One mosque and the negotiation of German Islam

Abstract

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.

Keywords::

• Islam
• Germany
• Stuttgart
• mosques
• identities
• urban religion
• cultural production

Notes

^1. All personal and place names are pseudonyms.

^2. I have conducted ethnographic research in the Al-Nour Mosque and other mosques in Stuttgart since 2006. At the Al-Nour Mosque I regularly participated in the women's Qur'an study group from November 2006 to December 2007 and from August 2010 to July 2011. I return and attend meetings and events every summer and briefly during the winter break. As an ‘honorary’ member of this group, I am invited to attend other events (lectures, holiday celebration or social activities at the mosque). This presence gives me exposures to people and situations beyond the women's group. I have interviewed male individuals like the Imam in the mosque. Interviews with female community members were mostly conducted in their or my home.

^3. Most German mosques operate under the umbrella of national associations which represent specific ethnic, religious and political contexts.

^4. One observer speaks about the ‘scandalous oppression of women’ (Wellershoff 2007), another notes ‘outdated religious educations’ (Cziesche et al. 2003).

^5. For an analysis of the (mis-)representation of Islam and Muslims in the German media, see Schiffer (2005). On public discourses, see Shooman and Spielhaus (2010).

^6. The community moved into the first floor suite in the late 1980s. The other suites were rented/bought over time.

^7. Founded in 1958 by Arab exiles including Said Ramadan (the son-in-law of Hassan Al-Banna), the IGD is among the oldest Muslim associations in Germany. With only 20–30 communities in Germany it is one of the smaller ones.

^8. It is hard to estimate how many are German citizens. Anecdotal evidence suggests that numbers are growing.

^9. I published a shorter account of this event in German (Kuppinger 2010b).