Muslim women and families between law of God and secular law: Italian and European debate

Abstract

My work is stuctured in four closely related parts. In the the first one, titled Religion and Modernity, I dwell on the importance of religious phenomenon for the sociology that since its origins has had a strong interest for religion, its meaning and its rule in the modern societies. Subsequently I focus on cultural pluralism of our contemporary societies, in particular on religious one. I upfront aim to stress that cohabitation of different cultural groups in the same country is a relatively new issue. Cultural differences are today more evident compared with the past and they are subject of claims of recognition that States have difficulty to give legitimacy. Similarly the cohabitation of different religious groups is not an exclusive mark of our contemporary societies. However religious pluralism that characterizes our contemporary societies is a very dynamic and complex process: new religious movements originated from USA, Japan, and India spread beside traditional religions followed in Europe. The research of new strategies by manage the new form of social and cultural pluralism, that aim to guarantee the participation of different cultural groups in the public sphere and the recognition of particular legal autonomy in these social areas that are crucial in the process of definition and preservation of cultural identity, is the subject of the lively debate on multiculturalism. So in this part I reconstruct the secularization theory on which liberal model is based, the different perspective of multiculturalism debate and I focus on the de-secularization theories elaborated by authoritative scholars as Jurgen Habermas, Peter Berger and Josè Casanova. My aim is to stress that we have to revisit the traditional and liberal model of separation of religious sphere and secular one... [edited by Author]