Do you want to stay informed about this journal? Click the buttons to subscribe to our alerts.
Conflicts in and around Space: Reflections on ‘Mosque Conflicts’
In: Journal of Muslims in EuropeAbstract
The 21st century has seen increasing attacks directed at Muslim places of worship, a social problem that has resulted in a whole array of investigations. This article suggests that the majority of this research on mosque conflicts fails to address the entrenched class dynamics and shifting geography of capitalist accumulation. Consequently, it complements this research by analysing the first mediatised conflict of its kind in Spain, the protest against the construction of a purpose-built mosque in Catalonia, Premià de Mar. The case demonstrates that the opposition was in fact a racist attack against Muslims answering to the economic interests of the local bourgeoisie. The ones acting it out, a section of the local working class, was convinced that this symbol of migrant presence would be a degrading feature that would jeopardise their recent social upward mobility. Hence it is fundamentally an expression of how racist logic is embedded in the spatial logic of capitalism in the 21st century.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Allen, C. 2010. Islamophobia. Farnham: Ashgate.
-
Allievi, S., ed. 2010. Mosques in Europe: Why a Solution Has Become a Problem. London: Alliance Publishing Trust.
-
Astor, A. 2012a. “Context and Conflict: Unpacking the Sources of Opposition to Mosques in Catalonia”, Revista Catalana de Sociologia 28: 45-59.
-
Astor, A. 2012b. “Memory, Community, and Opposition to Mosques: The Case of Badalona”, Theoretical Sociology 41: 325-349.
-
Azurmendi, M. 2001. Estampas de El Ejido. Madrid: Taurus.
-
Berman, M. 1983. All that is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity. London: Verso.
-
Bravo López, F. 2012. En casa ajena: Bases intelectuales del antisemistismo y la islamofobia. Barcelona: Edicions Bellaterra.
-
Brekke, T., L. Kühle, G. Larsson and T. Martikainen. 2019. “Mosques, Muslims, Methods: The Role of Mosques in Research about Muslims in Europe”, Journal of Muslims in Europe 8 (2): 216-233.
-
Castells, M. 1976. Movimientos sociales urbanos. Madrid: Siglo Veintiuno Editores.
-
Cesari, J. 2005. “Mosque Conflicts in European Cities: Introduction”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 31 (6): 1015-1024.
-
Champagne, P. 1999. “La médiatisation des risques et l’espace public”, in Actes de la 13e séance du séminaire du programme RCSC. Grenoble: CNRS.
-
DeHanas, D.N., and Z. Pieri. 2011. “Olympic Proportions: The Expanding Scalar Politics of the London ‘Olympics Mega-Mosque’ Controversy”, Sociology 45 (5): 798-814.
-
Douglas, M. 1966. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge.
-
Franquesa, J. 2007. “Emptying Out and Filling Up, or the Spatial Logic of Neoliberalization”, REIS—Revista Español de Investigaciones Sociológicas 118: 123-150.
-
de la Fuente, A. 2001. “Premià retira el local municipal prometido para la mezquita ante la presión vecinal”, La Vanguardia, 11 April.
-
Gabinet d’Estudis Socials, Centro de Referencia en España, Observatorio Europeo contra el Racismo y la Xenofobia (EUMC) 2002. Estudio del conflicto de la mezquita de Premiá de Mar. Barcelona.
-
Gale, R. 2005. “Representing the City: Mosques and the Planning Process in Birmingham”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 31 (6): 1161-1179.
-
de Galembert, C. 2005. “The City’s ‘Nod of Approval’ for the Mantes-la-Jolie Mosque Project: Mistaken Traces of Recognition”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 31 (6): 1141-1159.
-
Haider, A. 2018. Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump. London: Verso.
-
Harvey, D. 2001. “The Geopolitics of Capitalism”, in Spaces of Capital. Towards a Critical Geography, edited by D. Gregory and J. Urry. London: Macmillan, 128-163.
-
Jacobsen, B.A., K. Sinclair, N.V. Vinding and P.F. Jensen. 2019. “Introduction: Operationalizing Power in the Study of Mosques”, Journal of Muslims in Europe 8 (special issue: Theoretical and Methodological Strategies in the Study of Mosques in Europe): 123-137.
-
Jesus Cañizares, M. 2002. “Historia de una mezquita”, ABC, 26 May.
-
Jonker, G. 2005. “The Mevlana Mosque in Berlin-Kreuzberg: An Unsolved Conflict”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 31 (6): 1067-1081.
-
Kumar, D. 2012. Islamophobia: The Cultural Logic of Empire. New York: Haymarket.
-
Landman, N., and W. Wessels. 2005. “The Visibility of Mosques in Dutch Towns”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 31 (6): 1125-1140.
-
Lean, N. 2012. The Islamophobia Industry. How the Right Manufactures Hatred of Muslims. London: Verso.
-
Lefebvre, H. 1991. The Production of Space. Cornwall: Wiley Blackwell.
-
López Bargados, A. 2009. “Narrativas del miedo: Sobre la construcción de la amenaza islamista en Barcelona”, in Rastros de Dixan: Islamofobia y construcción del enemigo en la era post 11-S, edited by A. Prado, A. Martínez, A. López Bargados, B. Salellas Vilar, D. Fernández and I Rivera Beiras. Barcelona: Virus Editorial, 111-140.
-
Lundsteen, M. 2018. “El Moro—Discovering the Hidden Coloniality of Contemporary Spanish/Catalan Society and its Subjects”, in Postcolonial Europe: Comparative Reflections after the Empires, edited by L. Jensen, J. Suárez-Krabbe, C. Groes and Z. Lee Pecic. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 197-219.
-
Lundsteen M. 2015. Espai, capital i cultura a Premià de Mar. El cas de la mesquita. Barcelona: Pol·len Edicions.
-
Lundsteen, M. 2010. Espacio, capital y cultura en Premià de Mar. Esbozos hacia una lectura alternativa del conflicto sobre la mezquita. MA diss. Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Barcelona: http://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/handle/2445/18368.
-
Mamdani, M. 2004. Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror. New York: Double Day, Three Leaves Press.
-
Manço, U. and M. Kanmaz, 2005. “From Conflict to Co-operation Between Muslims and Local Authorities in a Brussels Borough: Schaerbeek”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 31 (6): 1105-1123.
-
Martín Corrales, E. 2002. La imagen del magrebí en España: Una perspectiva histórica, siglos XVI-XX. Barcelona: Bellaterra.
-
Mateo Dieste, J.L. 1997. El “moro” entre los primitivos: El caso del protectorado español en Marruecos. Barcelona: Fundación La Caixa.
-
McLoughlin, S. 2005. “Mosques and the Public Space: Conflict and Cooperation in Bradford”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 31 (6): 1045-1066.
-
Miles, R., and M. Brown. 2003. Racism. 2nd ed. London and New York: Routledge.
-
Moreras, J. 2010. “‘A mosque in our neighbourhood!’ Conflicts over mosques in Spain”, in Mosques in Europe. Why a Solution Has Become a Problem, edited by S. Allievi. London: Alliance Publishing Trust, 235-260.
-
Narotzky, S. 2005. “The Production of Knowledge and the Production of Hegemony: Anthropological Theory and Political Struggles in Spain”, Journal of the World Anthropology Network 1: 35-54.
-
Müller-Uri, F., and B. Opratko. 2016. “Islamophobia as Anti-Muslim Racism: Racism without ‘Races’, Racism without Racists”, Islamophobia Studies Journal 4 (1): 117-129.
-
Palomera, J. 2014. “How Did Finance Capital Infiltrate the World of the Urban Poor? Homeownership and Social Fragmentation in a Spanish Neighborhood”, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 38 (1): 218-235. DOI:10.1111/1468-2427.12055.
-
Prado, A. 2009. “La islamofobia como ideología dominante”, in Rastros de Dixan: Islamofobia y construcción del enemigo en la era post 11-S, edited by A. Prado, A. Martínez, A. López Bargados, B. Salellas Vilar, D. Fernández and I Rivera Beiras. Barcelona: Virus Editorial, 37-64.
-
Saint-Blancat, C., and O. Schmidt di Friedberg. 2005. “Why Are Mosques a Problem? Local Politics and Fear of Islam in Northern Italy”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 31 (6): 1083-1104.
-
Santamaría, E. 2002. La incógnita del extraño: Una aproximación a la significación sociológica de la “inmigración no comunitaria”. Barcelona: Anthropos.
-
Semati, M. 2010. “Islamophobia, Culture and Race in the Age of Empire”, Cultural Studies 24 (2): 256-275.
-
Smith, N. 1993. “Homeless/global: Scaling places”, in Mapping the futures. Local cultures, global change, edited by J. Bird, B. Curtis, T. Putnam and L. Tickner. London: Routledge, Chapt. 6.
-
SOS Racismo. 2002. Informe anual. Retrieved from https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3D3H-B1pez2clZwdmhSSUZGaWc/view.
-
Tarramera, I. 2001. “Els musulmans de Premià de Mar traslladen la mesquita en un local del barri Cotet”, El Punt, 1 April.
-
UCIDE. 2019. Observatorio Andalusí: Estudio demográfico de la población musulmana en España. Unión de Comunidades Islámicas de España. Retrieved from http://ucide.org/sites/default/files/revistas/034_estademograf18.pdf.
-
Zapata-Barrero, R. and N. de Witte. 2011. “Muslims in Spain: Blurring past and present Moors”, in Muslims in 21st Century Europe Structural and Cultural Perspectives, edited by A. Triandafyllidou. London: Routledge, 181-198.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 488 | 92 | 4 |
| Full Text Views | 35 | 12 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 70 | 28 | 0 |
Conflicts in and around Space: Reflections on ‘Mosque Conflicts’
In: Journal of Muslims in EuropeAbstract
The 21st century has seen increasing attacks directed at Muslim places of worship, a social problem that has resulted in a whole array of investigations. This article suggests that the majority of this research on mosque conflicts fails to address the entrenched class dynamics and shifting geography of capitalist accumulation. Consequently, it complements this research by analysing the first mediatised conflict of its kind in Spain, the protest against the construction of a purpose-built mosque in Catalonia, Premià de Mar. The case demonstrates that the opposition was in fact a racist attack against Muslims answering to the economic interests of the local bourgeoisie. The ones acting it out, a section of the local working class, was convinced that this symbol of migrant presence would be a degrading feature that would jeopardise their recent social upward mobility. Hence it is fundamentally an expression of how racist logic is embedded in the spatial logic of capitalism in the 21st century.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 488 | 92 | 4 |
| Full Text Views | 35 | 12 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 70 | 28 | 0 |