LUCIANO MUSSELLI

I rapporti tra Islam e ordinamento italiano: una problematica intesa

N. 189

Summary — The request on the part of certain Islamic associations for an "agreement" with the Italian state along similar lines to those made with other churches and religious confessions (such as the Valdese Adventist, Baptist and Lutheran Churches, as well as the Jewish community) poses a number of delicate problems. These range from the question of how representative these associations are of the lslamic faith (given that some such associations conflict with others) to substantive problems concerning the conflict between certain of the requests (about, for example, modes of dress, holidays, and above all the recognition of Islamic, and therefore possibly polygamous, marriages) on the one hand, and on the other hand the fundamental principles of the Italian legal order and the secular nature of the Italian state. These facts lead the author to suggest the subject be approached with great prudence, and taking into account some infelicitous experiences in the rest of Europe resulting from agreements with Islamic groups. This is not to deny, on the other hand, that the religious freedom of those practicing Islam should be upheld with the same rigour as that with which it is upheld for other religious confessions. However, in the author’s view, this upholding of religious freedom can only be achieved by already existing means and through the new law being prepared on religious freedom. Special agreements should be used only when absolutely necessary, both in the case of Islam and in that of the new religious confessions, so as to avoid a multiplication of religious particularisms which compromise the fundamental principle of the secular state and that of the equality of all before the law independently of their religious membership, as stated in article 3 of the Italian Constitution.