DYING ELSEWHERE. THE INTERMITTENT RECOGNITION OF RIGHTS AND FUNERAL RITES TO MUSLIMS IN ITALY Cover Image

MORIRE ALTROVE. L’INTERMITTENTE RICONOSCIMENTO DI DIRITTI E RITI FUNEBRI AI MUSULMANI IN ITALIA
DYING ELSEWHERE. THE INTERMITTENT RECOGNITION OF RIGHTS AND FUNERAL RITES TO MUSLIMS IN ITALY

Author(s): Vasco Fronzoni
Subject(s): Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Islam studies, Ethnic Minorities Studies, Sociology of Religion
Published by: Editions IARSIC
Keywords: Religious freedom; Freedom of belief; Death; Islamic funeral rites; Cemeteries; Muslim in the Diaspora; Denied rights; Citizenship; Social inclusion; Immigration;

Summary/Abstract: The need of Muslims in Italy to find comfort for their dead according to the confessional rites of Islam, in line with the feelings of pity for the deceased but in the absence of an agreement pursuant to art. 8 of the Constitution, can sometimes find a repelling barrier in Italian legislation, which abstractly does not allow other burial methods other than those common to everyone. Other times this need can intercept a territorial political aversion, which appears to oppose the plural dimension of contemporary societies. But even before the legal dimension, it is necessary to observe the “death elsewhere” under the lens of the processes of social stratification, in the different facets of the migration question and under the multiple angles of the political-party management of the diasporic presence of Muslims. This last aspect it is mostly framed by cal-ling into question the State and public order dimension. The article analyses the concept of death and funeral rites in Islam, a confessional right that is often denied in cases of “death elsewhere”.

  • Issue Year: 11/2023
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 491-511
  • Page Count: 21
  • Language: Italian