The title of this special issue articulates a question that engages directly with a broader European debate within the field of Islamic Studies – a debate to which Italian scholarship has thus far contributed only marginally. The present collection seeks to contribute to the transnational debate by offering a perspective grounded in the southern regions of Italy. Southern Italy, frequently conceived as a marginal or peripheral space within both national and European frameworks, is here approached as a privileged site from which to reconsider and problematize the very categories of center and periphery. Rather than reproducing established hierarchies of visibility and importance, the contributions collected in this special issue propose to read the South as an epistemic and analytical vantage point from which the polycentric nature of contemporary Islam in Europe can be more fully appreciated.

Center and periphery are not merely spatial or geographical terms, but also conceptual and epistemological categories that shape our understanding of Islamic presence, practice, and belonging. By moving beyond this binary framework, the essays collected here invite a reflection on the multiplicity of Islamic experiences and on the complex entanglements that constitute Muslim life in the European South. Rethinking the margins involves recognizing their productive role in generating new forms of religiosity, sociability, and subjectivities.¹

The issue further seeks to address a notable lacuna in current scholarship: the relative paucity of studies devoted to Islam in Southern Italy and, more broadly, in the southern regions of Europe. The aim is not to present Islam in the South as an exceptional or anomalous case, but rather to contribute to a more comprehensive and multifocal understanding of Islam in Italy. In this respect, the present collection builds upon earlier initiatives – such as the special issue of Occhialì devoted to Islam in Southern Italy edited by Carlo De Angelo and Valentina Fedele² – while introducing a distinct analytical lens centered on the notion of center/periphery–margins. From this standpoint, the collected essays aim to shed light on the manner in which the local manifestations of Muslim presence in Southern Italy interact with the broader global processes, thereby both enhancing and challenging contemporary representations of Islam within the Italian context. Specifically, the increased mobility and precariousness of communities in the South correspond to novel forms of production and transmission of religious knowledge, of the structuring of leadership and communities, and of relationships with various stakeholders in the context, ranging from social, political, and economic to institutional. These forms, when compared to the ones previously identified in proximity to the purported centers of Islam within Europe and Italy, are also manifold. This suggests that they are in a constant state of transformation, adopting different forms and giving rise to intricate processes of subjectivation. This thematic issue also responds to a wider gap within the Italian academic landscape, where research explicitly adopting the framework of Islamic Studies remains few. The editors have previously initiated a first step in this direction through the coordination of a thematic section in the Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies;³ the present issue represents a further development of that endeavor. The four articles included in this issue stem from research conducted at the University of Naples “L’Orientale”, an institution that combines a long-standing tradition in Islamic Studies with an increasing attention to the study of contemporary Islam. Grounded in ethnographic fieldwork and informed by a rigorous engagement with Islamic textual traditions as well as local and transnational dynamics, these contributions offer valuable insights that bridge the domains of classical Islamic scholarship and contemporary social analysis.

By situating these studies within the wider European debates on Islam, this special issue aspires to open a space for dialogue that has remained largely underdeveloped in the Italian context. The current debate, to which these scholarly articles contribute through their rigorous research and analysis, encompasses a range of issues including the institutionalization of Islam,⁴ religious authority,⁵ the interplay between local and global perspectives⁶ and transnationalism,⁷ gender studies,⁸ and situated Islam.⁹

Furthermore, the articles collected here adopt the analytical tools of Islamic Studies while also drawing on methodologies from history, sociology, geography, and gender studies. This interdisciplinary approach underscores the complexity of Muslim experiences in Southern Italy and foregrounds the epistemological potential of so-called peripheral contexts. Ultimately, this collection invites readers to reconsider the notion of peripheral Islam not as a condition of marginality, but as a critical position from which to rethink the configurations of centrality, authority, and plurality that shape Islam in contemporary Europe.

In “Students, Workers, Citizens. An Overview of the History of Muslims in Contemporary Naples,” Nicola Di Mauro reconstructs the evolution of Islam in Naples from the 1980s to the present, focusing on the intertwined roles of Muslims defined and subjectivated as students, workers, and citizens. His study shows how international students were the first to create Islamic organizations, how later migratory waves diversified these communities, and how both engaged local institutions to claim religious and civic rights. Although the city still lacks a mosque or Islamic cemetery, these ongoing interactions have fostered symbolic recognition and a growing sense of belonging. Di Mauro highlights the pivotal role of small groups and community leaders who, through persistent civic engagement, have profoundly reshaped Naples’s religious and social landscape, constructing a situated Islam.

Similarly, Chiara Anna Cascino’s paper “The Tunisian Mosque in Palermo: Space, Religious Authority and Relations” examines the history and sociopolitical role of the Tunisian consulate-managed mosque in Palermo as a lens through which to understand Islam in Southern Italy. Drawing on fieldwork and archival research conducted between 2020 and 2024, Cascino explores how this mosque influences religious visibility, community relations, and the negotiation of authority within Palermo’s diverse Muslim population. Her analysis highlights the fluid nature of leadership, shaped by transnational networks, consular politics, and local institutional frameworks. Ultimately, she situates Palermo as a key space for grasping the plural and relational dynamics of Islam in Europe.

In a complementary perspective, Salvatore Senatore’s contribution “Islam and the Sarno: Religious Authorities and Muslim Communities in the Agro Nocerino-Sarnese” turns to a peripheral agricultural region, revealing how Moroccan and other migrant workers have established autonomous prayer spaces (muṣallayāt) that act as both religious and social support centers. In these communities, authority is informal, grounded in economic responsibility and community recognition rather than formal theological training. While some prayer rooms are linked to national Islamic organizations such as the Confederazione Islamica Italiana (Italian Islamic Confederation), most operate independently, demonstrating strong self-organization amid economic precarity. Senatore’s study sheds light on how Islam in marginal areas develops locally rooted and community-driven forms of faith and solidarity under conditions of invisibility and social vulnerability.

Finally, Federica Bucci’s article “Reverting to Islam in Naples and Campania: Conversions as a Manifestation of Global Islam” examines a different kind of marginality, namely the experiences of Italian women converts in a predominantly non-Muslim, Southern European environment. Through ethnographic research and interviews, Bucci explores how conversion reshapes identity, gender dynamics, and the use of urban space, positioning Naples as a site where local culture and global Islam intersect. Her study argues that conversion produces hybrid identities that transcend both assimilationist and multicultural paradigms, emphasizing faith as an individualized yet socially embedded practice. Islam in Naples thus emerges as a creative expression of global Islam, molded by personal agency, transnational connections, and the specificities of place.

Taken together, these four contributions chart the complex, localized, and transnational dimensions of Muslim life in Southern Italy. They reveal how students, workers, converts, and institutional actors – across Naples, Palermo, and the Agro Nocerino-Sarnese – actively produce new configurations of belonging and authority. Far from being peripheral, Southern Italy appears here as a laboratory of Islam in Europe: a space where faith, mobility, and civic engagement intertwine to generate plural, dynamic, and contextually grounded forms of religious life.