The Multicultural City and the Politics of Religious Architecture: Urban Planning, Mosques and Meaning-Making in Britain
The Multicultural City and the Politics of Religious Architecture: Urban Planning, Mosques and Meaning-Making in Britain
This chapter reviews the spatial negotiations that have often had to be entered into by British Muslims as means to establishing mosques and centres of religious education (madrasas). It uses Henri Lefebvre's concepts of ‘representation of space’. There are various points of comparison that can be made between the Birmingham Central Mosque and the Jame Masjid in Handsworth. The mosque is considered as a meaningful or ‘representational space’ for the respective Muslim group. Both the Central Mosque and the Jame Masjid were developed some time ago, while the Dar ul-Uloom Islamia in Small Heath was planned and completed in the late 1990s. In the statements of the President of the Birmingham Central Mosque and the representative of the Dar ul-Uloom Islamia, it is noted that the local discourse of multiculturalism is not only promoted by the City Council, but is also shared by the members of Muslim organisations.
Keywords: mosques, spatial negotiations, British Muslims, religious education, Henri Lefebvre, representational space, Birmingham Central Mosque, Jame Masjid, Dar ul-Uloom Islamia, multiculturalism
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