Religious “Superconflict”: Durgā Pūjā and a Muslim Funeral in a Plural District of Rome, Italy

his contribution aims at investigating ambiguity and conflicts that latently lurk among relational and political practices with which several people and groups operate and interact in Tor Pignattara, a semi-peripheral superdiverse district of Rome, Italy. Two events, the Hindu festival of Durga Puja (October 2019, from 4 to 8) and a Muslim funeral (October 2017, 30), are considered as lenses to investigate responsibilities, competition, rivalry, and incomprehension that gave rise to an ‘impossible mediation’ perception, caused by district ‘incompatible attitudes’. The aim is to emphasize, through two concrete cases, that questions focused on foreign religious minorities involve complex ethical and ideological standings, which imply conflict, opposition, and manipulation caused by different visions—banal cosmopolitism and banal nationalism—Italian residents, political factions, and institutions have about migration, coexistence, and social inclusion.