ABSTRACT
In Europe and Italy, research and studies have focused on the growing presence of Muslims (Cesari and Pacini 2005; Bracke and Fadil 2008; Moghissi and Gorashi 2010; Open Society Institute 2011), through observations and insights carried out from different perspectives: religious beliefs and practices, hope for a certain type of society (secular vs Islamic), definition of identity (religious, Italian, cosmopolitan), orientation regarding the education of children and intermarriage and requests made to educational institutions (recognition of holidays, religious teaching in school). In addition, attention to the religious variable has often been correlated with that dedicated to labour issues (Are Muslims discriminated against in the labour market, compared to other religious affiliations?), school (Does the increasing number of Muslim students give rise to claims against secularization and changes in education?), urban schedules and spaces, with specific requests regarding nutrition, places of worship and areas for the burial of the dead. From another point of view, the terrorist attacks in Madrid and London added a further perspective to the analysis of this specific group, in an attempt to figure out if its members can become new representatives of fundamentalism in Europe (Meer et al. 2012; Bowen 2010). In this way, the intertwining between Islam and politics is back in the spotlight. However, it was attention directed more to the effects of ‘reaction’ of the immigration society and the security concerns raised rather than the internal analysis of the different communities (Vertovec and Wassendorf 2010). This is also an analysis of the management of religious diversity, the result of stabilization processes of immigrant communities, which should be conducted where biographies of the characters are created and where different modes of relationship with Italian society take form (Lorentzen 2009).
