Abstract

In Italy as elsewhere in Europe, debates on the integration and assimilation of strangers within national societies mainly target Islam and Muslim believers. Such debates have less to do with religious freedom than with the narratives of identity that have lately gained global traction. The arguments that arise from debates on Islam and citizenship are valuable, however, as they shed light on how the Italian Constitution understands itself and its citizenship and, more broadly, on the difficulties that liberal democracies encounter when they address the topic of their own identity.