In Italy, Islam doesn’t officially exist

Is this a necessary effort to allow Muslims to live peacefully in Italy? Or is this more 'creeping sharia'? What do you think?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...accept-to-change-that/?utm_term=.23bfb71c99d1

WorldViews
In Italy, Islam doesn’t officially exist. Here’s what Muslims must accept to change that.

By Anna Momigliano February 8 at 6:00 AM

Muslim men attend Friday prayers near Rome's ancient Colosseum in October 2016 to protest against the closure of unofficial mosques. (Gabriel Bouys/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)
MILAN — At least 1.4 million Muslims are living in Italy, making Islam the country’s de facto second-largest religion. But as far as Italian authorities are concerned, Islam doesn’t exist.

Unlike Christianity and Judaism, Islam isn’t formally recognized in Italy. This means that mosques cannot receive public funds, Islamic weddings have no legal value and Muslim workers aren’t entitled to take days off for religious holidays.

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Now that lack of recognition may change — but not without a cost.

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This month, Italy’s Interior Ministry and the country’s nine major Islamic associations signed an unprecedented agreement. Muslim organizations agreed to create a registry of their imams and to require them to preach in Italian. In return, the government vowed to “facilitate the path” toward the official recognition of Islam in Italy.

The “National Pact for an Italian Islam” has been hailed as a first step toward the normalization of Islam in Italy. But it has also been criticized for creating a double standard: no other religious group has been asked by authorities to hold sermons in Italian. The Roman Catholic Church regularly offers masses in foreign languages to cater to an international audience.

“It’s a document that Muslims had to sign in order to prove we’re good citizens and not bad people,” said Yahya Pallavicini, a Milan-based Muslim scholar, in an interview with the conservative magazine Tempi.

Islam doesn’t enjoy much popularity in Italy. According to a recent Pew survey, 69 percent of Italians report a negative opinion of Muslims, the highest proportion among the European countries polled. Local media also often conflates Islam as a whole with terrorism.

Looking ahead to elections next year, the government is also treating the agreement as a security issue. In a statement to the news media, Interior Minister Marco Minniti presented the document as a safeguard “against any form of violence and terrorism.”

Sumaya Abdel Qader, a Muslim sociologist in Milan who is a member of the city council, called the agreement “a positive step,” during a telephone interview. “It's very important that there’s a dialogue between the government and Muslim institutions,” she said. But she noted that some of the requirements “have made some Muslims feel like they’re being treated unequally.”

She argued that it is “unfair” that a specific faith be singled out and required to hold sermons in Italian — but recognized the reality of widespread distrust of Muslims. “I understand we’re living in a unique historical context, so we’ll have to accept this,” she said.

Abdel Qader also claims it is unusual that a religious group was asked to sign a “preliminary pact” as a requirement to start negotiations for an official recognition. The Italian Constitution formally grants freedom of religion for all, but reserves a special position for the Catholic Church and requires other faiths to sign a specific treaty — called an “intesa,” or “understanding” — to fully operate. Muslim associations have been applying for an intesa since 2000, but still haven’t received one.

But Izzedin Elzir, an imam in Florence and the president of the UCOII, the country’s largest Muslim association, believes that the benefits of the agreement outweigh the downside. “Most of the things we vowed to do, we are already doing,” he said in a telephone interview. “We're already encouraging imams to preach in Italian. And, if their Italian is not fluent, we are already providing interpreters. If having this written down in a document is making non-Muslim Italians feel a bit safer, I don’t see anything wrong with it.”

 

I've always been intrigued at how Italy has dealt with Islam. I was shocked to learn that in spite of there being over a million and a half Muslims in Italy there are only 8 mosques proper in the entire country.

I don't think it's a coincidence that Italy despite having the fourth most Muslims of any country in the EU is exceptional at preventing Islamic terrorism in a way that has eluded France for some reason. From a purely strategic perspective what they are doing is quite clever. If there are X number of extremists in the EU, are they going to live in the country that only has 8 mosques from which to preach or those that have over 1,000 like France and the UK? If you are a practicing Muslim, Italy is not the ideal place to live out your religion as you please. Ironically, despite this inhospitable attitude towards Islam, Muslim terrorists have successfully targeted more accommodating nations such as Belgium and France. So what does this tell us about the canard "if we alienate them they will only attack us more" ? It seems Italy has done many things to alienate their Muslim population and yet they seem exceptionally well defended from Islamic terrorism.

 

The article is rubbish as Italy's Constitution guarantees religious freedom. See Article Eight:



https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Italy

 

Not really true, Hungary polled as more anti-Muslim.

Also a lot of European countries were not even polled.

Clearly Serbia is a candidate for the potentially most anti-Muslim nation in Europe, as is Russia, both which have had wars with Islamists in recent years.

 

If the Muslims aren't happy in Italy, there are plenty of Muslim countries in Africa and the Middle East for them to live.

 

I don't understand the meaning of this topic because I read the Italian Constitution and article 8 first subsection says "all religious confessions are equally free before the law".
There is no exception. So Muslims can have their mosques and pray without problems

 

Unfortunately, this forum is filled with right wingers who are prejudiced against Muslims and other groups. They are predisposed to believe any nonsense which have no basis in reality. Funny thing is they are usually the ones who point the finger at others and pretend that it is every one else that is prejudiced and intolerant.

The idea that they can move to another state (as suggested above) is silly in that Italy experienced the horrors or rampant prejudice under Mussolini. Italy is a member of the UN and European Union. Therefore, it is obligated to obey all laws which deal with people and their rights. On that basis, no one needs to move away from Italy due to lack of acceptance. Same thing here in the USA and elsewhere. The law is what it is. Society needs to overcome its prejudices and deal with those injustices.