Sites of Islam in London and Berlin: The Civic Space of the Mosque

My paper analyzes two of Europe’s largest capital city mosques as civic spaces: places of collective engagement that influence surrounding social and political structures. It is based on thirty months of ethnographic research, as well as sixty semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders (mosque leadership, police officers, neighborhood activists and political representatives) at the East London Mosque and the Sehitlik Mosque, Berlin. I argue that the divergent sociopolitical trajectories of these two mosques emerge from ongoing contention with deep marginalization through intersecting spaces—from the mosque buildings, themselves, to the surrounding urban environments, national boundaries and transnational influences that cross borders.

From sermons to Qurʾānic recitation lessons, women’s learning circles to visitors’ tours, de-radicalization workshops to whatsapp support groups, the mosque emerges as critical site of negotiating a collective stance alternatively aimed at fostering, or undermining, incorporation. Over my period of research, the Sehitlik mosque comes to privilege the local environment, whereas the East London Mosque privileges a global community. At Sehitlik, adherents center on building social and cultural bridges to Berlin, whether cooperating with the Jewish community or hosting de-radicalization training workshops. The East London Mosque instead fosters increased distance from the mainstream, dividing the world along a halāl (allowed)/ḥarām (forbidden) boundary and fostering loyalties to a global umma.

In both cases, understanding the lifeworlds of European mosques as civic spaces counters far-reaching assumptions about Islam, in general, and Islamic revivalism in Europe, in particular: revealing powerful strategies of contention, emancipation, re-assertion of authority and ongoing civic engagement.