Alessandro Ferrari
Alessandro Ferrari is Professor of State Laws and Religions and Comparative Law of Religions at the University of Insubria (Varese and Como) and is the present director of REDESM. He is associated member of GSRL, the CNRS Research Group Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités (Paris) and of the Unité Mixte de Recherche Droit, Religion, Entreprise et Société of the Strasbourg University and CNRS. He is member of the coordination team of the PLURIEL Network. Since 2010 he has been member of the different Councils for the relations with Islam established at the Italian Home Ministry.
His research interests focus on the legal status of Muslims in Europe, the transformation of European secularism and the religious freedom across the two Mediterranean shores.
He has been Visiting Fellow at the Islamic Legal Studies Program of the Harvard Law School (2019), invited Directeur d’Études at the École Pratiques des Hautes Études (2018) and Roberta Buffett Visiting Scholar at the Northwestern University (2014). His current research project concerns the development of the right to religious freedom between the two Mediterranean shores read through the prism of the legal treatment of the “Muslim headscarf.” His publications are available at the page https://www.uninsubria.it/hpp/alessandro.ferrari
Resources of this researcher
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publication
Religious minorities between the Mediterranean shores: a study of the status of religious minorities in the Mediterranean context (REMiMEsO) – Final Report
- Alessandro Ferrari
The REMiMESo project, led by Ilaria Valenzi and supported by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, explores the situation of religious minorities in five Mediterranean countries: Israel, Morocco...
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publication
Religious Freedom in Italy. An Impossible Paradigm
- Alessandro Ferrari
Italy, seat of the Pope and Vatican City, has a long and difficult relationship with religious freedom. Often identified as a quintessentially Catholic nation, Italy owes its unification to a polit...
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publication
Contemporary Issues in Islamic Law, Economics and Finance
- Alessandro Ferrari
- Flavia Cortelezzi
This book explores how Islam can impact the structures and performance of firms, financial institutions and capital markets across a range of countries and industries. The Islamic finance industry ...
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videos
Understanding freedom of religion around the Mediterranean
- Alessandro Ferrari
- Amin Elias
How to manage religious plurality? Three researchers from our network look back at the history of the northern, eastern and southern shores of the Mediterranean to understand the diversity of legal...
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videos
The Question of Otherness in Classical Islam | Respondents
- Michaela Quast-Neulinger
- Tobias Specker
- Alessandro Ferrari
Following the lecture: “The question of Otherness in Classical Islam” given by Raja SAKRANI, three members of the scientific committee of the PLURIEL network give answers according to t...
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videos
The right of religious freedom between the two shores of the Mediterranean: dynamics and perspectives (Italian)
- Alessandro Ferrari
Speaker: Prof. Alessandro Ferrari Moderator: P. Laurent Basanese, S.J. Pontificia Universita Gregoriana, November 19th, 2018 Original title : “È diritto di libertà religiosa tra le due sponde...
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videos
The right to religious freedom: a tool for managing citizen pluralism on both sides of the Mediterranean
- Alessandro Ferrari
Original title : “Il diritto di libertà religiosa: strumento di gestione del pluralismo cittadino sulle due rive del mediterraneo” Lecture by Alessandro FERRARI at the second internatio...
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publication
Religions and Constitutional Transitions in the Muslim Mediterranean
- Alessandro Ferrari
This book investigates the role of Islam and religious freedom in the constitutional transitions of six North African and Middle Eastern countries, namely Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey, ...
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publication
Law and Religion in Mediterranean Islam
- Alessandro Ferrari
Subtitle: National Reports on Safeguarding Religious Freedom: An Alternative Paradigm? In the era of the "Arab Spring" and the profound transformations that the Muslim-majority countries of the ...
Resources related to
Law
videos
From regulating religious sound to transforming it into light: public, legal and architectural debates on the adhān
Paper presented at the fifth international congress of the University Platform for Research on Islam (Pluriel), held in Cordoba from 10 to 14 February 2026 on the theme "Ethics and Aesthetics in Is...
article
Religious minorities and spiritual assistance. Reflections on the project “Atlas of religious or belief minority rights” in the European Union
- Ilaria Valenzi
Abstract Developed within the multilevel system of legal sources, the category of "religious minority" takes on particular significance within the European Union, where a shared system of protectio...
article
“Inclusive Citizenship, the Right to a Place of Worship and Everyday Peace”, by Antonio Angelucci
- Antonio Angelucci
In an article published in the Italian journal Coscienza e Libertà (no. 69, 2025), Antonio Angelucci, associate professor of law and religion at the University of Insubria, examines the connection ...
article
Public order and religious family rights. Sustainability and limits of an evolving legal relationship
- Ilaria Valenzi
Abstract The public-order clause, which safeguards the fundamental principles of the legal order, is today tested by the circulation of family models rooted in religious legal systems. Ilaria Valen...
article
Muslim worship in France: is the State-led reorganization underway?
- Mohamed-Ali Mostfa
In this article published on February 26, 2025, on The Conversation, Ali Mostfa analyzes the evolution of the Forum of Islam in France (Forif), created in 2022 to replace the French Council of Musl...
publication
Religious minorities between the Mediterranean shores: a study of the status of religious minorities in the Mediterranean context (REMiMEsO) – Final Report
- Alessandro Ferrari
The REMiMESo project, led by Ilaria Valenzi and supported by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, explores the situation of religious minorities in five Mediterranean countries: Israel, Morocco...
publication
Women, Agency and Religion: Social and Legal Issues in the Mediterranean Public Space
- Leïla Tauil
On the two Mediterranean shores, women’s agency is articulated by new social and legal actors who face the religious factor both as an asset and as a hindrance. This book explores how female ...
publication
Religions put to the test by freedom of expression
- Michel Younès
- Mohamed-Ali Mostfa
- Malek Chaïeb
“In the republican context, freedom of expression involves all the players in society and mobilises a wide range of intellectual resources. What then are the conditions that foster it while r...