Verso un riformismo italiano? Nuove generazioni tra secolarismo e vita musulmana

After an overview of how the secularization thesis has impacted the study of Islam in Europe and Italy, the paper explores the way new generations of Muslims in Northern Italy rediscover and reinterpret Islam through social media and Islamic youth groups. The article relies on interviews with Muslims raised in Italy who were born between the late 1990s and early 2000s as well as on materials drawn from social profiles and online discussion groups of Islamic youth groups that these young Muslims attend. The paper illustrates that, in line with long-standing trajectories within Islamic reformist thought, these “second generation” Muslims aim to live Islam in a more conscious way than their parents and also the Muslims who live in their countries of origin. It finally argues that, as my interlocutors contribute to the definition of an “Italian Islam”, they claim recognition not only for their Muslim identity but also for the possibility of cultivating their Islamic spirituality within the secular liberal institutional and intellectual environment of contemporary Italy.