Schmitt T (2012)
Publication Language: English
Publication Type: Book chapter / Article in edited volumes
Publication year: 2012
Publisher: Rodopoi
Edited Volumes: Migration, Religion, and Germany
City/Town: Amsterdam
Pages Range: 207-217
The debate about a new mosque in Manhattan to be located near Ground Zero
echoed around the world in 2010. Since the end of the 1980s, plans for new
mosques have been highly contested in the western world. The main aim here is
a comparison of different mosque conflicts, with a focus on German examples.
“No mosque in our town!” is, with its variants, a common slogan of local
neighbors and citizen action groups in Germany when a new mosque is to be
built. So it is only a minor exaggeration to state: “No new mosque in Germany
without a local conflict.” Also, since the late 1980s, inconspicuous mosques in
Germany have been increasingly replaced by buildings that combine traditional
elements of Islamic architecture (minarets, domes) with modern western and
postmodern forms. This analysis differentiates at least three aspects of these
conflicts: (1) spatial aspects, e.g., questions of town planning, but also the
relevance of the built environment for personal and collective identity, (2)
interethnic and intercultural aspects, e.g., the relation between the establishment
and outsiders, and (3) interreligious aspects, e.g., the mutual conceptualizations
of Islam and Christianity or relations between Islamic organizations and a
“secular” state. It also considers how these conflicts escalated through the
interaction of both structural and accidental factors, in particular: anti-Islamic
discourses, social polarizations, and an accumulated potential for interethnic
conflict in residential areas with a high number of migrants.
APA:
Schmitt, T. (2012). Mosque Debates as Space-related, Intercultural, and Religious Conflicts,. In Barbara Becker-Cantarino (Eds.), Migration, Religion, and Germany. (pp. 207-217). Amsterdam: Rodopoi.
MLA:
Schmitt, Thomas. "Mosque Debates as Space-related, Intercultural, and Religious Conflicts,." Migration, Religion, and Germany. Ed. Barbara Becker-Cantarino, Amsterdam: Rodopoi, 2012. 207-217.
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