Traditional Religious Institutions Vs “Cut and Paste” Online Religions: Challenges to Religious Education

In any migration process, is now acknowledged that young people acquire cultural and linguistic skills more quickly than parents. The new language makes silent parents, because they often know and use it badly. Today a new feature stakes and undermines the role of traditional religious institutions and parents in emigration: the children of immigrants are digital natives and they use Internet and the web easily, often transferring the off-line communication on internet. There are challenges, risks and opportunities in the massive diffusion of new technologies and the use of social networks, blogs and Islamic forums including the development bottom-up interpretations of the Islam, of an Islam said a “cut and paste”, eclectic, from which people can take inspiration according to their religious preferences. This relationship with the 2.0 communication is likely to broaden the gap with the parents’ generation. The presentation will consider Moroccans and Egyptians living in Turin and investigate how the use of new media influences the role of traditional religious institutions and the consequent family and educational dynamics.