2,938,922 foreign residents in Italy, accounting for 5.0% of the total resident population.

⁶Pacini, “I musulmani in Italia”.

⁷It should be pointed out that the figures for stay permits issued by the Ministry of the Interior and elaborated upon by ISTAT do not include children under 14 (unless unaccompanied), who are included on their parents' permits. Consequently, the numbers are under-estimated with respect to the registered resident population.

⁸ISTAT, Demo: demografia in cifre. http://demo.istat.it

⁹Those percentages are drawn from Global Geografia which brings together data from various sources. http://www.globalgeografia.com/

¹⁰Although a few years have passed, the countries considered are not very different from those analysed by Andrea Pacini, who set the Muslim component of the immigrant population in Italy as of 1 January 2000 at 438,450. Pacini, “I musulmani in Italia”.

¹¹M. Introvigne, P. Zoccatelli, Le religioni in Italia: Il pluralismo religioso italiano nel contesto postmoderno. http://www.cesnur.org/religioni_italia/introduzione_01.htm

¹²Caritas/Migrantes, Immigrazione. Dossier Statistico 2007.

¹³Permit stays may be understimated because, as of 1 April 2007, citizens of the European Union who want to reside in Italy no longer require a stay permit. Three months after entry, they are obliged to register in their municipality of residence. Consequently, data from 1 January 2008 onwards will no longer include Romanian immigrant flows, for example, which have been very substantial in recent years.

¹⁴Caritas/Migrantes, Immigrazione. Dossier Statistico 2007.

¹⁵Comitato parlamentare di controllo sull'attuazione dell'accordo di Schengen, di vigilanza sul'attività di Europol, di controllo e vigilanza in materia di immigrazione. Esame del documento conclusivo dell'indagine conoscitiva sull'immigrazione e l'integrazione. http://www.portalecnel.it/portale/documentazione_riferimento.nsf/vwareatematicaONC?openview

¹⁶Pugliese, L'Italia tra migrazioni internazionali e migrazioni interne; Bonifazi, L'immigrazione straniera in Italia; Einaudi, Le politiche dell'immigrazione in Italia dall'Unità ad oggi.

¹⁷All quotes are translated from the Italian.

¹⁸For an update of all agreements signed and negotiated by EU member states with third countries, see http://www.mirem.eu. For the informal dimension, see Cassarino, “Informalising readmission agreements”.

¹⁹4500 Albanians, 1000 Algerians, 3000 Bangladeshis, 8000 Egyptians, 5000 Filipinos, 1000 Ghanians, 4500 Moroccans, 6500 Moldavians, 1500 Nigerians, 1000 Pakistanis, 1000 Senegalese, 100 Somalis, 3500 Sri Lankans, 4000 Tunisians and 2500 citizens from other non-EU countries that have agreements regulating entry flows and readmission procedures.

²⁰Applying the same calculation method used to estimate the number of legal Muslim immigrants in Italy to the 701,510 applications received by 7 February 2008, approximately one-half of them were from Muslims.

²¹1987–88, 1990, 1995, 1998 and 2002.

²²In April 2008, the Court of Cassation handed down a sentence in favour of a Moroccan family living in Modena which, having received a child in Kafalah from her legitimate parents (Kafalah being a kind of guardianship regulated by Islamic law), had been denied a visa for her entry into Italy by the consolate in Casablanca. Thus Kafalah has been acknowledged as a tie strong enough to justify family reunion as provided for by the law on immigration.

²³Legislative decree no. 3 of 8 January 2008 replaced the stay permit of foreign citizens with an EC long-term stay permit which can be requested for oneself and one's family by any foreigner who has had a valid stay permit for at least five years.

²⁴Golini and Strozza, “Misure e indicatori dell'integrazione degli immigrati”. On the same subject, see also: Zincone, Primo rapporto sullintegrazione degli immigrati in Italia; Zincone, Secondo rapporto sullintegrazione degli immigrati in Italia.

²⁵Natale and Strozza, Gli immigrati stranieri in Italia.

²⁶ For foreigners of Italian origin only three years of residence are required, for foreigners from EU countries four years and for refugees five years. Foreigners born in Italy acquire citizenship when they turn 18 if they can show that they have lived regularly in the country since birth. The Department for Civil Liberties and Immigration of the Ministry of the Interior issued a circular on 7 November 2007 aimed at facilitating the integration of the children of foreign citizens: late registration in the Official Registry is no longer an obstacle to citizenship; permanent residence in Italy in the period before registration can now be proven by means of integrative documentation such as school and medical certificates.

²⁷Art.1.1b-bis and 1b-ter of the Bill modifying Law no. 91 of 5 February 1992, entailing new provisions for citizenship.

²⁸Art. 2 of the Bill modifying Law no. 91 of 5 February 1992, entailing new provisions for citizenship.

²⁹For more on this subject, see the article by Coppi and Spreafico in this issue, 101.

³⁰Law no. 354/1975, modified by Law no. 663/1986, gives prisoners and detainees the faculty to receive assistance from ministers of their cult, if they so wish.

³¹The confessions that have signed agreements approved by law are: the Waldese Church, the Union of Christian Churches of the 7th Day Adventist, the Assemblies of God in Italy, the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, the Christian Evangelic Baptist Union of Italy, the Lutheran Evangelical Church in Italy. Other agreements have been signed (but have not yet entered into force) with the Apostolic Church of Italy, the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, the Sacred Archidiocese of Italy and Exarchate for Southern Europe, the Italian Buddhist Union (UBI) and the Italian Hinduist Union.

³²A confession cannot access public financing without an Intesa. An important source of public financing is the voluntary (0.8%) contribution allocated by taxpayers to religions of their choice. Some Muslim communities have nevertheless obtained local funds for the construction of mosques.

³³ Gazzetta Ufficiale, 15 June 2007.

³⁴Capodanno, Muslim immigrant communities in Italy.

³⁵V. Polchi, “In Italia 88 scuole islamiche rapporto segreto al Viminale”, Extra, La Repubblica, 21 September 2007.

³⁶De Gregorio, Il trattamento giuridico della minoranza islamica in Europa.

³⁷Chronologically: EC directive no. 74/577, implemented with Law 439/1978; Ministerial Decree of 11 June 1980; EC directive no. 93/119, implemented with Legislative decree 333/1998. Roccella, “I musulmani in Italia: macellazione e alimentazione”.

³⁸In June 2007, the first “school for imams” was inaugurated in Turin. Organised for 80 candidates by the Union of Muslims in Italy (UMI–Unione dei Musulmani in Italia) in collaboration with the Moroccan Ministry of Islamic Affairs, it consisted of a two-day seminar analogous to similar experiences carried out in other European countries.

³⁹Caraccio, A. Libertà religiosa e scuola. Osservatorio delle Libertà ed Istituzioni Religiose (OLIR) (online), 2005. http://www.olir.it/areetematiche/19/documents/caraccio_scuola.pdf; Bargellini, Islam a scuola: esperienze e risorse.

⁴⁰For example, in Rome as of 2007, as part of an integration project, many schools introduced an “ethnic menu” serving the food of one of the eight major ethnic communities once a month. This initiative was blocked by the alderman for education of the centre-right municipal administration elected in April 2008.

⁴¹For example, Islam a scuola, a publication of the ISMU (Iniziative e Studi sulla Multietnicità) Foundation supported by the Lombardy Regional Administrations Educational Office came out for the first time at the end of the 2007 school year. Based on a study carried out on textbooks in schools in five provinces of the Lombardy Region (Bergamo, Brescia, Cremona, Mantova and Varese), it is divided into two parts, one of which contains information on approaches to various aspects of Islam (cultural, pedagogical, historical, legal …) and another which is experimental, containing an analysis of the language used in textbooks to describe the Muslim world. Islam a scuola is distributed to schools and all educational facilities requesting it.

⁴²Ciavola, “Burqa, chador e Costituzione europea”, Altalex Quotidiano dinformazione giuridica, 20 September 2004. http://www.altalex.com/index.php?idstr=24&idnot=7735

⁴³D'Angelo, G. Corte Costituzionale e offese alla “religione dello Stato” mediante vilipendio di persone nella recente sentenza. Osservatorio delle Libertà ed Istituzioni Religiose (OLIR) (online), 2005. http://www.olir.it/areetematiche/97/documents/DAngelo_Vilipendio.pdf

⁴⁴Allievi, Islam italiano; Huntington, Clash of Civilizations and Remaking of World Order.

⁴⁵The interesting study was carried out in 2000 and is described in Soravia, L'immagine dell'Islam nei media italiani.

⁴⁶Conway, Islamophobia. A challenge for us all. On the media and Islam, see: Allievi, I media e l'Islam; Marletti, Televisione e Islam; Meroni, Opinione pubblica europea e Islam; Tagliaferro, I media e l'Islam.

⁴⁷Of the many texts on Muslim citizens in Italy, see Paci, L'Islam sotto casa; and Allievi, Islam italiano.

⁴⁸Pastore, “Se un delitto fa tremare l'Italia”.

⁴⁹Allam, Diario dall'Islam.

⁵⁰Crimes perpetrated by foreigners against Italian citizens were linked by some politicians and the media to the increased foreign presence in Italy and played upon to fan a feeling of insecurity. The electoral victory of the centre-right at both the national and local levels proved how the feeling of insecurity and the erroneous equation foreigner = crime strongly influenced public opinion and the vote in favour of parties that traditionally make security and strict management of immigration a central plank of their platform.

⁵¹The study, carried out by Makno & Consulting, surveyed 1000 Italian citizens and 1000 immigrants. The results were made public by Minister of the Interior Giuliano Amato on 29 April 2008 in Rome during the presentation to the press of the Ministry's first report on immigration in Italy.

⁵²www.eumc.eu.int

⁵³COSPE, Media e immigrazione. Rapporto sulla Settimana Europea di Monitoraggio dei Media in Italia. www.mmc2000.net/docs/cospe_report.pdf

⁵⁴“La parrocchia diventa moschea ogni venerdì”, Corriere della sera, 10 November 2007.