Un ritardo spiegabile: la radicalizzazione in Italia

In Italy, there are fewer cases of Islamist radicalisation than in other major European countries. What are the reasons? In the article, the author analyses the multiple social, economic, political and religious causes of the phenome- non: more recent immigration; lower demographic weight of second genera- tions; a widespread productive structure in the territory that avoids the con- centration of population in large urban areas; a fragmented ethnonational and cultural composition that acts as a barrier to a conception of religion and politics, such as the radical Islamist one, that presupposes the annulment of those same specificities; less weight of the Italian colonial memory among the immigrant population; foreign and military policy that, at least until to- day, has exposed Italy less on the international scene. Not one cause, there- fore, but several causes explain the Italian 'delay'. The scenario, however, could change, becoming more permeable to radicalisation phenomena and thus making the Italian case less particular.