Islamic Welfare Activities and Civic Alliances in Milan

The purpose of this paper is to investigate, first, how Islamic organisations provide welfare services in Milan and, second, how institutions, political parties and other religious groups influence these organisations’ social activism. Over the last fifty years, actors—especially Catholic ones—have influenced the political and social lives of Milan’s Islamic associations. The archbishops (Martini, Tettamanzi and Scola in particular) have shaped the integration of Islamic organisations into civic networks. At the same time, Islamic associations have customized their socio-cultural activities to the Catholic context and specifically to the Archdiocese of Milan, which is one of the largest archdioceses in the world. For instance, the second generation of Milan’s Islamic population has strongly interacted with Catholic actors to solve social emergencies. Many Islamic actors have oriented their activism towards welfare programs that Catholic actors have endorsed. In this way, Islamic associations have obtained a kind of public recognition that political parties usually deny. In fact, municipal authorities still refuse to allow a central mosque to be built in the city. By analysing the network’s data, this paper will investigate how institutional opportunities and constraints have shaped the welfare programs and civic alliances of Islamic organisations in the richest Italian metropolis.