[TOD4wDTQ]

1) What is the total amount of Muslims living in Italy?

Various official estimates indicate in at least 1'500'000 the number of Muslims living in Italy.

They form a heterogenous community (differently from other countries in Europe, where there is usually a
dominant nationality), with Muslims from many different nationalities composing a varied mosaic.
The most part of them being from North-Africa (Morocco and Tunisia on the top, making up 1/3 of the total
Muslim population in Italy, followed by Egyptians and Algerians), then from Albania and other Balkan
countries, Indian Subcontinent (Bangladesh and Pakistan; very few Indian Muslims), Western Africa
(Senegal, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and others), Eastern Africa (Somalia), Turkey (both Turkish and
Kurdish), and many others, included even brothers from Central Asia.

To this should be added an increasing number of converts, both Italians or from other immigrant
nationalities (south-Americans, Eastern Europeans, etc.)

Islam is the second religion in Italy as for number of followers, but it doesn't have as a whole any official
recognition as a minority religion community by the State, which instead communities as Jews, Jehova
Witnesses, Protestant Churches etc., did manage to get.

Islam came back to Italy (after the Muslim dominion of several regions in Southern Italy during the “Middle
Age”) very recently, long after the immigration waves which took Muslims to settle in other European
countries (UK, France, Germany), but at a faster pace and in a less organized way, leading millions of
foreigners from many different countries arriving “all of a sudden” in a country which until just a few
decades ago was a land of emigration, before rapidly became a land of immigration.

This has thus led to more problems in the reaction of Italian people and in the social integration of these
newly arrived Muslims, as well as in their own organization.

The first Islamic association was founded by refugee Syrian and Jordanian students affiliated to al-Ikhwan al-
Muslimun, who had fled Syria due to Alawi kafir government repression. They laid the foundations for that
which will become the most representative Islamic organization in Italy, modeled on the example of the very
similar Ikhwani Islamic associations leading the Islamic community in France (they are also linked to the
infamous European Council for Fatwa and Research), and gathering almost exclusively Arabs (but not all of
them) and those amongst the Italian converts who are on the same doctrinal wavelength, and are generally
the most well-known ones in the Italian Islamic community.

This Islamic associations, in the years, has also set down the main doctrinal reference for the vast majority
of the Muslims laymen, choosing to publish and popularize the works of the Ikhwani maslak, etc., and they
remain the main doctrinal reference of most of the Arab-led Islamic centers scattered on the territory.
There are also a few other groups organized as Islamic national associations, but they don't have any strong
following in the country nor any real representativeness; and some of them have no credibility at all, as
those who have strong zionist anti-Islamic links, etc.

Virtually all of these associations are nothing like a “Jamiatul Ulama” - as they do not comprise of scholars –
nor do they really serve the interests of Muslims in Italy (caring), but rather, their field of interest are politics
and lobbying, trying to establish connections with the Italian government (when they aren't set up by the
Italian government itself), gain official recognition, etc.

Today ,Muslims population makes up around 33% of the total number of foreigners living in Italy, and
around 2,5% of the total population (total population being around 60 millions).

There is no official estimate of converts, but the number should be between 20-40'000, and Allah knows
best.