More than one in two respondents think that the Muslim religion should be neither seen nor practiced in schools, despite this separation many believe that the teachings of the church are still valid.
According to a recent survey by the marketing research company SWG conducted for The Festival for Politics (il Festival della politica) one out of two Italians thinks that “the Islamic religion is a danger to everyone”. The survey was carried out at the Festival which was presented on Saturday, September 7 in a session called “Francis I: the renewal of the church, a challenge to the policy” with Alberto Melloni, church historian and Antonio Ramenghi, director of Mattino di Padova (http://www.festivalpolitica.it/francesco-i-rinnovamento-della-chiesa.aspx).
The difficult relationship with the Muslim religion is illustrated in the SWG survey. Half of the sample is in agreement (33%) or strongly agrees (~17%) with the statement “Islam is a danger to everyone.” Ten years earlier, the survey reveals, this distrust was much less marked, so that the danger posed by the Islamic religion was perceived by 36% of the sample, 14% less than now. From here emerges the xenophobia of Italians, 55% of whom believe that Muslims should not be allowed to observe and practice their own religion in schools.
Since 2004 this figure has grown by more than 10%. Italy remains a country so strongly attached to their Catholic religion. More than six out of ten Italians think that the teachings of the church are still valid, 7% more than in 2012. In any case, the vast majority of Italians, more than 80%, declares its secularism by saying that the church should not in any way affect the laws of the State.
