Journal articles on the topic 'Italian secularism'

ECtHR in Lautsi v. Italy: Mandatory display of crucifix in public schools violates Convention – Secularism and semi-secularism in the Italian Constitution – Italian High Administrative Court: Display of crucifix affirms principle of secularism – Exclusionary effect of display – ECtHR, religious freedom and margin of appreciation: dark side of consensus – ECtHR finally veritably counter-majoritarian.

This article has a twofold aim. The first is to examine relations between women and religion in Italy in order to discover whether women contribute to the process of Italian secularisation as described in the literature. The second is to explore relations between secularisation and secularism among Italian women. Our main theme is that the women’s loosening relationship with the Catholic Church has been accompanied by their greater flexibility on moral and ethical questions. Since these questions have frequently been the object of intervention by the Catholic hierarchy, they are a valuable lens through which to examine secularism, revealing how far Italian women have distanced themselves from the Church’s mandates. With this end in view, we shall focus on Italian women’s opinions about topics (such as abortion, divorce, sexuality and reproductive rights) relating to “morality-politics” which are intrinsic to the “emancipation of women from the domestic sphere”.

Islam is often regarded as being incompatible with European values. In Italy, for example, anti-Islamic points of view reiterate the religion’s alleged inconsistency with Catholicism and secularism. This article argues that narrative practices can challenge this idea by articulating Muslim hybrid identities that are compatible with Italian culture and society. The second-generation blog Yalla Italia represents a ‘third space’ where young Italian Muslims contrast dominant media stereotypes, thereby creating ‘disruptive flows of dissent’. A textual analysis of the blog and interviews with some of the bloggers reveal that three main topics are employed to overcome marginalization: (1) critiques of mainstream media (2) narratives about family lives and the practice of Islam, and (3) advocacy of a quicker procedure for gaining Italian citizenship. The bloggers adopt a storytelling style to press for social and institutional change and explain how they succeed in adapting Islam to Italian society. Their religious diversity is thus perceived as providing a potential for Italy, rather than being a mark of marginalization.

AbstractIn Italy, unlike in most European countries, the debate over religious symbols in the public schools is not centred on the right of individuals belonging to minority groups to wear religious symbols and clothes, but rather on the legitimacy of the display of the crucifix and its religious and cultural significance. This article focuses on the compatibility of the display of the cross in state schools with the principle of secularism, which in the Italian context does not imply, as it does in France, strict indifference towards religion, but rather impartiality with respect to different faiths. The starting point of this discussion is a critical analysis of the controversial Italian 'crucifix case-law'. However, the issue is analysed in broader terms and in a comparative perspective. It is argued that freedom of religion or belief, alone, is not sufficient to provide an inclusive environment for all, and especially for those who do not t in the dominant culture. Therefore the question of the display of religious symbols should not be reduced to the balancing of individual and collective rights, but it should also emphasize the key role of secularism in guaranteeing cultural pluralism (and a pluralistic legislation) and in preventing the possibility of a preferential treatment of a given religion.

The Italian Court of Cassation recently sanctioned the dismissal of a judge who refused to hold hearings due to the presence of crucifixes in the courtrooms. This ruling (taken together with the ruling of the Grand Chamber in Lautsi) marks a significant defeat for the principle of state secularism.

AbstractFor centuries, Rome and Istanbul have been representing and epitomizing two empires and two entities with both significant spiritual and temporal power: the Papacy and the Caliphate. During the 19th and the 20th centuries, these institutions underwent significant changes in a context of state secularization: in the case of the Papacy, there was a loss of temporal power and its “reduction” to a mainly moral authority; the Caliphate, on the other hand, was abolished after World War I, succeeded by the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), a bureaucratic body under state control, founded in the era of Kemalist secularism. Despite these changes, today both institutions still play a significant role in the public life and public policies of the Italian and the Turkish republics. While the Vatican is able to influence the Italian public sphere and public discourse through both its influence on common people and its lobbying activities in relation to political decision-makers, in Turkey the Diyanet has become the main tool in the reshaping of Turkish society (both by the Kemalists and, later, by Erdoğan's AKP). This paper will analyze their influence on the two countries’ public policies in relation to religious pluralism and to family-related issues, to show how different ideas of secularism, institutional arrangements, and historical paths have led to a very different role of the two institutions in the Italian and Turkish political systems.

Italian society continues to be seen as homogeneous in religious terms and the teaching of Catholic religion in state schools as a pillar of the historical and cultural heritage of the Italian population, as sanctioned by the 1984 Concordat between the State and the Catholic Church. But profound changes have been under way since that Concordat, with migrant families settling in the country and their Italian-born offspring now attending Italian state schools. How do they feel about religious education at school? How do they view the Italian model of secularism and religious pluralism in Italy? What do they see as Italianness? A qualitative, focus-group-based investigation into secondary schools in a northern Italian town enables us to bring out these students’ demand for change from a generational standpoint and see beyond education into religion to possible ways to educate about and from religions, creating new horizons for religious pluralism (even) in Italy.

Italian-American funeral practices have received little attention in the literature. This study deals with this gap by tracing the evolution of funeral practices from the Old World, preimmigrant culture of the southern Italian to the contemporary New World funeral practices of Italian-Americans reflective of the so-called American way of death. The article is structured around the thesis that the author's own family experience of the ritualistic observance of death had its roots in Old World customs and traditions, was subsequently modified by American social patterns, secularism, industrialization, and funeral customs, and was further shaped by particular psychosocial family dynamics. The concluding section compares the author's personal experience of Roman Catholic home funerals with the larger societal practices described.

The article offers a socio-legal analysis of the recent case on freedom of/from religion in Italy, the Coppoli judgment of the Italian Supreme Court, which grants public schools the autonomy to manage religious symbols. The new ruling is discussed in the shadow of the Lautsi case, examining the shift from the discourse of “passive religious symbol” to the framework of “respect of different sensibilities” in pluralistic classrooms. In doing that, first, we provide a sociological framework for the study of “passive religious symbols” from a multiculturalist and religious freedom perspective. Second, the Coppoli case is contextualized within political, normative and judicial Italian contexts following the Lautsi jurisprudence. Third, we revise the model of “secularism as a method of dialogue” considered by the judges as important in claiming individual freedoms of/from religion in the multicultural classroom. The final part of the article provides a discussion and critical considerations about the Coppoli case, problematizing the future challenges of managing religious diversity in Italian public schools. We argue that the dynamic of freedom of/from religion’s jurisprudence in the Coppoli case endorses an additive model of accommodating diverse cultural and religious identities in public schools.

The main characteristics of the European approach to the understanding of state secularism in many respects is based on the interpretations of Article 9 of the 1950 European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms by the European Court of Human Rights are, on the one hand, private freedom of faith, civil and political equality of citizens regardless of their confession, and non-discrimination, and on the other, the autonomy of religious communities from the state and the non-interference of religious organizations in public governance. The article shows the special way these values were implemented in the Italian state from the moment of drafting and adoption of the Constitution in 1947 to the present time. We analyze the judgments of the Constitutional Court of Italy interpreting articles 2, 3, 7, 8, 17, 19 and 20 of the Constitution of Italy on freedom of faith and the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and other religious communities of Italy with state authorities of the Republic of Italy. The author underlines the characteristic features of Italian secularism, including the principle of “bi-lateralization” providing for the possibility of combining the principle of separation of church and state with the bilateral agreement between the state and religious communities. In the article we try to answer to the questions of how, after the revision of the Lateran Concordat in 1984, the position changed of the Catholic religion, which previously was the state religion, and what role the Constitutional Court of Italy played in this change. Finally, the author concludes that the judgments of the Constitutional Court of Italy de jure promoted centrality and impartiality of all confessions to a great extent, but de facto the problem of realization of the principle of equality still exists, with the Roman Catholic Church preserving its dominant position in political life.

AbstractAlthough diverging influences have always characterized the relation between religion and democracy, in Italy, tensions arising from these divergences are especially exacerbated by the country’s current religious diversity and plurality, and they are magnified when combined with chronic emergencies such as immigration and international terrorism. These critical factors complicate the application of freedom of religion and the supreme principle of secularism (principio supremo di laicità), which are essential parts of the Italian legal system. This article analyzes these aspects of the law by considering the relation between Islamic communities and the state. In particular, the article focuses on both endogenous influences (Italy’s traditional system of state-church relationship) and exogenous influences (immigration and international terrorism). These factors muddle the interpretation of constitutional rights, including the right of Muslims and Islamic groups to be equal and equally free before the law.

In the framework of the process of secularization of civil society, the institution of marriage has traditionally been at the crossroads between religious and secular law, and it gives the opportunity to investigate whether and to what degree a religious law can develop when it interacts with a secular juridical context without weakening its identity. The Italian lawmaker has traditionally adopted a “benevolent secularism” approach, trying to balance new social expectations with the Catholic idea of marriage. The above-mentioned approach has resulted in aligning with the mainstream opinions in Italian society, which are consistent with the guidelines of the Catholic Church. Indeed, in Italy, the Catholic Church, which considers marriage as a sacred unbreakable bond between a man and a woman, has often had an open and incisive influence on legislative policy choices. Since 1970, there has a been a gradual erosion of Catholic influence on public policies. New statutes and judicial rulings concerning such issue have emphasized a sharp ideological and political polarization between two opposite ethical narratives: the secular and the religious/Catholic one. Catholic tenets are no more able to influence political democratic processes. In the last fifty years, Italian legislation has followed a more progressive direction with regard to the issue of marriage, taking distances from the Catholic model. The Italian legal system has also started to face controversial issues, such as the status of same-sex unions, recognizing broader rights with a view to guaranteeing the coexistence of multiple views about marriage. Thus, the Catholic Church is challenged by new paradigms and is undergoing deep internal tensions and transitions. The present paper aims to focus on some new challenges, with regard to the status of divorcees who married again, unmarried couples, and same-sex couples in canon law. In the framework of the debate concerning the role and the reformability of religious laws, it will take into consideration new pontifical approaches.

The Crucifix in the Public School Classroom in European Court RulingsLautsi v. Italy was an important court case that was brought before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The subsequent ruling on 3 November 2009 noted that the display of religious symbols (i.e. the crucifix in Italian public school classrooms) is contrary to Article 2 of the 1st Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights. This decision, which went against Italy, is in line with other judgments in similar cases, and seems to be promoting the European public school as a place of confessional neutrality, where the goal is to cultivate secular values of a democratic society in pupils.The European Court of Human Rights thus clearly supports the idea and principles of secularism and the impartiality of the state. However, the ruling did not impose any obligation to undertake adequate legal solutions or verify the existing law, leaving each member state a level of freedom to make opinions and final decisions on their own. The Lautsi v. Italy judgment had an indirect influence on the entire public service sphere, of which the public school is just one link of a chain. Yet Italy filed an appeal and the case was referred to the Court’s Grand Chamber. Its hearing is to be held on 30 June 2010. The legal ramifications of this ruling therefore remain an important debate in Europe.

The interest to analyse the phenomenon of the exposure of religious symbols, particularly of the crucifix, in state schools in Italy and the principle of secularism, derives from the cultural and constitutional peculiarities that this system presents, as a consequence of the historical and cultural events that have influenced its ordering. First of all, it must be pointed out, as indeed it is evident, that Catholicism was the dominant faith for about two thousand years, and until recently, almost the only one. The Catholic religion has crossed the entire history of the country, penetrating and intertwining with the socio-cultural dynamics. For this reason, the Italian constitutional history has been crossed by the principle of tolerance. The latter can be considered clearly out-dated only with the Republican Constitution of 1948, thus the legal system emptied itself of its confessionalism. The last few years, as a result of strong migratory flows, the religious-cultural landscape, not only in Italy, but throughout Europe it seems to have changed. Other cultures have brought their own customs, languages and religions like a wave. Thus we are witnessing an extraordinary social, economic and juridical transformation. In this multicultural mosaic, the clash between civilizations could not be missing. Minorities have in many cases felt they were discriminated against, bullied and offended by the display in public buildings (schools, courtrooms, hospitals, etc.) of the symbol par excellence of Christianity, namely the crucifix, arousing the protest of parents of different faiths. All this has produced legal conflicts and jurisprudential rulings that have involved the European Court of Human Rights itself. This discussion aims to analyze from a socio-juridical point of view, the consequences of religious symbology external to educational institutions and to be able to give a juridical truth, stripped of religious indoctrination. This path will not be easy since every element inherent to religion touches delicate aspects, linked in particular with what is most profound in the people and culture of a country. Received: 2 March 2021 / Accepted: 14 April 2021 / Published: 10 May 2021

Since the 1970s, historiography about the pre-World War II phase of the Croatian Ustaša concentrated on Italian and Hungarian state support for Ante Pavelić's national-separatist/terrorist organization from approximately 1929–1934, and identified Nazi support when it became more significant in the late 1930s and put the group in charge of the Independent State of Croatia in 1941. More recent scholarship has investigated the support of Croatian exiles in the United States and Argentina for the Ustaša movement, as well as how the Ustaša regime, once in power, tried to legitimate its policies of racial “cleansing” and social revolution against capitalism and secularism. The first aim of this article is to return to the early period of the Ustaša, when it was a terrorist organization, and to show that it had an important base in Austria that senior Austrian police officials tolerated. The article, therefore, takes a somewhat different position from that of historian Arnold Suppan, who argued that the Austrian police could find no evidence that the Ustaša in Austria had been involved in terrorism, and that the Austrian government had made a good faith effort to expel Ustaša members. The fact that elements of the Austrian police indeed knew about the Ustaša network and protected certain senior members supports historian Gerhard Jagschitz's argument that the Vienna police had not turned over a new leaf in the postwar period and had not shed all political activities. However, Jagschitz concentrated on the problems surrounding the establishment of a domestic intelligence agency in the 1920s, showing how it ultimately was not effective. This article concentrates on 1929–1934, demonstrating that while the Austrian political police was not all-knowing, certain decisions not to share what it knew about ultra-nationalist Croatian terrorism damaged the Austrian police's international reputation. Second, this article argues that the Yugoslav police possibly turned to shadowy extra-judicial groups to carry out assassinations against Ustaša figures, in part because the Austrian police were not aggressive enough in repressing the organization. This adds an additional factor to the interpretations of historians James Sadkovich and Mario Jareb, who contend that Yugoslav police violence was an extension of the Serbian dictatorship's attempt to repress Croatian nationalism by any means necessary.

In united Italy, assertions by Catholic militants about their nation's true identity have been bound up with polemic against secularist forces and with claims about the position due to the Church in Italian society. They have insisted that Italy's authentic traditions are Catholic and that her true greatness resides in her being the heart of Christian civilization. Hostile or threatening ideologies, e.g. idealist philosophy and Communism, have been stigmatized as alien to Italian tradition. In the face of Fascism, with which the ‘Catholic world's’ relations were ambivalent, there was a major ideological campaign to assert a Catholic definition of the keyword romanità. The way in which Catholic theoreticians have defined the ‘nation’ in organicist terms have been linked to strategies of ideological defence against state forms, whether liberal or Fascist, perceived to be overweening.

The contribution, after a brief parenthesis which describes the Unione Magistrale Nazionale and the Associazione Magistrale Italiana “Nicolò Tommaseo” as expressions of the difficult socio-educational condition experienced by Giolitti’s Italy, through different opinions taken from the files of two representative pedagogical magazines of the time, Rivista Pedagogica and Scuola Italiana Moderna, analyzes the way in which, in the first twenty years 1900s, secular and catholic circles discussed Maria Montessori’s thought and system.

The messianic idea is an important aspect of Jewish philosophy and consists in awaiting the arrival of a redeemer who will at the same time usher in an era of peace and universal harmony. There are, however, different understandings of the circumstances in which the messiah's arrival may take place. The dispute in this area concerns, inter alia, the problem of whether mankind, through their deeds, may influence the arrival of the messiah. Such an approach was presented by the messianic movements that drew from Kabbalah, e.g. Sabbataism. Following the messianic themes, the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben analyses the concept of the messianic time, the forms of law and the role of the individual in the process of transforming the world, proposing a secularised vision of the messianic era. The article focuses on the reception of the idea of messianism in the philosophy of Giorgio Agamben, outlining the key concepts created by the Italian philosopher and pointing to the inspiration taken by Agamben from the Judaic tradition.

Este artículo ofrece un análisis literario del prólogo poético a la adaptación de Celestina al hebreo, realizada en Italia por Joseph ben Samuel Tsarfati al principios del siglo XVI. Este prólogo resulta ser el producto de varias tradiciones literarias coexistentes y conocidas en la Roma y en el círculo del autor, al tiempo que sirve para destacar el papel de la literatura secular dentro de la literatura hebrea. El poeta reconcilia y yuxtapone su inspiración literaria, Celestina, tanto con conven-ciones literarias seculares, como con los usos y las características de la literatura hebrea medieval.

Con l’avvento della codificazione anche un tema privatissimo come quello matrimoniale trova una sanzione da parte del potere pubblico: il mito della leggeinveste la sfera familiare. Durante tutto il corso dell’Ottocento il dibattito ruoterà soprattutto intorno al tema della tenuta morale e patrimoniale della famiglia,finendo per consacrarne l’ordinamento gerarchico. L’apparente contraddizione con le aspirazioni rivoluzionarie si risolve, al contrario, proprio nella tutela degli assunti di base del liberalismo ottocentesco: individualismo, proprietà, ordine politico. I nuovi codici sembrano trovare, infatti, proprio nella formulazione «della forte famiglia nel forte Stato» (Ungari, 1974) una chiusura del cerchio, la compiuta affermazione dell’ordine borghese che in materia di famiglia consacra un «ordine sociale laicizzato» (Passaniti, 2011). Protagonista ‘riflessa’ di questo dibattito è, ovviamente, la figura femminile, «destinataria di un trattamento giuridico differenziato» (Stolzi, 2019) e la cui «debolezza» è un vero «problema» da regolare in funzione della tenuta – anche e soprattutto – patrimoniale della famiglia. Una sintetica ricostruzione degli assetti normativi e dei dibattiti in Francia, prima, e in Italia, poi, sugli effetti dello scioglimento del matrimonio, permette di disvelare alcuni aspetti delle costruzioni liberal-ottocentesche che hanno condizionato a lungo il nostro ordinamento familiare. Nineteenth-century codifi cation drives the private issue of marriage under the eye of the public power, and the family undergoes the «mythology» of legal positivism. The consequence of the legal debate, which revolves all around the moral and patrimonial hold of the family, is the consecration of its hierarchical order. The seeming contradictions with revolutionary aspirations are resolved in the pillars of nineteenth-century liberalism: individualism, property, political order. The formula «a strong family under a strong state» (Ungari, 1974) conveyed by the codes expresses the achievement of the bourgeois order devoted to a «secularist social order» (Passaniti, 2011) in matters of the family. A prominent, yet refl ected role is played by the woman, «recipient of differentiated legal treatment» (Stolzi, 2019) and whose «weakness» represents an issue which to be solved in order to defend the family’s property asset. After a quick survey of the legal acts and debates on the consequences of the end of marriage, both in France and Italy, this paper aims to unveil the uncertainties and continuities of the traditional-liberal legal order that have long infl uenced the Italian family system.

Durante gran parte del siglo XIX y hasta entrado el siglo XX, el movimiento cecilianocondicionó de forma decisiva la reflexión teórica sobre la música sacra en Europa, así comosu práctica. En torno a 1820, los pensadores románticos alemanes formularon un ideario depurificación de los repertorios destinado a circular por todo el continente. En los casos italianoy español, la transferencia de esas ideas se insertó en los procesos de internacionalización delas respectivas vidas musicales. La dimensión transnacional del movimiento facilitó su éxito enel terreno de las ideas y de las prácticas interpretativas, plasmando una imagen sonora de losacro que aún influencia nuestra propia percepción. En el terreno práctico de la composición,al contrario, limitó la eficacia de las poéticas cecilianas cuya rigurosa aplicación supuso cortarde raíz las seculares relaciones entre la producción sacra y la profana.

In recent years scholars have attempted to reconsider the place of religion within Italian Futurism. A tendency to secularize the avant-garde has ensured that Futurism is often assumed to be in opposition to religion. This paper reassesses this notion by examining the religious dimension of the work of the Futurist artist Umberto Boccioni. In particular, it examines the mother images the artist produced during the early years of the Futurist movement. The paper argues that in Boccioni’s 1912 work Matter (Materia) the maternal figures of the Virgin Mary and the Catholic Church coalesce through a process akin to what Sigmund Freud described as “condensation.” During the years preceding the work’s execution, Boccioni was recording the development of the Catholic Modernist Crisis in his diary. This crisis culminated in 1907 with the papal encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis. At this time, the Catholic Church was experiencing increasing pressure to adapt to new ways of thinking about ecclesiastical history. In this paper, Matter is reread as an investigation into the place of the Catholic Church in the modern world. In seeking to account for the religious significance of Boccioni’s maternal imagery, this paper challenges the claim that the early Futurist movement was wholly anti-Christian in orientation.

To report history in the making, Michel Foucault travelled to Tehran in 1978.He had a commission from Corriere della sera, the prestigious Italian newspaper,to write a series of articles about the unfolding revolutionary process.He landed in Tehran two days after “Black Friday,” during which the armywas believed to have massacred 5,000 people. Foucault was impressed by thecourage of the undeterred protestors who kept pouring into the streets in defiance of a powerful regime. These articles, sympathetic to the movement andits leading force, Shi’a Islam, received a scornful response from his secularFrench colleagues. He was accused of being anti-modern, nihilistic, ignorant,and a man beguiled by a revolutionary effervescence.After the establishment of the Islamic Republic and the consequent bloodybattles leading to the concentration of power in the hands of the militant religiousrevolutionaries, Foucault’s detractors put concerted public pressure uponhim to repent for his “mistaken” judgments. This major “French” controversyfailed, however, to attract much attention in English-speaking circles until theappearance of Janet Afary and Kevin Anderson’s Foucault and Iranian Revolution:Gender and Seduction of Islamism (University of Chicago Press:2005). Highly critical of Foucault’s “romantic” depiction of the revolutionarymovement, these two authors also found in his reports an occasion to attackhis early, post-structuralist writings, interpreting them as anti-modern. Thebook’s overt critique of Foucault rested upon the intellectual pillar of the Enlightenmentdiscourse, with its teleological and secularist approach to history.Needless to say, Afary and Anderson were also critical of Islam’s public role,not only in the revolution but also beyond ...

This article considers a particular aspect of palliative psychology that is inherent to the needs in the area of attitudes concerning Advance Healthcare Directives (AHDs) among Italian physicians and nurses after the promulgation of Law No. 219/2017 on AHDs and informed consent in 2018. The study utilized a mixed-method approach. The group of participants was composed of 102 healthcare professionals (63 females and 39 males). The quantitative part utilized the following scales: Attitudes toward Euthanasia, the Religious Orientation Scale, the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding, and the Testoni Death Representation Scale. The results were mostly in line with the current literature, especially concerning a positive correlation between religiosity and the participants’ rejection of the idea of euthanasia. However, the qualitative results showed both positive and negative attitudes towards AHDs, with four main thematic areas: “Positive aspects of the new law and of AHDs”, “Negative aspects of the new law and of AHDs”, “Changes that occurred in the professional context and critical incidents”, and “Attitudes towards euthanasia requests.” It emerged that there is not any polarization between Catholics or religious people and secularists: Their positions are substantially similar with respect to all aspects, including with regard to euthanasia. The general result is that the law is not sufficiently understood, and so a quarter of the participants associate AHDs with euthanasia. Discussions on the opportunity for palliative psychologists to help health professionals to better manage these issues through death education courses are presented.

The measures and correlates of religious freedom constitute a comparatively new area of study eliciting research at the level of state agency and judicial institutions. The article adds to this the individual level of analysis by introducing a five-dimensional concept of the Social Perception of Religious Freedom (SPRF). It discusses results of its testing on a convenience sample of 1035 Italian University students. We examine the predictive power of ‘passive’ and ‘assertive’ secularism and patterns of state-religion relations vis-à-vis SPRF. While ‘passive’ secularism has a significant positive influence on four of five dimensions of religious freedom, the ‘assertive’ secularism has no effect on it. Findings suggest that the models of an endorsed Catholic Church and state control over religion have mostly negative effects on the SPRF. Moreover, individuals with stronger religious identity are more supportive of the endorsed models of state-religion relations while politically engaged respondents do not favor them.

SOMMARIO: 1. Introduzione - 2. La decisione (in sintesi): una soluzione subottimale - 3. Il ruolo determinante del principio supremo di laicità - 4. Laicità sostanziale, laicità procedurale, accomodamento ragionevole - 5. Discriminazione diretta e indiretta. - 6. Conclusioni. The crucifix ‘accommodated’. Considerations at first reading of the judgment no. 24414/2021 by the United Sections of the Italian Supreme Court of cassation ABSTRACT: With decision no. 24414/2021 the United Sections of the Italian Supreme Court of cassation have provided an unprecedented solution to the issue of religious symbols in the classrooms of public schools. In this essay the author analyses the judgment, focusing in particular on three aspects: the relationship between the so-called ‘Italian principle of secularism’ and the reasonable accommodation; the existence or not of discrimination against the teacher who has been obliged to teach under the crucifix; the practical ways in which this ruling can become 'living law' in the Italian legal system.

The article investigates how young Muslims born and/or raised in Italy perform ‘acts of citizenship’ combining religious belief and civic engagement. We present the results of 40 in-depth interviews carried out with young Muslims active in two associations: Giovani Musulmani d’Italia and Islamic Relief. The aim is to explore how the tactics of visibility, the strategies of recognition ‘from below’ and the forms of transnational mobilisation of Western Muslim activists may trigger processes to ‘denationalize’ the meaning of citizenship, challenging original autochthony as the primordial ‘right’ of belonging. Furthermore, in the Italian model of imperfect secularism, young Muslims’ acts of citizenship can shed light on the limits of the fictitious principle of public ‘neutrality’ as tolerance and the need to redefine the public sphere as a common and heterogeneous space affirming cultural pluralism and the right to difference as integral elements of the foundation of civil society.

Kylie Minogue, her interviewer tells us in the October 2000 issue of Sky Magazine, is a "fatalist": meaning she "believe[s] everything happens for a reason" (Minogue "Kylie" 20). And what kind of reason would that be? Well, the Australian singer gives us a few clues in her interview of the previous month with Attitude, which she liberally peppers with references to her personal beliefs (Minogue "Special K" 43-46). When asked why she shouldn't be on top all the time, she explains: "It's yin and yang. It's all in the balance." A Taoist – or at any rate Chinese – perspective then? Yet, when asked whether it's important to be a good person, she responds: "Do unto others." That's St. Matthew, therefore Biblical, therefore probably Christian. But hang on. When asked about karma, she replies: "Karma is my religion." That would be Hindu, or at least Buddhist, wouldn't it? Still she goes on … "I have guilt if anything isn't right." Now, far be it from us to perpetuate religious stereotypes, but that does sound rather more like a Western church than either Hinduism or Buddhism. So what gives? Clearly there have always been religious references made by Western pop stars, the majority of them, unsurprisingly, Christian, given that this has traditionally been the major Western religion. So there's not much new about the Christian references of Tina Arena or Céline Dion, or the thankyous to God offered up by Britney Spears or Destiny's Child. There's also little that's new in references to non-Christian religions – who can forget the Beatles' flirtation with Hinduism back in the 1960s, Tina Turner's conversion to Buddhism or Cat Stevens' to Islam in the 1970s, or the Tibetan Freedom concerts of the mid- to late nineties organised by the Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch, himself a Buddhist convert? What is rather new about this phenomenon in Western pop music, above and beyond its scale, is the faintly dizzying admixture of religions to be found in the songs or words of a single artist or group, of which Kylie's interviews are a paradigmatic but hardly isolated example. The phenomenon is also evident in the title track from Affirmation, the 1999 album by Kylie's compatriots, Savage Garden, whose worldview extends from karma to a non-evangelised/ing God. In the USA, it's there in the Buddhist and Christian references which meet in Tina Turner, the Christian and neo-pagan imagery of Cyndi Lauper's recent work, and the Christian iconography which runs into buddhas on Australian beaches on REM's 1998 album Up. Of course, Madonna's album of the same year, Ray of Light, coasts on this cresting trend, its lyrics laced with terms such as angels, "aum", churches, earth [personified as female], Fate, Gospel, heaven, karma, prophet, "shanti", and sins; nor are such concerns entirely abandoned on her 2000 album Music. In the UK, Robbie Williams' 1998 smash album I've Been Expecting You contains, in immediate succession, tracks entitled "Grace", "Jesus in a Camper Van", "Heaven from Here" … and then "Karma Killer". Scottish-born Annie Lennox's journey through Hare Krishna and Buddhism does not stop her continuing in the Eurythmics' pattern of the eighties and littering her words with Christian imagery, both in her nineties solo work and the songs written in collaboration with Dave Stewart for the Eurythmics' 1999 reunion. In 2000, just a year after her ordination in the Latin Tridentine Church, Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor releases Faith and Courage, with its overtones of Wicca and paganism in general, passing nods to Islam and Judaism, a mention of Rasta and part-dedication to Rastafarians, and considerable Christian content, including a rendition of the "Kyrié Eléison". Even U2, amongst their sometimes esoteric Christian references, find room to cross grace with karma on their 2000 album All That You Can't Leave Behind. In Germany, Marius Müller-Westernhagen's controversial single "Jesus" from his 1998 chart-topping album Radio Maria, named after a Catholic Italian radio station, sees him in countless interviews elaborating on themes such as God as universal energy, the importance of prayer, the (unnamed but implicit) idea of karma and his interest in Buddhism. Over a long career, the eccentric Nina Hagen lurches through Christianity, Hinduism, Hare Krishna, and on towards her 2000 album Return of the Mother, where these influences are mixed with a strong Wiccan element. In France, Mylène Farmer's early gothic references to Catholicism and mystical overtones lead towards her "Méfie-toi" ("Be Careful"), from the 1999 album Innamoramento, with its references to God, the Virgin, Buddha and karma. In Italy, Gianna Nannini goes looking for the soul in her 1998 "Peccato originale" ("Original sin"), while on the same album, Cuore (Heart), invoking the Hindu gods Shiva and Brahma in her song "Centomila" ("One Hundred Thousand"). "The world is craving spirituality so much right now", Carlos Santana tells us in 1995. "If they could sell it at McDonald's, it would be there. But it's not something you can get like that. You can only wake up to it, and music is the best alarm" (qtd. in Obstfeld & Fitzgerald 166). It seems we're dealing here with quite a significant development occurring under the auspices of postmodernism – that catch-all term for the current mood and trends in Western culture, one of whose most conspicuous manifestations is generally considered to be a pick 'n' mix attitude towards artefacts from cultures near and distant, past, present and future. This rather controversial cultural eclecticism is often flatly equated with the superficiality and commercialism of a generation with no historical or critical perspective, no interest in obtaining one, and an obsession with shopping for lifestyle accessories. Are pop's religious references, in fact, simply signifieds untied from signifiers, symbols emptied of meaning but amusing to play with? When Annie Lennox talks of doing a "Zen hit" (Lennox & Stewart n.pag.), or Daniel Jones describes himself and Savage Garden partner Darren Hayes as being like "Yin and Yang" (Hayes & Jones n.pag.), are they merely borrowing trendy figures of speech with no reflection on what lies – or should lie – or used to lie behind them? When Madonna samples mondial religions on Ray of Light, is she just exploiting the commercial potential inherent in this Shiva-meets-Chanel spectacle? Is there, anywhere in the entire (un)holy hotchpotch, something more profound at work? To answer this question, we'll need to take a closer look at the trends within the mixture. There isn't any answer in religion Don't believe one who says there is But… The voices are heard Of all who cry The first clear underlying pattern is evident in these words, taken from Sinéad O'Connor's "Petit Poulet" on her 1997 Gospel Oak EP, where she attacks religion, but simultaneously undermines her own attack in declaring that the voices "[o]f all who cry" will be heard. This is the same singer who, in 1992, tears up a picture of the Pope on "Saturday Night Live", but who is ordained in 1999, and fills her 2000 album Faith and Courage with religious references. Such a stance can only make sense if we assume that she is assailing, in general, the organised and dogmatised version(s) of religion expounded by many churches - as well as, in particular, certain goings-on within the Catholic Church - but not religion or the God-concept in and of themselves. Similarly, in 1987, U2's Bono states his belief that "man has ruined God" (qtd. in Obstfeld & Fitzgerald 174) – but U2 fans will know that religious, particularly Christian, allusions have far from disappeared from the band's lyrics. When Stevie Wonder admits in 1995 to being "skeptical of churches" (ibid. 175), or Savage Garden's Darren Hayes sings in "Affirmation" that he "believe[s] that God does not endorse TV evangelists", they are giving expression to pop's typical cynicism with regard to organised religion in the West – whether in its traditional or modern/evangelical forms. Religion, it seems, needs less organisation and more personalisation. Thus Madonna points out that she does not "have to visit God in a specific area" and "like[s] Him to be everywhere" (ibid.), while Icelandic singer Björk speaks for many when she comments: "Well, I think no two people have the same religion, and a lot of people would call that being un-religious [sic]. But I'm actually very religious" (n.pag.). Secondly, there is a commonly-expressed sentiment that all faiths should be viewed as equally valid. Turning again to Sinéad O'Connor, we hear her sing on "What Doesn't Belong to Me" from Faith and Courage: "I'm Irish, I'm English, I'm Moslem, I'm Jewish, / I'm a girl, I'm a boy". Annie Lennox, her earlier involvement with Hare Krishna and later interest in Tibetan Buddhism notwithstanding, states categorically in 1992: "I've never been a follower of any one religion" (Lennox n.pag.), while Nina Hagen puts it this way: "the words and religious group one is involved with doesn't [sic] matter" (Hagen n.pag.). Whatever the concessions made by the Second Vatican Council or advanced by pluralist movements in Christian theology, such ideological tolerance still draws strong censure from certain conventional religious sources – Christian included – though not from all. This brings us to the third and perhaps most crucial pattern. Not surprisingly, it is to our own Christian heritage that singers turn most often for ideas and images. When it comes to cross-cultural borrowings, however, this much is clear: equal all faiths may be, but equally mentioned they are not. Common appropriations include terms such as karma (Robbie Williams' 1998 "Karma Killer", Mylène Farmer's 1999 "Méfie-toi", U2's 2000 "Grace") and yin and yang (see the above-quoted Kylie and Savage Garden interviews), concepts like reincarnation (Tina Tuner's 1999/2000 "Whatever You Need") and non-attachment (Madonna's 1998 "To Have and Not to Hold"), and practices such as yoga (from Madonna through to Sting) and even tantrism (Sting, again). Significantly, all of these are drawn from the Eastern faiths, notably Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism, though they also bear a strong relation to ideas found in various neo-pagan religions such as Wicca, as well as in many mystical traditions. Eastern religions, neo-paganism, mysticism: these are of course the chief sources of inspiration for the so-called New Age, which constitutes an ill-defined, shape-shifting conglomeration of beliefs standing outside the mainstream Middle Eastern/Western monotheistic religious pantheon. As traditional organised religion comes under attack, opening up the possibility of a personal spirituality where we can pick and choose, and as we simultaneously seek to redress the imbalance of religious understanding by extending tolerance to other faiths, it is unsurprising that we are looking for alternatives to the typical dogmatism of Christianity, Islam and even Judaism, to what German singer Westernhagen sees as the "punishing God" of the West ("Rock-Star" n.pag.). Instead, we find ourselves drawn to those distant faiths whose principles seem, suddenly, to have so much to offer us, including a path out of the self-imposed narrow-mindedness with which, all too often, the major Western religions seem to have become overlaid. Despite certain differences, the Eastern faiths and their New Age Western counterparts typically speak of a life force grounding all the particular manifestations we see about us, a balance between male and female principles, and a reverence for nature, while avoiding hierarchies, dogma, and evangelism, and respecting the equal legitimacy of all religions. The last of these points has already been mentioned as a central issue in pop spirituality, and it is not difficult to see that the others dovetail with contemporary Western cultural ideals and concerns: defending human rights, promoting freedom, equality and tolerance, establishing international peace, and protecting the environment. However limited our understanding of Eastern religions may be, however convenient that may prove, and however questionable some of our cultural ideals might seem, whether because of their naïveté or their implicit imperialism, the message is coming through loud and clear in the world of pop: we are all part of one world, and we'd better work together. Madonna expresses it this way in "Impressive Instant" on her 2000 album, Music: Cosmic systems intertwine Astral bodies drip like wine All of nature ebbs and flows Comets shoot across the sky Can't explain the reasons why This is how creation goes Her words echo what others have said. In "Jag är gud" ("I am god") from her 1991 En blekt blondins hjärta (A Bleached Blonde's Heart), the Swedish Eva Dahlgren sings: "varje själ / är en del / jag är / jag är gud" ("every soul / is a part / I am / I am god"); in a 1995 interview Sting observes: "The Godhead, or whatever you want to call it - it's better not to give it a name, is encoded in our being" (n.pag.); while Westernhagen remarks in 1998: "I believe in God as universal energy. God is omnipresent. Everyone can be Jesus. And in everyone there is divine energy. I am convinced that every action on the part of an individual influences the whole universe" ("Jesus" n.pag.; my transl.). In short, as Janet Jackson puts it in "Special" from her 1997 The Velvet Rope: "You have to learn to water your spiritual garden". Secularism is on its way out – perhaps playing the material girl or getting sorted for E's & wizz wasn't enough after all – and religion, it seems, is on its way back in. Naturally, there is no denying that pop is also variously about entertainment, relaxation, rebellion, vanity or commercialism, and that it can, from time to time and place to place, descend into hatred and bigotry. Moreover, pop singers are as guilty as everyone else of, at least some of the time, choosing words carelessly, perhaps merely picking up on something that is in the air. But by and large, pop is a good barometer of wider society, whose trends it, in turn, influences and reinforces: in other words, that something in the air really is in the air. Then again, it's all very well for pop stars to dish up a liberal religious smorgasbord, assuring us that "All is Full of Love" (Björk) or praising the "Circle of Life" (Elton John), but what purpose does this fulfil? Do we really need to hear this? Is it going to change anything? We've long known, thanks to John Lennon, that you can imagine a liberal agenda, supporting human rights or peace initiatives, without religion – so where does religion fit in? It has been suggested that the emphasis of religion is gradually changing, moving away from the traditional Western focus on transcendence, the soul and the afterlife. Derrida has claimed that religion is equally, or even more importantly, about hospitality, about human beings experiencing and acting out of a sense of the communal responsibility of each to all others. This is a view of God as, essentially, the idealised sum of humanity's humanity. And Derrida is not alone in giving voice to such musings. The Dalai Lama has implied that the key to spirituality in our time is "a sense of universal responsibility" (n.pag.), while Vaclav Havel has described transcendence as "a hand reached out to those close to us, to foreigners, to the human community, to all living creatures, to nature, to the universe" (n.pag.). It may well be that those who are attempting to verbalise a liberal agenda and clothe it in expressive metaphors are discovering that there are - and have always been - many useful tools among the global religions, and many sources of inspiration among the tolerant, pluralistic faiths of the East. John Lennon's imaginings aside, then, let us briefly revisit the world of pop. Nina Hagen's 1986 message "Love your world", from "World Now", a plea for peace repeated in varying forms throughout her career, finds this formulation in 2000 on the title track of Return of the Mother: "My revelation is a revolution / Establish justice for all in my world". In 1997, Sinéad points out in "4 My Love" from her Gospel Oak EP: "God's children deserve to / sleep safe in the night now love", while in the same year, in "Alarm Call" from Homogenic, Björk speaks of her desire to "free the human race from suffering" with the help of music and goes on: "I'm no fucking Buddhist but this is enlightenment". In 1999, the Artist Formerly Known as Prince tells an interviewer that "either we can get in here now and fix [our problems] and do the best we can to help God fix [them], or we can... [y]ou know, punch the clock in" (4). So, then, instead of encouraging the punching in of clocks, here is pop being used as a clarion-call to the faith-full. Yet pop - think Band Aid, Live Aid and Net Aid - is not just about words. When, in the 2000 song "Peace on Earth", Bono sings "Heaven on Earth / We need it now" or when, in "Grace", he begs for grace to be allowed to cancel out karma, he is already playing his part in fronting the Drop the Debt campaign for Jubilee 2000, while U2 supports organisations such as Amnesty International, Greenpeace and War Child. It is no coincidence that the Eurythmics choose to entitle their 1999 comeback album Peace, or give one of its tracks a name with a strong Biblical allusion, "Power to the Meek": not only has Annie Lennox been a prominent supporter of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan cause, but she and Dave Stewart have divided the proceeds of their album and accompanying world tour between Amnesty International and Greenpeace. Religion, it appears, can offer more than hackneyed rhymes: it can form a convenient metaphorical basis for solidarity and unity for those who are, so to speak, prepared to put their money - and time and effort - where their mouths are. Annie Lennox tells an interviewer in 1992: "I hate to disappoint you, but I don't have any answers, I'm afraid. I've only written about the questions." (n.pag). If a cursory glance at contemporary Western pop tells us anything, it is that religion, in its broadest and most encompassing sense, while not necessarily offering all the important answers, is at any rate no longer seen to lie beyond the parameters of the important questions. This is, perhaps, the crux of today's increasing trend towards religious eclecticism. When Buddha meets Christ, or karma intersects with grace, or the Earth Goddess bumps into Shiva, those who've engineered these encounters are - moving beyond secularism but also beyond devotion to any one religion - asking questions, seeking a path forward, and hoping that at the points of intersection, new possibilities, new answers - and perhaps even new questions - will be found. References Björk. "Björk FAQ." [Compiled by Lunargirl.] Björk - The Ultimate Intimate. 1999. 26 Jan. 2001. <http://bjork.intimate.org/quotes/>. Dalai Lama. "The Nobel [Peace] Lecture." [Speech delivered on 11.12.89.] His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. The Office of Tibet and the Tibetan Government-in-Exile. Undated. 26 Jan. 2001. <http://www.dalailama.com/html/nobel.php>. Hagen, N. "Nina Hagen Living in Ekstasy." [Interview with M. Hesseman; translation by M. Epstein.] Nina Hagen Electronic Shrine. Undated. 26 Jan. 2001. <http://208.240.252.87/nina/interv/living.html Havel, V. "The Need for Transcendence in the Postmodern World." [Speech delivered on 04.07.94.] World Transformation. Undated. 26 Jan. 2001. <http://www.worldtrans.org/whole/havelspeech.php>. Hayes, D. & D. Jones. Interview [with Musiqueplus #1 on 23.11.97; transcribed by M. Woodley]. To Savage Garden and Back. Undated. 26 Jan. 2001. <http://www.igs.net/~woodley/musique2.htm>. Lennox, A. Interview [with S. Patterson; from Details, July 1992]. Eurythmics Frequently Asked Questions. Undated. 26 Jan. 2001. <http://www1.minn.net/~egusto/a67.htm>. Lennox, A. & D. Stewart. Interview [from Interview Magazine, December 1999]. Eurythmics Frequently Asked Questions. Undated. 26 Jan. 2001. <http://www1.minn.net/~egusto/a64.htm>. Minogue, K. "Kylie." [Interview with S. Patterson.] Sky Magazine October 2000: 14-21. Minogue, K. "Special K." [Interview with P. Flynn.] Attitude September 2000: 38-46. Obstfeld, R. & P. Fitzgerald. Jabberrock: The Ultimate Book of Rock 'n' Roll Quotations. New York: Henry Holt, 1997. [The Artist Formerly Known as] Prince. A Conversation with Kurt Loder. [From November 1999.] MTV Asia Online. Undated. 26 Jan. 2001. <http://www.mtvasia.com/Music/Interviews/Old/Prince1999November/index.php>. Sting. Interview [with G. White; from Yoga Journal, December 1995]. Stingchronicity. Undated. 26 Jan. 2001. <http://www.stingchronicity.co.uk/yogajour.php>. [Müller-] Westernhagen, M. "Jesus, Maria und Marius." [From Focus, 10.08.98.] Westernhagen-Fanpage. Undated. 26 Jan. 2001. <http://home.t-online.de/home/340028046011-001/Presse/Focus/19980810.htm>. [Müller-] Westernhagen, M. "Rock-Star Marius Müller-Westernhagen: 'Liebe hat immer mit Gott zu tun.'" [From Bild der Frau, no.39/98, 21.09.98.] Westernhagen-Fanpage. Undated. 26 Jan. 2001. <http://home.t-online.de/home/340028046011-001/Presse/BildderFrau/19980921.htm>.