Veneto hides many secrets. Behind its museum cities Venice and Verona, one of the industrial lungs of Italy constitutes both a bastion of the Lega and a center of immigration. At the beginning of October, Padua (200,000 inhabitants) was the scene of a controversy with national repercussions: the lawyer Francesco Minutillo, member of the nationalist party Futuro Nazionale, officially reported to the public prosecutor’s office the creation of an Islamic court.
Since last March, the city of Saint-Antoine has hosted an Islamic arbitration chamber created by a community association. Its founders openly campaign for “recognition of the arbitral decision based on Sharia law”. The constitutive act of the arbitral tribunal indicates that it wants to promote “ the culture of arbitration as a method of resolving disputes within the Italian Islamic community”.
The president of the structure compares his approach to sports courts
The president of the structure, Omar Vanin, a 36-year-old lawyer specializing in European law, spoke on the local channel TV7 Triveneta. Comparing his approach to sports courts, he denies having established any tribunal and prefers to speak of an arbitration chamber dedicated to the resolution of property or commercial disputes. “As has happened in other countries, it happens that members of a religious community entrust their conflicts (…) to judges appointed by arbitrators. These individuals can thus decide by drawing inspiration from Shariatic law, provided that the latter does not conflict with the fundamental principles of the Italian order.pleads Omar Vanin. For the moment, this arbitration chamber has not yet judged any case. The Union of Islamic Communities and Organizations of Italy has also categorically dissociated itself from this initiative.
Questioned by the media, the Minister of Justice Carlo Nordio clarified that a preliminary investigation was underway, adding that “Italian law was not negotiable”. After the announcement in September of the ban on the burqa in schools, the government of Giorgia Meloni finds itself once again grappling with one of the effects of multiculturalism. In a few decades, Veneto has become the third region in Italy with the largest number of Muslim residents (between 150,000 and 170,000 according to estimates), mainly from the Maghreb, Albania and the Indian subcontinent. The province of Padua has seen the number of Bangladeshi citizens jump by 70% in the last six years.
The demographic, cultural and religious issue goes far beyond the legal question. It is nevertheless on the legislative ground that the executive power has chosen to respond. From a strictly formal point of view, the illegality of an Islamic arbitration chamber remains to be demonstrated. Since the Cartabia reform of 2022, articles 806 and 822 of the Code of Civil Procedure allow recourse to arbitration for certain disputes. An arbitral chamber may, under certain conditions, apply a “foreign law or standards”. In a note revealed to the press, the president of the Padua arbitration chamber, lawyer Annibale Mantovani, thus legitimizes the creation of its Islamic counterpart.
The debate between lawyers is only just beginning. Quoted by Il Fatto Quotidiano, law professor Filippo Danovi, one of the designers of the Cartabia reform, is considering the recognition of Islamic arbitration, with several foreign legislations incorporating sharia provisions. However, it imposes as a condition respect for the fundamental principles of Italian law, in particular public order and adversarial proceedings. In August 2025, a court in Vienna (Austria) introduced a precedent in the European Union by validating the execution of an arbitration award based on Islamic law in a property dispute. While awaiting the outcome of the preliminary investigation, the Paduans will invoke Anthony, patron saint of missing objects, to regain their lost cohesion.
