“Should I, as a Muslim, join or not Catholics in Churches?” Dilemmas of the Italian Muslim community

Italian Muslims represent 2.6% of the entire population and one-third of all foreigners, constituting a fragmented and pluralistic community. Recently, father Jacques Hamel, a French Catholic priest, was killed by two knife-wielding French men pledging allegiance to the Islamic State. The Muslim French community strongly dissociated from this event. Italian Muslim community heeded this call and also sent delegates to French churches. According to the statistics, about 15,000 Muslims (approximately 1–2% of the Italian community) attended the commemorative event. Using a qualitative approach, we aimed at investigating the reasons that led Italian Muslims to join or not such an event. The following themes emerged: 1) public responsibility and accountability; 2) every murder as a crime to mankind; 3) importance of inter-faith dialogue and initiatives; 4) judging actions on the basis of intention; 5) fear of losing identity and roots; 6) innovation of attending churches even for good purposes; 7) dead peoples of series A and B; 8) useless of the action; and, finally, 9) impact of islamophobia. Our research sheds light on the multiple voices and thoughts of a complex, multifaceted community. We believe that our findings could be helpful for policy-makers and stakeholders, in designing inclusive and truly integrative policies.