Università Cattolica del Sacro CuoreItaly

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Paolo Branca

Associate professor Member of Research groups

Paolo Branca is professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the Catholic University of Milan. Specialized in the problems of the modern Islam-world relationship, he has published: Voices of modern Islam: Arab-Muslim thinking between renewal and tradition (Marietti, Genoa 1991), Introduction to Islam (San Paolo, Milan 1995), Muslims (Il Mulino, Bologna 2000), Il Corano (Il Mulino, Bologna 2001), Yalla Italia! The real challenges of integrating Arabs and Muslims into our country (Edizioni Lavoro, Rome 2007) and, with Barbara de Poli and Patrizia Zanella, The smile of the crescent (Carocci, Rome 2011). He translated the novel of the Egyptian Nobel Prize winner Nagib Mahfuz, Vicolo del Mortaio (Feltrinelli, Milan 1989).

Author of numerous articles on Islam, interfaith dialogue, cultural integration and other subjects, he is associated with or participated in university seminars in various institutions, including the Pontificia Universitas Urbaniana; the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris; the Accademia della Guardia di Finanza in Bergamo; the universities of Lausanne, Pisa, Florence and Turin; and Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.

He is a member of the scientific committee of Oasis, of SeSaMo (Middle East Studies Society) of which he was a founding member and president; and the Committee for Italian Islam, created by the Ministry of the Interior.

Disciplines

Islam Studies Quranic Studies

Topics

Comparative Studies Islam in Europe Migrations

Resources of this researcher

Research Group

For a preventive Islamic de-radicalization. The Re-Configuration of the Humanities within an inter-religious approach. (Milan)

Returning to the humanities, they are not only necessary, but crucial in promoting a de-radicalizing approach to both societies: the Islamic and the European, wondering that this research project intends to work none solely in relation to the Islamic World or the Old continent, but with both. The idea is to create a project of preventive deradicalization of Muslim citizens and society working on a dual methodological and interdisciplinary attitude: the teaching of Islam, its history, its religious tradition, socio…

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Italy

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Resources related toIslam in Europe

publication

Religious Freedom in Italy. An Unfinished Path (1848-2024)

Alessandro Ferrari

Published under the original title La libertà religiosa in Italia. Un percorso incompiuto (1848-2024), this synthesis by Alessandro Ferrari, professor of ecclesiastical law and comparative religiou...

article

Two Seas, One Course: The 2026 Jesuit Migrant Service Report on Spain’s Southern Border

Josep Buades

The annual report of the Jesuit Migrant Service (SJM), the social apostolate body of the Society of Jesus in Spain, written by Josep (Pep) Buades Fuster, examines the migratory dynamics of Spain’s ...

videos

From Lavigerie to PISAI: The Institutional History of the Missionaries of Africa’s Engagement with Islam

Delivered on 21 May 2026 at the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI) in Rome, this lecture opens the series of conferences marking the institute's centenary (1926-2026). Fr. ...

videos

Interreligious Dialogue and Ethnic Nationalisms in the Balkans

At the invitation of PISAI (Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, Rome) and Georgetown University, Ahmet Alibašić, professor of Islamic civilization at the Faculty of Islamic Studies...

article

“The Reception of Rūmī’s Work in France: Cultural Mediations, Symbolic Transfers and the Recomposition of Belief”, by Khalid El Khadiri

Khalid El Khadiri

In the journal La Clé des Langues (ENS de Lyon, March 2026), Khalid El Khadiri, a PhD candidate in the history and sociology of religions at the École pratique des hautes études (EPHE), examines th...

videos

Political and religious anarchism in the musical forms of rebel Islam: from rap to taqwacore

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...

videos

From regulating religious sound to transforming it into light: public, legal and architectural debates on the adhān

publication

Scientific Evaluation of Islamic Religious Education in North Rhine-Westphalia

Mouhanad Khorchide

Conducted by the Center for Islamic Theology at the University of Münster (directed by Mouhanad Khorchide) at the request of the Ministry of Education of North Rhine-Westphalia, this final scientif...