Negotiating religion: The «National Pact for an Italian Islam» between agency, security claims, legitimization and recognition

This paper aims to analyze the «National Pact for an Italian Islam, expression of a community which is open, integrated and compliant to the values and principles of the State system», which was negotiated by the Council for Relations with Italian Islam, on the initiative of the Italian government, with some of the Islamic communities in Italy, to create the framework of a widespread action for fighting radicalization. Starting from the reconstruction of the environmental background and through the analysis of the provisions of the «Pact», this paper aims to examine the political and religious agendas of the subjects (institutions, religious communities) which brought this agreement to life. This will be done in order to verify: 1. what is the theoretical and practical framework which characterizes the agreement, 2. how the «Pact» can be conceived as a kind of mediation within a specific framework of state-religious communities relations, and 3. which developments can enrich the process in terms of legitimization and recognition.