The religious element in immigrants of Islamic faith in the city of Naples and its impact on their social and cultural integration

Islam has been and still is the connective element of a vast community of individuals, the bond of common rituals and traditions that marks with itself (beyond fragmentation into many different states, languages and peoples) all those in all parts of the world who identify with it.

The Islamic immigrant in a predominantly Christian country has before him, fundamentally, two opposing choices. The first is to find in religious observance a point of reference, a reassuring element to help him cultivate his roots. Or there is the opposite tendency to relax religious practice, to accentuate the effort of integration and assimilation into the host society. Much practiced, however, appears to be the fasting of ramadàn, as well as the observance of the main dietary rules, which do not require reaching places of worship.

Islam in Naples

Although the presence of Islam in Naples has a long tradition, the Muslim presence has increased significantly only in recent decades. Today Islam-predominantly Sunni-is the second-largest religion on the national territory, and the second most widespread cult among nearly six million immigrants (after Christianity): Muslims on the national territory would be about one and a half million. In the city of Naples, according to ministerial data, the presence of immigrants would be around 3.5 percent (compared to 6.2 percent of the Italian average), of which an estimated 15,000 Muslims, of various nationalities: Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Maghrebi, Senegalese, Gambians, Nigerians, Bosnians, Uzbeks, Kyrgyz Albanians, Chechens, Tajiks, and more.

Marginality, precarity, welcome

For many, the city of Naples represents a transit territory before moving to wealthier areas in the North or other European countries. Others, however, settle there, living mostly in the province and then carrying out their work activities in the city, or in the area around Piazza Garibaldi. This space turns out to be significantly characterized by the presence of Muslim immigrants of various nationalities: Moroccans, Algerians, Tunisians, Senegalese, Nigerians, Somalis, Sudanese, Nigerians, Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, etc.

Several Islamic places of worship and cultural centers, halal butcher shops and grocery stores that do not sell products considered haram, such as pork and alcohol, are located here. Although Naples does not have a mosque proper, there are several places of worship in Naples, most of them low-lying re-dedicated as prayer rooms, located in the area between Piazza Garibaldi and Piazza Mercato. In addition to having a prayer room, these centers organize a variety of educational and cultural activities.

For the most part, the Muslim presence and its manifestations of worship do not seem to be perceived with disfavor or distrust, and indeed are welcomed with some flexibility: some bakeries revisit typical sweets such as sfogliatelle in a halal, lard-free version. Prevailing among immigrants of the Islamic faith is a tendency toward attachment to the religion of origin, which is professed naturally, without ostentation and, generally, without forms of radicalism.

It should be noted, regarding the attitude toward Islamic immigrants, a position of general openness and sensitivity on the part of the local church. A similarly cooperative attitude is given to record by city administrations and municipalities, especially those related to areas of dense immigration. The commitment of educational institutions also appears particularly positive.

Unions and conversions

There are not a few unions between partners of different religious professions. Children born to these couples rarely seem to opt for the Islamic profession of faith, but often not even for the Catholic one.

Also relevant appears to be the phenomenon of conversions of Neapolitans “returned to Islam,” which also concerns two imams in the city, and has also been the subject of some documentaries such as Emanuele Pinto’s Cercavo Maradona, ho trovato Allah, and Ernesto Pagano’s Napolislam.

Criticism

There is no shortage of more or less explicit and overt manifestations of suspicion and distrust, often fueled by acts of violence perpetrated abroad (particularly in France) by Islamist bangs. Although local imams have consistently distanced themselves from such acts, it cannot be denied that they produce negative effects on the native population’s general perception of Islam. But such phenomena, on the whole, appear rather marginal, and are not worth refuting the assessment of the urban reality as a generally inclusive and welcoming community. The complexity and openness of the city give rise to hybrid, porous and inclusive arrangements.

Transnational networks

Transnational communities are of great relevance to those arriving in a foreign country, offering a spiritual, moral and conceptual frame of reference.

In such communities, migrants orient themselves, not losing, but rather strengthening, their social, cultural and religious identities. In Naples, these multiple networks intersect and overlap. Among Senegalese immigrants, the link with brotherhoods (da’ira), such as the Qâdiriyya and the Tijâniyya and especially the Muridiyya, is widespread. The latter, founded by Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba in Senegal and with a deep-rooted transnational approach, has its main regional headquarters – the ‘Touba Campania’ centre (dahira) of the ‘Regional Federation of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Associations’ – in San Nicola la Strada, in the province of Caserta, but is also rooted in the capital of Campania.

Identity and assimilation

Fundamentally, it can be said that the religious identity of immigrants of the Islamic faith, in the specific civil fabric of the city of Naples, has predominantly positive aspects, since it offers immigrants the possibility of preserving their own cultural and national identity, which does not stand as an obstacle to the albeit necessary process of assimilation and integration in a society with a large majority of Catholic tradition.

One cannot hide, however, the presence of attitudes of mistrust and rejection on the part of fairly large segments of the population. Such resistance does not seem to stem so much from hostility to Islam per se, but from anxiety generated by economic difficulties and fear for security. But there is no doubt that, indirectly, these sentiments are also reflected in the perception of the Islamic religion itself, seen as a potential bearer of impoverishment and danger, if not a ‘distortion’ of Italianness.

In Naples, because of its millenary history of openness and inclusion, the situation appears better than in other areas of our country. But, in perspective, the evolution of ‘Neapolitan Islam’ appears inevitably linked to the growth of the values of respect, pluralism, inclusion, dialogue, in Italy and Europe.