Making Muslim Space in North America and EuropeBarbara Daly Metcalf Focusing on the private and public use of space, this volume explores the religious life of the new Muslim communities in North America and Europe. Unlike most studies of immigrant groups, these essays concentrate on cultural practices and expressions of everyday life rather than on the political issues that dominate today's headlines. The authors emphasize the cultural strength and creativity of communities that draw upon Islamic symbols and practices to define "Muslim space" against the background of a non-Muslim environment. The range of perspectives is broad, encompassing middle-class professionals, mosque congregations, factory workers in France and the north of England, itinerant African traders, and prison inmates in New York. The truism that "Islam is a religion of the word" takes on concrete meaning as these disparate communities find ways to elaborate word-centered ritual and to have the visual and aural presence of sacred words in the spaces they inhabit. The volume includes 46 black-and-white photographs that illustrate Muslim populations in Edmonton, Philadelphia, the Green Haven Correction Facility, Manhattan, Marseilles, Berlin, and London, among other places. The focus on space directs attention to the new kinds of boundaries and consciousness that exist not only for these Muslim populations, but for people from all backgrounds in today's ever more integrated world. |
Contents
Sacred Words Sanctioned Practice New Communities | 1 |
A Personal Odyssey | 31 |
Recitation and Community | 46 |
Signs of Difference | 65 |
Islam Ethnicity and the Adaptation | 74 |
The Construction of Spatial Categories | 92 |
The Tablighi Jamaat in America and Europe | 110 |
Dimensions of the Prison Mosque | 131 |
Contesting Spaces and Defining Places | 147 |
Zikr and the Sacralizing | 167 |
The Muslim World Day Parade and Storefront | 204 |
Nationalism Community and the Islamization | 217 |
Deterritorialization | 234 |
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS | 251 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
activities African-American African-American Muslims Ahl al-bayt Alevis Allah Amadu Bamba American Arabic architecture associated Berlin black Africans Bloul Bohras Brick Lane Britain building cheikh context created cultural da'ira diaspora Ealing Gazette East London Mosque English ethnic Europe example foyers France French gender German groups hijra Husain identity imam imambargah immigrants Islamic Islamic architecture John Eade julus Karbala Kreuzberg lims living Maghrebi majlis Masjid Maulana Metcalf migrants milad minaret minbar Mouride movement Muhammad Muslim community Muslim space Muslim World Day non-Muslim North America organizations Pakistan Paris participants Photograph political population practice pray prayer room prison processions Prophet Qsarstadt Qur'an Qureshi recitation religion religious residents ritual role sacred saints Sankore secular Senegal Shiʻi Slyomovics social society storefront Sufi Sufi Abdullah Sunni symbols Tabligh tion Touba tradition Turkey Turkish Turks University Urdu veil volume Werbner West women York zikr Zindapir