Religion
Italy: Muslim intellectual urges integration
Milan, 14 October (AKI) - A prominent North African Muslim sociologist living in Italy on Wednesday launched a passionate plea for immigrants to integrate in their host societies, arguing that failure to do so stokes religious fundamentalism.
In an op-ed published in leading Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore, Khaled Fouad Allam, claimed that Italy's failure to an an official government body to oversee the Muslim community has allowed garage and basement mosques to spring up and imams with dubious credentials to flourish.
Article 8 of the Italian Constitution says "all religions are equal before the law," wrote Allam, who teaches at Universities of Trieste, Urbino and at the Stanford University of Florence. Algerian-born Allam is a naturalised Italian citizen.
"Other religions than the Catholic faith have the right to organise according to their own states, provided these do not conflict with Italian law," he wrote, quoting the constitution.
But Islam's lack of a religious hierarchy which represents Muslims as well as elements of Sharia law, such as polygamy, place it at odds with key European norms, noted Allam.
"The intervention of the state would appear to be the lesser of evils at a time when the Muslim faith and Europe find themselves facing a totally new situation: the creation of an Islam outside its traditional geographical confines," he wrote.
The conservative Italian executive has suspended the 'Consulta Islamica' or Muslim dialogue body. This was set up under the previous centre-left Italian government to create an "Italian Islam" not just an "Islam in Italy", Allam said.
"Today, now that everything seems to be on hold, the problems haven't gone away, starting with the scourge of terrorism, as shown by the attack on the military barracks in Milan," Allam stated.
He was referring to the botched bombing against the 'Santa Barbara' barracks on Monday by a 35-year-old Libyan immigrant, Mohammed Game. Another Libyan and an Egyptian have been arrested over the attack.
A lack of authoritative Muslim institutions and individuals is stoking such terrorist acts and 'honour' killings by Muslims like the one in northeast Italy last month of a young Moroccan woman, Sanaa Dafani, who had an Italian boyfriend, Allam argued.
"Italian Islam is in disarray. The mosques are unaccountable and some are in the grip of extremist groups which are banned in their countries of origin and are trying to regroup abroad," he warned.
Allam said Italy and other European countries urgently need to train men and women who reconcile European and Islamic values.
This new generation should provide Muslims with authoritative religious leadership and replace the many "flagrantly mediocre" leaders currently to be found, he argued.
"Otherwise social cohesion which is essential to all democracies will be put at risk," Allam concluded.
In an op-ed published in leading Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore, Khaled Fouad Allam, claimed that Italy's failure to an an official government body to oversee the Muslim community has allowed garage and basement mosques to spring up and imams with dubious credentials to flourish.
Article 8 of the Italian Constitution says "all religions are equal before the law," wrote Allam, who teaches at Universities of Trieste, Urbino and at the Stanford University of Florence. Algerian-born Allam is a naturalised Italian citizen.
"Other religions than the Catholic faith have the right to organise according to their own states, provided these do not conflict with Italian law," he wrote, quoting the constitution.
But Islam's lack of a religious hierarchy which represents Muslims as well as elements of Sharia law, such as polygamy, place it at odds with key European norms, noted Allam.
"The intervention of the state would appear to be the lesser of evils at a time when the Muslim faith and Europe find themselves facing a totally new situation: the creation of an Islam outside its traditional geographical confines," he wrote.
The conservative Italian executive has suspended the 'Consulta Islamica' or Muslim dialogue body. This was set up under the previous centre-left Italian government to create an "Italian Islam" not just an "Islam in Italy", Allam said.
"Today, now that everything seems to be on hold, the problems haven't gone away, starting with the scourge of terrorism, as shown by the attack on the military barracks in Milan," Allam stated.
He was referring to the botched bombing against the 'Santa Barbara' barracks on Monday by a 35-year-old Libyan immigrant, Mohammed Game. Another Libyan and an Egyptian have been arrested over the attack.
A lack of authoritative Muslim institutions and individuals is stoking such terrorist acts and 'honour' killings by Muslims like the one in northeast Italy last month of a young Moroccan woman, Sanaa Dafani, who had an Italian boyfriend, Allam argued.
"Italian Islam is in disarray. The mosques are unaccountable and some are in the grip of extremist groups which are banned in their countries of origin and are trying to regroup abroad," he warned.
Allam said Italy and other European countries urgently need to train men and women who reconcile European and Islamic values.
This new generation should provide Muslims with authoritative religious leadership and replace the many "flagrantly mediocre" leaders currently to be found, he argued.
"Otherwise social cohesion which is essential to all democracies will be put at risk," Allam concluded.
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