Descendants of immigrants within and without the mosque: a diachronic typology of distances from organized Islam

Abstract

This article introduces a set of categories developed according to the criterion of mosque attendance and non-attendance in Italy, considered diachronically. Such a perspective enables a more nuanced understanding of the role of religious institutions in the socialisation pathways and everyday experiences of the second generation. The proposed approach highlights the heterogeneity of ways of belonging to Islam in Italy, challenging essentialising views and giving analytical weight to the “silent” trajectories of non-attenders alongside the more visible paths of those who have maintained communal orthodoxy. As the second generations come of age, Islam in Italy increasingly takes shape as a European religious minority rather than as a merely migratory phenomenon. This transition calls for the adoption of approaches long established within the sociology of religion, which investigate beliefs, practices, and institutions not only for their role in integration or citizenship, but as phenomena deserving sociological analysis in their own right.