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CONSTRUCTING AN ISLAMIC ENVIRONMENT IN NORTHERN IRELAND

5BUILT ENVIRONMENT VOL 30 NO 1

Northern Ireland is an environment marked by on-going religious and socio-politicaltensions and struggles between the Catholicand Protestant communities, culminatingin more than 30 years of terrorism. These

events have marked Northern Ireland as anunusual Christian place, a context hardlyconducive to the establishment of an Islamicenvironment for the officially estimated 2000Muslims (Census 2001) living in NorthernIreland (Marranci, 2003). This paper discussesthe way Muslims organize their religiouslives within the various expressions of sect-arianism, and the different circumstances inwhich the Catholic versus Protestant oppo-sition affects peoples actions and behaviour.The information presented in this paper is

based on the authors two years of fieldworkand ethnographic study of the Muslimpresence in Northern Ireland.

Despite the 1998 Good Friday Agreement,the peace process has appeared to be moredifficult than expected (Hennessey, 2000).Today, Northern Irish society goes far be-yond political conflicts, in effect, sectarianismhas become part of everyday life (Bell, 1990).Indeed, even a large number of non-sectarianpeople in Northern Ireland still divide

society along these lines, creating bordersthat are not easily transgressed, even foremployment and livelihood purposes (seefigure 1). One of the primary functions ofNorthern Irish sectarianism is to maintain

the neighbourhoods religious homogeneityas much as possible (Murtagh, 2002). Forinstance, during the peace process, peopleliving near the interfaces between the twocommunities have increasingly asked theircouncillors for the construction of newpartition walls the so-called peace walls.To understand this political oxymoron,peace walls need to be thought of as amark of territorial division that is difficultto challenge, or even change. Therefore, inNorthern Ireland space is never neutral; spaceis categorized, symbolized, and defined.In other words, interpreted. Subsequently,religious space becomes highly controversial.A Protestant or a Catholic church is not only aplace of worship, but also becomes a politicalsymbol.

Migration, diaspora, and displacementhave had a strong impact on Muslims, whofor different reasons have had to leave theirhomes for example to flee dictatorships ordue to economic hardships. In host countries,

Constructing an IslamicEnvironment in Northern Ireland

GABRIELE MARRANCI

This paper describes the difficulties that Muslims in Northern Ireland have experiencedin establishing an Islamic environment. Northern Ireland has a long tradition of religious

and political conflicts between its Catholic and Protestant communities. The nature ofthese political events in the region, and the history of the local Muslim community,

have had implications on the establishment of Islamic spaces and the ways inwhich Muslims organize their religious lives. However, at the risk of

endangering relationships with the Protestant community,Muslims still feel the need to build a formal mosque.


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ETHNIC RECONFIGURATIONS IN THE WEST: HYBRID ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM

6 BUILT ENVIRONMENT VOL 30 NO 1

they are often unable to reconstruct thenetworks of relatives and friends that theyhad formed in their homelands, which areparticularly important to the social livesof women. Furthermore, the experience ofunemployment, racism, discrimination, andrecently Islamophobia, has affected theirconfidence in a liberal Europe (see Al-Sayyad and Castells, 2001; Haddad, 2002).Muslims in Northern Ireland not only have toface these problems, but also have to adapt tothe peculiar socio-political environment thatI have summarized above.

In this environment, religious identity becomes an essential part of the lives ofMuslim immigrants. Frequent visits to thelocal mosques and, above all, participation inthe Friday congregational prayers (salat al-jummah), are often the only occasions onwhich Muslims are able to meet otherMuslims in the region. Within the Northern

Irish mosques and prayer rooms, Muslimshave to accept the co-existence of differentIslamic traditions. This requires them toreconstruct their concept of ummah (globalMuslim community of believers) from anIslamic viewpoint, rather than a national orethnic one. Hence, many of these Muslimshave re-discovered the practical side of theummah through the hardship and displace-ment that the act of migration involves.

The Muslim Community ofNorthern Ireland

The absence of previous studies on Muslimsin Northern Ireland (seen as an ummahinstead of along national or ethnic affiliation)has made it difficult to determine the historyof this small Islamic community insertedinto this troubled territory. Until the twoterrorist attacks of September 11, the local

Figure 1. Map of Belfast highlighting the Catholic versus Protestant areas.


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press did not show interest in the presenceof this community. Due to this lack ofinformation, it was assumed that Muslimsliving in Northern Ireland were part of arecent migration. They are not. They are awell-established community with a history,although only few people in NorthernIreland know it. It is a history withoutarchives and documents and, as many otherhistories of religious minorities, deals withmyth. Thus, my research has been based onintensive interviews with members of thecommunity, and in particular members of the

Belfast Islamic Centre, through which it waspossible to understand how Muslims reachedNorthern Ireland and how, at a certain pointin time, they re-discovered their membershipof the ummah.

It is difficult to estimate accurately howlarge the Muslim community in NorthernIreland is. According to the president of theBelfast mosque and Islamic cultural centre,the number of Muslims in Northern Irelandmight have reached 4000 members (2000of whom are registered with the mosque).

In fact, at the beginning of my research inNorthern Ireland, the Northern Irish Statisticsand Research Agency acknowledged thatonly 997 Muslims were living in NorthernIreland a figure based on the Agencysestimates as the 1991 Census did not includea question directly related to religion. The2001 Census, in which a specific questionconcerning religious affiliations was proposedfor the first time (but was not compulsory),has shown that Muslims in Northern Irelandnumber 1943; consequently, they are thelargest non-Christian religious communityin the region. Although Belfast is the areaof major concentration (727 according to thecensus), Muslims could be found in manyother Northern Irish cities and towns, suchas Castlereagh (159), Craigavon (149), NorthDown (132), Newtownabbey (103) Ballymena(67) and Derry (60).

Muslims arrived for the first time inIreland around 1780 as members of theEast India Company. At the beginning of

the nineteenth century, they settled in thecosmopolitan city of Cork. One of thesefirst Muslims married an Irish womanfrom Belfast and moved there. The Muslimpresence was increasing, when in 1920 theGovernment of Ireland Act establishedNorthern Ireland as a separate political unit.This caused deterioration in the relationship

between Dublin and London when, in the1930s, Valeras Fianna Fil (FF) governmentstarted a trade war. Many Muslims becamevery concerned about the political situation inthe region and decided to move to England,

where they had relatives or friends. However,in Ballymena, some Indians had developed

businesses and decided to stay. Indeed,these first Muslim immigrants did not tryto organize an ummah by building mosquesor setting up prayer rooms. For a long timethey saw their migration to Northern Irelandas temporary because their goal was to move

back to England. For this reason, manyMuslims kept strong linkages with familymembers living in English cities. However,these contacts actually stimulated further

immigrations instead of a return because ofthe opportunity Northern Irelands economygave them. This process is still active withinthe growing Bangladeshi community inNorthern Ireland.

During the 1950s, Muslims coming from theMiddle East joined the Indians and Pakistanis,who were predominant at that time. In themajority of cases, these Arabs were studentswho were studying at Queens University,Belfast. When they arrived, they did not haveany idea of the tensions that were growingin Northern Ireland. In 1953, Muslims fromseveral different countries, prayed togetherin a private flat to celebrate the id-al-fitr(the end of Ramadan). Id-al-fitr is not only areligious rite marking the end of Ramadanand hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca), it is whenMuslims hope for Allahs forgiveness, it is asymbol of unity, and finally it is an emotionalexperience. For Muslims in Northern Irelandat that time, it was particularly an emotionalexperience. In fact, according to those people


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who took part in the ceremony, this was thefirst time that Muslims in Northern Irelandhad prayed communally to celebrate anIslamic festival.This event should be linkedto the political and sectarian tensions whichwere rising within the region. The tensionsresulted in the so-called Irish RepublicanArmy (IRA) border campaign and, a fewyears later, in violent terrorist activities

between the paramilitary factions. It isinteresting to note that Muslims in NorthernIreland, for the first time, felt the need for acommunity to provide them with a special

and different status from that of NorthernIrish Roman Catholics and Protestants.Yetthis re-discovery of unity what I could callthe emotion of the ummah started the needfor an Islamic place in Northern Ireland.

By the 1960s, the weekly Friday congre-gational prayers (salat al-jummah) and sermonwere being performed in the same privateflat. Since the members of the congregationwere increasing considerably, in 1972 they setup the Islamic Society of Northern Ireland(ISNI), which, among other activities, collect-

ed funds to build a mosque. In anticipation ofthe mosque, the members of ISNI had to holdtheir meetings in the building of QueensUniversity Students Union. Finally, in 1979they bought a flat in South Belfast and turnedit into a mosque and Islamic Centre.

The people attending the Friday jummahcongregation increased to such a level thatthe prayer room in the flat was unable toaccommodate the worshippers. The needfor a new place was evident. In 1985, withthe funds collected and a donation fromDublin Islamic Centre, Muslims bought asemi-detached house at Wellington Park,close to the flat, which became, and stillis, the home of the Belfast Islamic Centre(BIC). The only sign that distinguishes thishouse from the others around it is the green-white insignia reading The Belfast Islamiccentre, written in English and Arabic. Forthe Muslims, the Islamic Cultural Centreand its mosque have become the symbolof the unity of the Northern Irish ummah.

Whether Shia or Sunni, Arab and Pakistani,Indonesian and Malaysian, Moroccan andAlgerian, Indian and Afghan Muslimsare sharing the same mosque and social-political community space. Wishing to avoid

becoming embodied in the Nationalist-Loyalist dispute, the Muslim community inNorthern Ireland seek to cancel their ethnicidentities by speaking English rather thentheir national languages or dialects. Thus,English becomes their symbol of integrationinto a wider community, while at the sametime minimizing the risk of being stereotyped

(Marranci, 2003). Hence, Muslims in NorthernIreland show some important differences incomparison to other, better-studied, Muslimcommunities in Britain and Europe (see forinstance Werbner, 2002; Nonneman et al.,1997; Lewis, 1994; Nielsen, 1992).

The Northern Irish peace process hasfacilitated a political interest in the presenceof local ethnic minorities. The Muslims are nolonger a hidden and underground part ofsociety, but part of Northern Irish every-daylife. Muslims have participated in multi-faith

organizations and opened the door of theirmosque to schools, authorities, as well as to

journalists. To involve ethnic minorities in theconstruction of a new Northern Ireland, theOffice of the First Minister and Deputy FirstMinister (OFNDFM) offered grants to ethnicminority associations and charities. TheBIC used the funds to advertise two posts:a Secretary and a Director for the centre.Relations with the wider Northern Irishsociety had been for a long time constantlyimproving and developing. However, ina stroke, September 11 caused the Muslimcommunity to feel vulnerable again.

Creating Islamic spaces in asectarian environment

Muslims living in Northern Ireland estab-lished the BIC because of their Islamic needs.However, paramilitary terrorist actions andthe socio-political divisions convinced theMuslim community to keep a low profile.


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As the white semi-detached house in whichthey organized the BIC is no different fromother anonymous semi-detached houses ofthe neighbourhood (see figure 2), they couldremove the green-white insignia reading TheBelfast Islamic Centre and easily conceal theIslamic function of the building. This hap-pened after September 11.

people using the mosque has forced themembers of BIC to remove the table and thechairs in the library in order to increase thefloor space for praying. In the small prayerroom used by women there are some Islamic

books, several copies of the Quran wrappedin coloured headscarves, a table and somechairs, which are moved to one side duringprayers. The corridor leads to the stairs. Onthe first floor, where the mens main prayerroom is located, there are three charity boxesused to raise money for community welfarefunctions such as the Islamic school (religious

classes run for children), zakat (obligatoryalms-giving), and for building the proposednew mosque.

The main prayer room can accommodateabout one hundred worshippers. From theposition of the three doors opening ontothe landing, it is possible to understandhow the original three small bedrooms weretransformed into the pray room by removingthe partition walls. The wallpaper of the mainroom is the same pale-blue colour as thecarpet. The room lacks Islamic decorations;

only a big photo of Mecca (the holiest city inIslam) in a white frame hangs from the wallopposite the mihrab (the niche indicating thedirection of prayer). This is another visiblemodification to the building, and indeed, itis the most Islamically marked. However, it isa simple white niche without any calligraphyor Islamic decoration; and there is no minbar(a raised platform from which the sermonis given), which is common in the majorityof central mosques in Europe. Oppositethe prayer room door hangs a timetableindicating the five times for prayer, showingfive little cartoon clocks whose hands pointto the correct prayer schedule. The names ofthe prayers are in Arabic; yet it is the onlyArabic present in the room. Another kitchenis located on the second floor, connected witha secondary prayer room. There are also three

bedrooms for guests visiting the BIC. Theloudspeakers in the rooms and in the corridorpermit the congregation to follow the prayersand sermon throughout the premises.

Figure 2.The Belfast Islamic Centre and mosque.

Internally, the BIC has undergone functionaland spatial transformations. The rooms ofthe house have taken on new functions andmeanings. On entering the BIC, the visitorfinds a corridor divided in two parts bythe different colours of the carpet. The greycarpet in contrast to the pale-blue carpetmarks the limit in which people can remainwith their shoes on. As a mark of respect onentering the sacral space, people leave theirshoes on two ranks on the right and left ofthe entrance; many women take their shoeswith them to the womens prayer room. Onthe ground floor there are four rooms: oneis occupied by the BIC Presidents office, theother is used as library, and at the end of thecorridor are located the womens prayer hall,as well as the womens and mens toilets. Akitchen is accessible from the Presidentsoffice, and intercommunicates with thearea in which Muslims perform wudu(ritualablutions), a compulsory religious practiceprior to prayer. The increasing number of


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In the main prayer room, worshipperspray facing directly the mihrab formingperpendicular lines. However, because ofthe different orientation of the other roomsand the fact that some have to pray on thestairs, the observer has the impression thatpeople are praying facing different directions.This illusion of poly-directional mihrab issomething that some Muslims in NorthernIreland dislike. Ahmad, a twenty-nine year-old Algerian Muslim emphasized:

It gives the impression that we are praying indifferent directions. I know that this is not the case.Yet if we could have a proper mosque, we may feelmore united. I think that this is one of the mostimportant things of our prayer: to stay shoulder toshoulder, to move together facing the mihrab.

However, what surprised me was theabsence of Islamic symbols and decorations,as well as a minbar (although simple) and adecorated mihrab, contrary to the importanceof these features and symbols in diasporicMuslim places of worship (Metcalf, 1996).The almost total absence of these symbolsrequires a closer examination, particularly

because, as will be shown, members of theMuslim community have a strong propensityto decorate the interior of their houses withIslamic memorabilia and elaborate Arabiccalligraphic verses from the Quran.

Northern Ireland and ItsSymbol-phagy Attitude

In order to understand the reason for theabsence of religious symbolism in theBIC mosque it was important to question

the mosque committee, as well as placethese actions within the larger NorthernIrish context. According to one Pakistaniworshipper:

Islam does not need walls, Islam does not needdecorations, and Islam does not need minarets.Islam needs your heart; you build your mosquethrough your salat [the Muslim prayer].

This spiritual interpretation of the spatial,rather than formal, definition of a mosque

is a commonly held view amongst Muslims(see, for instance, Qureshi, 1996). However,this interpretation did not explain why theMuslim community had made a consciousdecision not to display Islamic symbols onthe BICs interior or exterior. It is interestingto compare the BIC with the proposedmosque that Muslims living in NorthernIreland have envisioned as their ideal placeof worship (see figure 3). From the beginningof the organization of the Northern IrishMuslim ummah, the ideal mosque was to bemodelled according to stereotypical Middle

East mosque styles, a trend similar to thosediscussed by Haider (1996) and Khalidi (2000)in North America. So, what has stopped themfrom building their imagined mosque?Initially, it was assumed that financialobstacles may have been the cause. However,during my fieldwork it was found that aninstitution based in Saudi Arabia and the

Figure 3.Drawings of the proposed purpose-builtBelfast mosque.


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Dublin Islamic Centre could have providedthe necessary funds. Hence, something morecomplex is underpinning the slow realizationof these plans, a factor which may have alsohad the effect of leaving the BICs faade androoms Islamically bare.

It is arguable that the answer lies in what Irefer to as symbol-phagy; a term constructedfrom the two ancient Greek words, symboland phagos (meaning to absorb) (Marranci,2003). Symbol-phagy is a characteristicof Northern Irish society; the tendency totransform any event, object, or cultural item

to a symbol suitable for the Northern Irishconflict. Symbols are important, emotion-provoking, multi-meaning, and (sometimes)dangerous since sectarianism is mainly basedon stereotypes that help people to createreal imagined borders. In Northern Ireland,stereotypes are communicated throughsymbols (Buckley, 1998) which become realrepresentations of the other i.e., Protestantor Catholic groups. Any ethnic characteristic,symbol, famous personage, flag, conflict, orlanguage, may be transformed into a sign of

the hard confrontation between these twomain Northern Irish communities.Accordingto Buckley (1998, p. 2), symbolism inNorthern Ireland is often a serious businesssome [symbols] have been the occasion forself-sacrifice or murder. He demonstrateshow an exhibition held in 1994 entitledSymbols presented religious symbols andsectarian banners that had important rolesin the Troubles and which contained otherkinds of symbols whose political impact andlocal significance was less obvious to non-local visitors, but not less powerful for theNorthern Irish people (Buckley, 1998, p. 1).The reason according to Buckley (1998, p. 3)is that:

the symbolic picture, the symbolic wall, thesymbolic ship, the symbolic ring gain theirmeanings through having been set aside.Symbolic objects have been bracketed off from ordinaryobjects.[emphasis added]

This process of selection, isolation, andmodification of symbols characterizes

Northern Ireland as a place in which it isdifficult to move within symbolic spaces.One striking example of the ability of theNorthern Irish communities to absorbsymbols was expressed a few days after aPalestinian suicide bomber had killed severalyoung people in Israel in July 2002. Normally,the main Protestant areas attach British andLoyalist flags to the street lamps. However, onthis particular occasion the Loyalists duringthe night had replaced the British flags withthe Israeli flags. On querying Loyalist actionsand the widespread replacement of flags in

all the Protestant areas, I was told:

You know that Palestinian suicide bombers arekilling people in Israel. Palestinians are terroristsas much Nationalists and the IRA. We are resistingterrorism as the people of Israel are doing. Thehistory of Israel is our history; their problemsare our problems; thus, the Israeli flag is our flagnow.

Loyalists show no allegiance to Israel orJudaism since many of them have anti-Semiticfeelings. Notwithstanding, the Israeli flaghas become a useful symbol in their political

discourse. Nearby, in one of the Catholicneighbourhoods, Nationalists had similarlyadorned their streets with new flags; of course,the Palestinian flag. Nationalists wantedto emphasize that the Palestinian resistanceagainst Israeli occupation symbolized thestruggle against the British occupation ofNorthern Ireland (see figure 4). For manymembers of the Muslim community, theseactions raise concerns, particularly in the caseof the proposed new mosque project.

Today, the BIC cannot spatially accom-modate the Muslim community within theconfines of the semi-detached house. At itsfullest capacity, the BIC can accommodateup to three hundred worshippers, althoughthe structure of the building has not beendesigned for such numbers. Thus, duringthe two major Islamic festivals; id-al-fitr (theend of Ramadan) and id-al-adha (the feast ofIsaacs sacrifice), the BIC hires a gymnasiumat one of the two sports facilities in Belfast.Approximately seven hundred Muslims


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attend these events each year. As a space, thegymnasium is sufficiently large, however, asan environment for prayer, the hard, coldfloor is not conducive to prostration and

bare feet and so causes discomfort amongstworshippers (see figure 5). The poor sound-proofing also creates echoes of children,women and mens voices resulting in noise-

levels which, despite the loud-speakers,drown the sermon making it hardly audible.Moreover, in order to perform wudu(ritualablutions), Muslims have to share the gym-nasium showers with other users whosenudity (even of the same gender) is offensiveas it contrary to Islamic principles. Thus, theconstruction of a new mosque has become anecessity. Although, it is arguable that for along period of time, the Muslims of NorthernIreland have found their Islamic environmentnot only in the BIC, which is seen mainly as apolitical symbol of the unity of the NorthernIrish Muslim ummah, but within the walls oftheir homes.

Religious Meanings in Domestic Space

Home has a strong symbolic reference(Desprs, 1991; Benjamin, 1995) in particularfor immigrants (Joy and Dholakia, 1992).Among the different functions that homecould have, the religious one is, for

instance, clearly present among the Jewishcommunities, where the home becomespart of the religious holy space and part ofworship (De Lange, 2000). As for Muslims,home has a gendered symbolic meaning,which is also reflected on to the religioussphere (El-Solh and Mabro, 1994). If for theMuslim men the mosque is the privileged

space for worshiping Allah, particularlyduring Friday jummah, home is consideredto be the realm of womens devotion. Untilrecently, many mosques in Europe did notadmit women for the Fridayjummah. Todaymany apply a more relaxed policy, althoughthe lack of space often becomes the excuse to

Figure 4. Mural in support ofthe Palestinian cause in FallsRoad, Belfast.

Figure 5. Muslims praying in the gymnasiumduring one of the Islamic festivals.


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keep women worshipping at home. However,as I could observe in Belfast, for manyMuslims their homes have become a family-religious space that men also increasinglyenjoy (Campo, 1991). This is particularlytrue when the mosque is far from home,or, as in Northern Ireland, the surroundingenvironment may facilitate a home-mosqueconversion.

During my research, I was fortunate tohave been invited to the home of one of theMuslim community members. His housewas located in a Loyalist part of Belfast. The

character of the area was recognizable by theunion-jacks that were attached to the lamp-posts; the kerbs were painted red, white and

blue; the police station had barred windowsand was marked with paint-bombs; a muralof Red Hand Commandos holding riflesdecorated the walls, and gangs of hoodedyouths wandered around. This was clearly anarea of tension and conflict. From the outsideof his detached house it was impossible to tellits Muslim ownership.

Once inside, I was greeted by my informant

and his family in the Muslim tradition. Onthe walls of the hallway leading to the livingroom were hung framed Arabic calligraphyworks. The living room had a soft grey carpet,cream wallpaper, a settee, two armchairs, anda bookcase with Arabic books and severaldifferent Arabic and English copies of theQuran. Opposite the settee was a fireplace,whose mantelpiece was adorned with threeornamental plates decorated with Arabicwords. On one of them was inscribed inelaborate Arabic script an important Islamicphrase: bismillah al-rahman al-rahm (In thename of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful).A tour of the rest of the house revealedobjects and memorabilia with a specificallyIslamic tenor. In the master-bedroom, copiesof the Quran were placed on the bed-sidetables and a small wall hanging representingthe Kaaba (the cube shaped building withinthe Great Mosque of Mecca).

The time for evening prayer (maghrib)arrived and the family prepared to pray

together in one of the rooms. Four sajjad (thedecorated rugs Muslims use for praying)were laid out next to each other on the floor.Before beginning prayers, the individualmembers of the family went to the bathroomto perform their wudu (ablutions). Theeldest son called the first adhan (the call forprayer). One of the Kaaba wall hangingsmarked the mihrab (direction of prayer). Onthe mantelpiece of the fireplace behind themwas a gilded reproduction of an open Quran.The head of the family stood at the front tolead the prayer. Two prayer lines were

created according to Islamic ritual; the malemembers aligned behind the leader and thefemales aligned behind them to preserve theirrespect in prayer. A second adhan was called,marking the start of the melodious recitationof the Quran. Islam was visibly and audiblypresent in the house in the symbols andverses of the Quran which acted to blessand protect the family space.

For 25 years this domestic space has been the family sanctuary from a societyperceived as dangerous and frightening. The

house I visited is characteristic of many otherNorthern Irish Muslim homes. There is aninteresting contrast between the Islamically

bare public space of the mosque and theIslamically-marked interior of private homes.Indeed, one explanation is the perceptionthat any display of Islamic symbols withinthe mosque could endanger the Muslimcommunity, whereas in the private context,the familys religious life is protected. Aperception confirmed by one informant whostated: this house is my family mosque. Thetension between public and private spacehas marked the lives of these Muslims. TheirIslam has been interiorized by creating aprocess of physical and meta-physical borders

between the a-symbolic Islamic public space,and the over-symbolic private domain.

Domestic space has provided an alternativeIslamic environment that corresponds tothe BIC. The importance of the BIC as thephysical representation of the local ummah(global Muslim community of believers)


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is recognized by the community. A youngMuslim Arab highlighted this point:

The BIC is very important for the life of thiscommunity. It is the centre of our ummah. But weneed something different, something more Islamic.I mean a real mosque with a minaret, and, whynot the adhan calls from two [external] speakers?

The members of this community want tomark Northern Ireland with a visible andaudible Islamic sign such as the new mosque.The reason is founded on their desire to makeIslam part of this land. Islam, emphasize themembers of the BIC, is a peaceful aspect ofNorthern Irish society, and the new mosqueshould represent this.

The New Mosque: Symbol-phagyingMuslim Space

The 1998 Good Friday agreement hadinjected the Northern Irish society withmany expectations and hopes for a betterlife. Muslims in the region shared theseexpectations and hopes and decided toresume the project of building a real

mosque. However, a series of local andinternational events have jeopardized theproject and endangered the Northern Irishummah.

In recent years, the peace process has become something different from whatpeople had hoped. Political and social ten-sions have challenged the dialogue betweenthe Nationalist and Unionist communi-ties. Consequently, paramilitary activismhas increased. Finally, in October 2002, theshared government between Nationalists and

Unionists collapsed, virtually signalling theend of the Good Friday Agreement. The localevents, however, were not the only ones wor-rying the Muslim community. The Palestinianal-Aqsa intifada, September 11, the Afghan warand the recent 2003 Gulf War have affectedtheir lives. For 30 years, the Muslim com-munity had succeeded in being absorbed intothe Northern Irish political-religious turmoil.After these events, however, the Nationalistand Unionist-Loyalist communities started to

symbol-phagy Muslim symbols and Muslimspace.In March 2002, the Muslim community

realized that life in Northern Irelandmight change irremediably. On 27 Marchthe Ballymena Guardian ran the headline:DUP. Muslim Snub Row. The articleexplained how the Democratic UnionistParty (DUP) councillor had refused a giftfrom the Muslim community; a brass replicarepresenting the Islamic designs and Arabictexts inscribed on the doors of the Kaaba.The gift, according to the DUP councillor,

showed incomprehensible symbols (inArabic). Then, he rhetorically asked, If aparamilitary group came to us with a gift orrequest for an exhibition would we accept it?The following day the same DUP councillorasked a Belfast Telegraph journalist anotherof his rhetorical questions, If I walked intoBallymena Council with a barrel-load ofsashes or other articles associated with theOrange culture, would I be accepted? TheDUP councillor was comparing the sectariansymbols of Northern Ireland, such as sashes,

to the representation of the Kaaba door andits Arabic inscriptions.

However, the political impasse becameclearer when the gift was, at first,presented to a councillor from one of thetwo Nationalist parties, the SDLP (SocialDemocratic and Labour Party). The Muslimshad asked the SDLP councillor to present thegift to Ballymena Council. The gift, therefore,came from the Muslim community througha Nationalist member, which made it lessacceptable to the Protestant community.Thus, the Protestant community hasincreasingly come to see Muslims as alliesto the Catholics; in other words CatholicMuslims. This term is based on an old

joke initially addressed to Jewish people, but during the 1980s applied to Muslims:one person asked a Muslim man, Are youCatholic or Protestant?. When he answersMuslim, the other man asks him, Yes, butCatholic Muslim or Protestant Muslim?. On12 July 2002, a highly significant day for the


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Orange parades in Northern Ireland, a mobof young Loyalists had forced the PalestinianPresident of the BIC, to leave his home. ThePresident had lived there with his familyfor many years without any problems. Thiswas the first time a member of the Muslimcommunity had encountered the sufferingthat many in Northern Ireland had endured.

During the recentGulf War, the Protestant-Loyalist community seems to have foundmore evidence to support their allegationsthat Muslims are supporting the Nationalist-Catholic cause. Indeed, the campaign and

marches in support of Palestinian and Iraqipeople, in which the BIC took active partincluded, in the majority of cases, membersof Sinn Fein and Catholic organizations(see figure 6). Recently, a group of youths

belonging to a Loyalist paramilitary groupattacked another Muslim family in Craigavon.During a BBC Northern Ireland interview (10

July 2003) the mother said:

My son walked in and said: Mum, are we Prodor are we Catholic? I said, you are Muslim. Andhe said I know Im a Muslim, but am I a Prod or

am I Catholic?Muslims living in Craigavon have

attracted attention not exclusively becauseof this violent attack. Craigavon, in fact, isthe place where some members of the localcouncil have strongly opposed the newmosque, proposed to be built in Bleary,near Portadown. The official reasons for this

opposition were firstly, the place would beunsuitable, and secondly, the mosque wouldcreate extra traffic. But, other reasons are thatthe Protestant councillors have opposed theproject. One of them told me that the newmosque had the support of Sinn Fein andthat in this way, there is a belief that theCatholics are attempting to de-homogenizethe Protestant area by infiltrating it withMuslims.

The Protestant councillor argued that,although he did not like Islam because heconsidered it a violent religion, the Catholics

were using the Muslims by politicallysupporting the establishment of their mosqueand Islamic school. A solution, the councillorsuggested, would be to build the mosque in aCatholic area. Despite opposition, at the endof June 2003 the council granted planningpermission to build the new mosque onland owned by an old Pakistani man.Notwithstanding this decision, Protestantresidents are still showing their concerns andopposition on the basis that a mosque in theneighbourhood would bring Muslims to live

there, eventually changing the predominantlyProtestant demographic pattern of the area(see figure 7).

Figure 7. Leaflet showing Protestant oppositionto the new mosque.

Figure 6. The anti-Gulf War march organized inBelfast.


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In Northern Ireland, the minaret, the adhan,the dome, Arabic calligraphy, the mihrab, theminbar, are no longer the symbols of Islam.The Northern Irish conflict between the twomain Christian communities has symbol-phagied the Islamic meanings of these symbolsby bracketing off their spiritual values andtransforming them into markers of contestedNorthern Irish places. It has taken theMuslim community 30 years to establish themost important Islamic symbol in NorthernIreland, yet they still face a dangeroussituation. The imagined community have a

strong desire to manifest their local ummahphysically so that they can leave a markof their history on the urban landscape ofNorthern Ireland. One of the elders said:

I was still a student when we started to organizeour Islamic life here in Northern Ireland; now thecommunity is established. But we are still usingthe semi-detached house. We need a mosque,a clear symbol that can recall our history ofimmigrant Muslims that became Northern IrishMuslims.

Conclusion

In Islam, the masjid (mosque) is not only aplace of worship, but also a place of a distinctMuslim identity. The mosque symbolizes theunity of the ummah, the physical presence ofIslam, the time of prayers and an Islamic wayof life. Muslims use the mosque not only forpraying but also for celebrating events andtheir festivals. The ahadith (singular hadith,the tradition of the Prophet Muhammad)often stress the symbolic relevance of themasjid. The Prophet used to build a mosquewhenever he reached or visited a new place.The mosque becomes a mark of the presenceof Islam, in particular the minaret from whichthe adhan is called.

Muslims living in the West have to adapt toWestern time, which is not organized aroundthe five daily prayers, nor the importanceof Friday as the holy day. For Muslims,religious adaptation is the norm rather thanthe exception (Yazbeck, 2002). However, torespect their religion, they often have to seek

permission from non-Muslims; for instance,to extend their ordinary lunch-time in orderto attend the Friday jummah prayers or to

build their mosque.As in the case of other Muslims living in

the West, the Muslims of Northern Irelandhave faced local opposition and resistancewhen they decided to build their mosque.However, if in other contexts Islamophobiahas been blamed (see Conway, 1997), this isnot the case in Northern Ireland. An analysisof the socio-political and cultural dynamicsfrom which these oppositions started have

disclosed a process in which Northern Irishpeople have integrated Muslims withintheir sectarian divisions through what I havedefined as symbol-phagy.

Although in the future, the Muslimcommunity might decide that it is saferto suspend the mosque project, Islamicsymbols, and in particular the mosque, are

becoming religiously compulsory for them.These Muslims have a desire to justify theirpresence in Northern Ireland from an Islamicpoint of view. The effects of political turmoil

in the region has led Muslims to privatizethe symbolic discourse of Islam within theirhomes. The private domestic-mosque is anindication of the lack of Muslim politicalpower in the public sphere, making it difficultto establish Islam in Northern Ireland.The Northern Irish ummah has, therefore,decided to face the risk of being involved inthe political turmoil, and build their mosqueas a challenge to the success of their future inNorthern Ireland.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSIn this short space it is impossible to thank all thepeople who have contributed to this article. WhileI am grateful to all of them, I have to register myspecial gratitude to the Belfast Islamic Centreand its members. In particular I want to thankmy friends Jawad and Ali for the time we spenttogether and for their friendship. I am also verygrateful to Dr Noha Nasser, who invited me towrite this article, for her friendship, patience, andvaluable suggestions.

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