Italian Cultural Blindness to Other Religions Hinders Conflict Understanding

A reflection on Italy's cultural and religious landscape reveals a profound lack of knowledge about non-Christian monotheistic faiths, impeding public debate on conflicts such as those in Ukraine and Palestine. Performer Ghali recently sparked discussion by wishing a good Ramadan on social media while expressing disappointment over insufficient support for Palestine. The article, published on Artribune, argues that Italians' difficulty in engaging with these conflicts stems from a cultural gap regarding Judaism and Islam. Data from ISTAT and Italia in Dati shows that in 2021, practicing Catholics numbered only 2.16 million (5% of 43.25 million self-identified Catholics), fewer than atheists/agnostics (8.81 million) and comparable to Orthodox Christians (1.44 million). This makes practicing Catholicism a minority religion, yet public perception overestimates the presence of other faiths: a 2018 Eurispes survey found that over half of Italians overestimated the foreign population by two to three times. Jews in Italy number just 36,000 (2023 CENSUR data), fewer than Buddhists (220,000) and even combined followers of esoteric and human potential movements (45,900). The article suggests that psychological familiarity with Catholicism makes other religions seem foreign, while ignorance of their actual prevalence skews public discourse. It calls for genuine cultural engagement with other faiths and countries before taking positions on international conflicts.