One mosque and the negotiation of German Islam

In the last half century (pious) Muslims and their communities have become integral parts of German cities. They are creative cultural producers and religiously inspired urban citizens. Mosques are central nodes in urban Muslim religious and cultural geographies where believers negotiate pious ident...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kuppinger, Petra Elsa 1954- (Author)
Format: Electronic/Print Article
Language:English
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Published: Taylor & Francis [2014]
In: Culture and religion
Year: 2014, Volume: 15, Issue: 3, Pages: 313-333
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Germany / Islam / Piety / Urbanity
B Stuttgart / Mosque / Religious geography
RelBib Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
AF Geography of religion
BJ Islam
KBB German language area
Online Access: Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:In the last half century (pious) Muslims and their communities have become integral parts of German cities. They are creative cultural producers and religiously inspired urban citizens. Mosques are central nodes in urban Muslim religious and cultural geographies where believers negotiate pious identities and lifeworlds, configure pious public personae and modes of civic participation. In this paper I introduce the Al-Nour Mosque as a unique node in the religious and cultural geography of the southern German state capital of Stuttgart. I examine this mosque as an urban space where individual and communal religiosities and religious cultures are discussed, formulated, tested and practised. My central question is how urban culture and religion are negotiated in the context of a mosque community. I argue that urban culture and religion are negotiated not only in mainstream public spaces or established churches but also in invisible places like mosques. Based on several years of ethnographic fieldwork in Stuttgart, I analyse the creative role of the Al-Nour Mosque in the construction of religious subjectivities, negotiations of urban religiosities and religiously inspired urban cultures. Analysing exemplary events, activities, cultural and religious negotiations in the Al-Nour Mosque, I demonstrate that places like the Al-Nour Mosque are dynamic elements of the urban religious and cultural geography.
ISSN:1475-5610
Contains:Enthalten in: Culture and religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/14755610.2014.949054