ABSTRACT
The increase in Italian religious pluralism is not to be seen in relation to the growth of the country's well-established historical religions so much as in that of religious confessions with traditions and cultures different from the prevailing one. Italian public opinion seems to regard the arrival of new religions on the national scene with a mixture of curiosity and mistrust. The role of women is often used in public debate as proof of incompatibility between Western society and Islam. Muslims in Italy excite not only feelings of detachment and worry but also of admiration. Paradoxically people may be opposed to the building of mosques in their neighbourhoods, and fear that Islam which is over-visible in public spaces erodes Italian culture. In comparison with those belonging to Catholicism, religious minorities in Italy comprise more women than men, more young people than old, more residents of the North than the South.
