Citizenship Discourse: Italian-Ness Represented in the Muslim 'Other'

North African and Italian interchange has existed for centuries, it is only recently that this historic relationship has been deemed as “new.” Media plays a large role in performing the dominant discourse and conceptualizing where and when the “old” is understood as “new.” Based on the arguments of Talal Asad and Olivier Roy, I suggest that the rhetoric of the Muslim in Italy lacks an actual reference both in time and space. Instead of referring directly to the Muslim community, the Muslim category is used to engage in rhetoric about unresolved paradoxes of Italian national identity and, more broadly, Italian-ness. By examining eight months of Italian national, regional and local newspaper articles pertaining to Muslims in Italy, I illustrate that this lack of a Muslim referent indexes anxieties of Italian-ness; anxieties which conflate “immigrant” and “southern” identities. Therefore, “the Muslim” in dominant discourse appears as a trope used to negotiate Italian ideas of citizenship, which is an inherently fractured concept. Drawing on Maurizio Albahari’s work, I contend that multiculturalism and diversity are not inherently reproduced paradigms in the Italian sphere and further, religious diversity is seen as a threat to the hegemonic narration of a singular national identity.