GIOVEDÌ/ THURSDAY 11.09
16.00 –19.00
Teatro Piccolo Arsenale
Pecha Kucha Night
Pecha Kucha: dal Giapponese, “chiacchiera”, conversazione. Ben più di una semplice presentazione di diapositive, cresce grazie alle nuove connessioni umane che questo evento crea. Pecha Kucha può far nascere discussioni e relazioni.
Pecha Kucha means “chit-chat” in Japanese, so that means talk. But more than a slideshow, it thrives on new human connections created during each event. Pecha Kucha can start discussions and relationships.
http://www.labiennale.org/62/80131.pdf
MESTRE + WORKSHOP TEAM
Gentili studenti,
In continuazione con il workshop appena concluso; Venezia inaugura la sua prima moschea, stiamo organizzando una mostra a Mestre, di cui ha già postato Wael Farhat un annuncio sul Blog questa mostra riguarda il risultato finale raggiunto da ciascun gruppo, chi ha l'intenzione di partecipare è pregato di mandarmi i file del lavoro finale via e-mail; ibrahim.mansi@gmail.com .
Ibrahim Mansi
In continuazione con il workshop appena concluso; Venezia inaugura la sua prima moschea, stiamo organizzando una mostra a Mestre, di cui ha già postato Wael Farhat un annuncio sul Blog questa mostra riguarda il risultato finale raggiunto da ciascun gruppo, chi ha l'intenzione di partecipare è pregato di mandarmi i file del lavoro finale via e-mail; ibrahim.mansi@gmail.com .
Ibrahim Mansi
GROUPS FINAL PRESENTATION
GROUP 2 's work
GROUP'S 6 WORK
Group ni9ht final presentation (italian version, i'll upload the english one by request), enjoy
EXHIBITION IN MESTRE - WAEL FARHAT
dear students,
we are still in contact with Wael Farhat and are thinking to go further on the topic of the workshop, with him and with you.
we want to create a team of students in Venice who has interest in this aventure.
please send us a mail if you are interested
felix@internationaldesign.nl
arman@internationaldesign.nl
workshop08ind@gmail.com
here you'll find Wael Farhat brief about what he is planning :
l'obiettivo della esposizione è far rivivere l'idea della moschea di venezia di nuovo e cercare di riattivarla nell'amministrazione pubblica e nella cittadinanza veneziana e riprendere il discorso che è stato interrotto nel 2000 prima dell'11 settembre
vorremo inoltre convolgere gli studenti dello IUAV, nel nuovo centro sperimentale del dialogo visto che gli studenti dell'università di Ca' Foscari l'abbiamo convolti in 3 eventi uno già concluso in gennaio e gli altri 2 saranno per il 18 settembre e il 6 ottobre 2008
l'esposizione vorremo presentarla in due spazi uno a mestre e il secondo a marghera, e vorremo aprirli al pubblico con una presentazione ai rappresentanti istituzionali di Venezia, Provincia e Regione del Veneto, i quali dovrebbero essere i nostri partner nel seguire lo sviluppo dell'idea (Moschea Gallegiante)
Al-Masjed Al-3a2em che per una giornata si ferma davanti alla piazza di San Marco in occasione di Eid el-Adha
Wael Farhat
we are still in contact with Wael Farhat and are thinking to go further on the topic of the workshop, with him and with you.
we want to create a team of students in Venice who has interest in this aventure.
please send us a mail if you are interested
felix@internationaldesign.nl
arman@internationaldesign.nl
workshop08ind@gmail.com
here you'll find Wael Farhat brief about what he is planning :
l'obiettivo della esposizione è far rivivere l'idea della moschea di venezia di nuovo e cercare di riattivarla nell'amministrazione pubblica e nella cittadinanza veneziana e riprendere il discorso che è stato interrotto nel 2000 prima dell'11 settembre
vorremo inoltre convolgere gli studenti dello IUAV, nel nuovo centro sperimentale del dialogo visto che gli studenti dell'università di Ca' Foscari l'abbiamo convolti in 3 eventi uno già concluso in gennaio e gli altri 2 saranno per il 18 settembre e il 6 ottobre 2008
l'esposizione vorremo presentarla in due spazi uno a mestre e il secondo a marghera, e vorremo aprirli al pubblico con una presentazione ai rappresentanti istituzionali di Venezia, Provincia e Regione del Veneto, i quali dovrebbero essere i nostri partner nel seguire lo sviluppo dell'idea (Moschea Gallegiante)
Al-Masjed Al-3a2em che per una giornata si ferma davanti alla piazza di San Marco in occasione di Eid el-Adha
Wael Farhat
MOSQUES IN THE ITALIAN NEWSPAPERS LAST DAYS
La Repubblica
CATACOMBE MUSULMANE A PONZANO
Islam in parrocchia: sottoterra
di Laura Canzian
Ponzano, musulmani nel seminterrato dell'oratorio
La notizia ha scatenato una nuova bufera. Il senatore leghista Piergiorgio Stiffoni spara a zero su don Aldo Danieli: «Ha disubbidito al vescovo, va rimosso». L’anziano sacerdote, intanto, precisa di non aver mai concesso i locali parrocchiali ai fedeli di Allah per incontri di preghiera. «Gli spazi servono per incontri e feste. Se poi stendono i tappeti e si inginocchiano, io di certo non vado a controllare». Il centrosinistra trevigiano si schiera con i musulmani, giudicando gravissima la necessità di doversi nascondere per pregare segretamente il proprio Dio. E la comunità islamica si difende: "Andiamo lì a pregare da quando i politici ci hanno impedito la preghiera del venerdì. Non abbiamo alternative", dice uno degli organizzatori delle riunioni "carbonare".
Un rito che si ripete ogni sera e che occupa non più di 3 minuti. "Questa situazione non può più andare avanti - continua il frequentatore delle "catacombe" -: sembra che siamo peggi odegli spacciatori". "Non ne so nulla", taglia invece corto Youssef Tadil, esponente di vertice della comunità islamica di Treviso. Per non rinfocolare ulteriori polemiche.
E' ormai un'odiessea senza fine la storia della "moschea che non c'è" in provincia di Treviso. Prima le riunioni nella canonica di Ponzano, poi i divieti del capoluogo, su ordine dell'ineffabile vicesindaco-sceriffo Giancarlo Gentilini, quindi una diaspora di settimane spostandosi di volta in volta in quei 4-5 Comuni che si erano messi a disposizione. Fino alla scelta estrema dei giovani islamici di Seconda generazione: pregare per strada. Con il Comune che mandava i vigili a far sloggiare per occupazione di spazi pubblici non autorizzata.
http://tribunatreviso.repubblica.it/dettaglio/Islam-in-parrocchia:-sottoterra/1487376?edizione=EdRegionale
La moschea di Milano: una questione di libertà civili e religiose
editoriale di Lidia Maggi, pastora battista e direttora della rivista "La scuola domenicale"
L’ennesimo attacco all’islam, manifestato con la volontà di chiudere la moschea di viale Jenner a Milano, rappresenta l’ultimo degli ormai numerosi episodi di violazione delle libertà civili e religiose.
Preoccupa il caso contingente: credenti che si vedono negare il diritto di riunirsi a pregare. E, più a monte, allarma il clima culturale che, di fatto, le scelte politiche veicolano. E’ in atto una vera e propria criminalizzazione di alcuni soggetti, gli ultimi in ordine cronologico i rom e i musulmani di Milano. Vi è una pericolosa sottovalutazione degli effetti a lungo termine di una politica miope, che getta benzina sul fuoco anziché spegnerlo, che cavalca e solletica le emozioni viscerali invece di orientarle per il bene comune e la convivenza pacifica.
Quello che sta avvenendo a Milano è anche causato da un vuoto legislativo che lascia pericolosamente in mano agli amministratori locali una materia così delicata. Infatti, anche l’ultima proposta di legge sulla libertà religiosa, che doveva rendere applicative le indicazioni contenute nella Costituzione Italiana, non ha avuto esito positivo per il veto di precisi schieramenti politici e per il giudizio negativo espresso dalla CEI.
Come protestanti siamo particolarmente sensibili al problema della libertà di culto, avendo sperimentato sulla nostra pelle gli effetti negativi di una politica discriminante. E ora che non siamo direttamente parte in causa e possiamo parlare senza il sospetto di rivendicare per noi dei privilegi, il riconoscimento di tale libertà ci appare rivelatrice di quale sia l’idea di democrazia, di società civile, di progetto di convivenza portata avanti.
La moschea di Milano non solleva solo un problema di ordine pubblico, di viabilità. Si sta mettendo in atto un’ingerenza da parte dello Stato del tutto inammissibile. Si pretende, infatti, di visionare preventivamente i testi dei sermoni nonché l’utilizzo della lingua italiana (si chiederà lo stesso anche alla comunità ebraica, a quei preti cattolici che celebrano in latino o alle molte comunità etniche delle diverse confessioni cristiane?).
Quanto alla sbandierata questione dell’ordine pubblico, che spinge Comune e Governo a varare provvedimenti urgenti, in realtà essa esiste da tempo ed è conseguenza di una politica locale che non ha voluto concedere i permessi per la costruzione di moschee, di spazi idonei in cui la preghiera e l’incontro dei credenti possano avvenire in condizioni accettabili. Il problema lo creerebbero anche i cristiani di qualsiasi confessione se non avessero spazi idonei per i loro incontri e fossero costretti a riunirsi nei garage. Risulta paradossale che le stesse forze politiche che si lamentano per i disagi creati, sono responsabili di aver cavalcato la protesta contro la costruzione delle moschee (e questo, se non si vuole chiamarlo populismo, è sicuramente miopia politica!).
Non è questione di schieramenti politici, come le reazioni stizzite degli interessati vorrebbero far intendere. La posta in gioco è ben più alta: per i cristiani è la fedeltà all’evangelo accompagnata dalla denuncia di un uso strumentale dell’aggettivo "cristiano" a cui ricorrono disinvoltamente i politici di turno proprio mentre mettono in atto comportamenti antievangelici. Il periodo storico che stiamo vivendo ci chiede di discernere quanto la Parola di Dio chiede per il bene comune della città. La fede ci domanda di custodire il lievito della differenza evangelica; la cittadinanza responsabile ci rimanda a quel dettato costituzionale che dovrebbe orientare l’agire civile.
In una democrazia costituzionale non è che chi vince le elezioni fa quello che vuole. Le costituzioni sono sorte proprio per delimitare un preciso quadro giuridico a cui attenersi, pur nella dialettica delle diverse scelte operate dagli schieramenti politici. E tra i paletti fissati nella nostra Costituzione, vi è anche quello della libertà di culto.
Il richiamo a criteri oggettivi, le Scritture per i cristiani e la Costituzione per tutti i cittadini, ci sembra decisivo per far fronte a quella deriva soggettivistica per cui ci si sente cristiani pur rimuovendo l’esigente parola dell’evangelo e ci si proclama leali cittadini promuovendo soltanto gli interessi personali o di parte e disinteressandosi di quel bene comune che riguarda anche chi è differente per cultura e religione.
Per informazioni:
Agenzia NEV - Notizie Evangeliche
Federazione delle chiese evangeliche in Italia
tel. 06/48.25.120
fax 06/48.28.728
e-mail: Agenzia Stampa NEV
Piazza Oriana Fallaci al posto della moschea
VERONA - Addio moschea. Al suo posto, piazza Oriana Fallaci. è la decisione della giunta di Oppeano (Verona), dove ieri mattina le ruspe hanno abbattuto un edificio usato dai musulmani della zona come luogo di preghiera, al posto del quale il Comune realizzerà una piazza intitolata proprio alla scrittrice che, con «Rabbia e orgoglio», aveva promosso una campagna molto aspra nei confronti dell' Islam. La decisione di radere al suolo la struttura, aperta dalla onlus «Per il successo dei musulmani», era stata presa dall' amministrazione municipale che aveva acquistato l' area per 70 mila euro allo scopo di trasformarla in uno spazio aperto per parcheggi e zone verdi. «I miei cittadini non volevano che ci fosse questo insediamento - ha spiegato il sindaco Alessandro Montagnoli, neodeputato della Lega Nord - soprattutto perché poteva creare problemi di viabilità e di convivenza con i residenti».
LECTURE OF MAURO LAZZAROTTO
Mauro Lazzarotto gave this friday 11.07.2008 a lecture about his teorical and projectual works about mosques in Europe.
Some of the reference books he brought and offered to the students to consult.
A MOSQUE IN VENICE : POSTERS + REACTIONS IN THE STREETS
the students placed the PER MOSCHEA panels in the streets of Venice
Gruppo 04 put the poster at the Giardini della Biennale vaporetto stop..
The next morning we had found this :
"NO, NO, NO AND ONCE MORE NO!"
Gruppo 02 made this new poster (11.07.2008) :
Gruppo 04 put the poster at the Giardini della Biennale vaporetto stop..
The next morning we had found this :
"NO, NO, NO AND ONCE MORE NO!"
Gruppo 02 made this new poster (11.07.2008) :
INTERVIEW OF WAEL FARHAT, ARCHITECT AND CULTURAL MENAGER OF THE ASCII-ONLUS ASSOCIATION (gruppo 4)
Wael Farhat, architect, cultural menager of the ASCII-onlus Associaton.
A mosque in Venice doesn’t damage negatively the urban tissue, but we need the municipality and population appruval.
The mosque architecture, infact, all over the world, adapt itself to the local style;
It isn’t rigid structure.
For a mosque in Venice the are three main solutions:
1- Reopen the ex-mosque in Fondaco dei Turchi, but it would be only a little saloon for the prayer.
2- The area, on Giudecca’s island, of the ex-incinerators. This site would be strategical for the balance that it colud create with S.Giorgio Maggiore’s island.
3- A floating mosque (from Mestre to San Marco’s square) that once a year will do a symbolic trip for an international event. The mosque’s name could be the mosque of Jesus because it will “walk on the water”.
A mosque in Venice doesn’t damage negatively the urban tissue, but we need the municipality and population appruval.
The mosque architecture, infact, all over the world, adapt itself to the local style;
It isn’t rigid structure.
For a mosque in Venice the are three main solutions:
1- Reopen the ex-mosque in Fondaco dei Turchi, but it would be only a little saloon for the prayer.
2- The area, on Giudecca’s island, of the ex-incinerators. This site would be strategical for the balance that it colud create with S.Giorgio Maggiore’s island.
3- A floating mosque (from Mestre to San Marco’s square) that once a year will do a symbolic trip for an international event. The mosque’s name could be the mosque of Jesus because it will “walk on the water”.
INTERVIEW OF CORRADO BALISTRERI TRINCANATO, EXPERT IN VENETIAN HISTORY (gruppo 4)
Corrado Balistreri Trincanato, expert of venetian history.
INTERVIEW OF MARIA PIA PEDANI, HISTORIAN (gruppo 4)
Historian’s point of view:
Interview to Maria Pia Pedani, associated professor of “history of islamic countries ” at Ca’ Foscari University.
Venice in the past
Interview to Maria Pia Pedani, associated professor of “history of islamic countries ” at Ca’ Foscari University.
Venice in the past
INTERVIEW OF SAMIR, VICE-RESPONSABLE OF THE MOSQUE OF MARGHERA (gruppo 2)
Interview: Samir, vice-responsable of the Mosque of Marghera
A mosque in Venice is something quite hard, but not impossible and surely money is not a problem. In Venice, there are churches and synagogues, Venice is a well-known and multiethnic city and Muslims have always been part of this place. We don’t expect a mosque in the heart of Venice, it would be such a dream: it would be enough to have something in the land. Maybe this could be a new challange for the tourism too. Muslims haven’t problems in living all together with Venetian community Most of the brothers praying in the mosque are actually living and working in Venice and Venetians always keep in touch with Muslims too. Maybe there could be opposition at the beginning but then, there shouldn’t be any problems. A mosque near a church is still not a problem: I come from Turkey where churches, synagogues and mosques both do exists close to each others. Here in Padova, there’s a mosque near a church: at first some problems occurred, altrough, now everybody feels like brothers. Trends say that, during the meeting with the Authority, Muslims in Veneto were about 10.000 and there’s lack of spaces. There’s no critical need but, in my opinion, Venice merits a mosque.
About Ponzano
I prayed there four or five times in a basement under the church. I’ve heard on TV that the chief-priest of Treviso forced the priest to deny the permission of using the space. That’s really absurd: for me, praying with Christians isn’t absolutely a matter and if there’s the chance to give spaces, it’s illogical not to allow them to pray once a week, it’s a shame. Then there’s no reason to behave like that and I’m sure the chief-priest knew this fact for many months. Journals say that it’s all fault of the authorities that persuaded the chief-priest to bid these things to the priest. I heard that journals like Al Jazira where interested in this news. Strange but true: authorities suddenly offered a big space to pray to make a good impression to Al Jazeira. Luckily televisions didn’t come in the end. Later they decided to give the Muslim with a different place in different towns near Treviso each Friday: this made impossible to know previously where the pray was supposed to be celebrated. In fact that system worked just for four or five times. One of my brothers told me that some other Muslims went to pray in a public square in and police forced them to go away and to pay a penalty.
Bad impressions...
I don’t see scared faces but a lot of diffidence and bad information: looking at the journals it seemed like it should happen something upsetting. In the reality nothing happened. We live and work with Italians and nobody has problems. An Imam from Asterdam was upset because the mayor didn’t send anyone to keep clean the mosque. Amsterdam, Rotterdam, London, Berlin and even Paris are spread-minded city and they actually host mosques. People that release this kind of false news have not to be considered because are propagandists or just ignorants.
CONSTRUCTING CONFLICT
The politics of mosque-building
Aug 30th 2007 From The Economist print edition
NOT since Cologne was rebuilt half a century ago, out of the rubble of war, has a change in the urban landscape generated so much heat. A city whose main landmark is a medieval cathedral may soon share its skyline with another place of worship: a large mosque with minarets more than 50 metres (165 feet) high.
While the city's (mainly Turkish) Muslim population of over 120,000 is looking forward to the new building—a sign, perhaps, that it has finally put down roots in a country that long treated migrant workers as guests—Cologne as a whole is deeply divided. A poll found that 36% of residents were happy with the mosque plan, 29% wanted to see it scaled down and 31% were entirely against it. The “no” and “yes” camps are not just passionate, they are diverse. Those who approve the plan include many Roman Catholic clergy. But a far-right party, “Pro Cologne”, which holds five of the 90 seats in the city council, has done well by drumming up opposition to the mosque. Also prominent among the “noes” (while distancing himself from Pro Cologne) is Ralph Giordano, a German-Jewish writer and Holocaust survivor, who stirred a national debate by issuing a stark message: “I urge the mayor and the members of the city council to stop the building of this mosque!”
His comments dismayed Germany's four main Muslim associations, all of which have headquarters in the city. Whatever its importance to other faiths, Cologne is a sensitive spot for German Islam. It produced Metin Kaplan, a militant cleric known as “caliph of Cologne”, who was convicted of incitement to crime and extradited to Turkey in 2004. The would-be builders of the new mosque are at the other end of the respectability scale: the Turkish Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB), an arm of the Turkish government.
All over the Western world, mosques and mosque-building plans are generating passionate arguments, particularly in local and municipal affairs. In many cities, both opponents and supporters of Muslim construction projects have realised that this issue engages voters far more than drains or libraries do.
In the east London borough of Newham, for example, proposals to build a “mega-mosque” to accommodate at least 12,000 worshippers have divided local people (of whom at least a quarter are Muslim) and drawn global attention. British Muslims have been lining up for or against Tablighi Jamaat, the conservative missionary movement behind the mosque. Some are dismayed at the thought that this hard-line group could soon become one of British Islam's most obvious faces, only a stone's throw from the site of the 2012 Olympics; others defend the movement's right to build, noting that Newham's existing mosques are visibly overflowing during Friday prayers.
In Newham council, a new party—the Christian Peoples Alliance—has sprung up, mainly to articulate non-Muslim resistance to the mosque. And on the website of Gordon Brown, the prime minister, an experiment in e-democracy had an awkward result: some 277,000 people used a click to register their opposition to the mega-mosque, much the biggest sign of voter interest that the site attracted.
In many places, the accommodation, both literally and metaphorically, of Muslims and their religious needs has led to some strange coalitions. In Boston in June, the capping of the minaret on a new mosque turned into an emotional celebration by 2,000 Americans, hailing the end of several years of conflict and litigation. The Islamic Society of Boston had in 2005 filed a defamation suit against pro-Israel groups and media outlets that accused the mosque's sponsors of extremist links. But liberal Jews and Christians helped solve the dispute; some hailed the fact that a Bostonian tradition of Jewish-Christian dialogue had been extended to Muslims.
The terms of the mosque debate vary widely: in the United States, mosque projects often meet practical objections, to do with “zoning”, water supplies or parking, but they are usually overcome, helped by a legal system that protects all faiths. In southern European countries like Spain and Italy—where attachment to Catholic symbolism is strong—people are much blunter about expressing their objections in cultural terms: this is a Christian land, and mosques have no place here.
In Rome, on August 21st, police halted work at a site on the Esquiline hill, in an area with a high immigrant population. The sponsors of a planned mosque there were found to have begun work without seeking permission from the local authority. The new building was to have gone up just a few metres from a Catholic church; for some, that was the most important point. A spokesman for a new far-right movement, La Destra, called it “an insult to Christian culture”.
Reza Aslan, a Californian writer on Islam, says that to his American eyes the intensity of openly “Islamophobic” opposition to mosques in parts of Europe, especially the south, is a shock. “It's as though some Europeans are confused about their identity and are now trying to construct one in opposition to Islam.”
But California is itself no paradise for Muslims: a mosque near San Francisco has just been burned down. Christina Abraham, a civil-rights lawyer in Chicago, says mosque builders around her city often have to work twice as hard as other religious groups to get the necessary permits, even though they do eventually get their way. One mosque in the Chicago area faced an apparently malicious regulation which banned parking for three hours on Friday afternoons—the time when worshippers were arriving. Lawyers successfully challenged the rule, on grounds of religious discrimination.
In some European countries—like Germany—the atmosphere faced by would-be mosque builders varies a lot, even within cities. Berlin is one example. In the western district of Kreuzberg, Turkish migrants and their prayers have been part of the scene for decades. But in the capital's east, local residents and politicians from the far-right NPD party are leading loud protests against the building of the first mosque in the ex-communist part of the city. In Munich, meanwhile, the conservative government of Bavaria is locked in battle with the centre-left dominated city hall over the plan for a new mosque. For now, the conservative opponents seem to be winning; a local court has called the current plan incompatible with the surroundings.
If controversy over mosques is getting louder in Germany now, that may be because the Turkish community has only recently started claiming citizenship and the right to vote. On the other hand, a much higher share of France's 5m Muslim residents is enfranchised; and yet in some French town halls, the politics of mosque-building are explosive. In Marseille, which is home to 200,000 Muslims but also a bastion of the far right, arguments over the construction of a large mosque have dominated city debates for years. The municipal council voted in July to go ahead, overcoming a raft of legal objections from the far right, which said the Muslim builders got public land (an old abattoir) too cheaply. This week the far-right said it would mount a fresh legal challenge, on grounds that the price being paid for the land was still not enough.
Opponents of mosque building in Europe often claim that the number of mosques is rising much faster than the number of Muslims. That is a hard proposition to test. Statisticians cannot even agree on the definition of a mosque. Idriss Elouanali, editor of the “Yearbook of Mosques” in France, says that in his 2006 survey he used two definitions: first, he counted roughly 100 purpose-built mosques, and then 1,525 prayer rooms, big enough to have Friday sermons with a recognised imam. The combined figure of 1,625 was 75 up from the Yearbook's first edition in 2003, hardly a surge. But Mr Elouanali points out that in the late 1970s, France had fewer than 50 prayer spaces. In the United Kingdom, says Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain, the number of mosques has jumped in the last 20 years from under 400 to 1,699 registered places of prayer today.
Alexa Färber of Berlin's Humboldt University sees a more qualitative change. Between 1998 and 2006, the number of mosques in Berlin grew from 66 to 76—a smallish rise. However, during those eight years 18 mosques moved location within Berlin: this added to people's perception that mosques were proliferating. More importantly, Ms Färber points out, 21 Muslim groups bought rooms or buildings, which in many cases had been rented before. These purchases usually went along with embellishments such as minarets. No wonder many people think Muslim worship is growing more visible.
One explanation for the delayed building boom in Germany, argues Ms Färber, lies in the cultural obstacles faced by first-generation migrants. With a limited knowledge of their host country, they had to wait for their children and grandchildren, who grew up in Germany and understood the system better, to promote their interests. “Now there are more Turkish architects, lawyers or engineers who help to build mosques,” she says.
Recently some Western governments have started to work more closely with Muslim minorities and encourage the building of new mosques. So why do so many conflicts persist? In fact, for every mosque that is impeded, many other projects go ahead. Moreover, as Mr Bunglawala notes, national politicians can only set the tone of the debate; actual decisions are taken by local councils. This distinction has become apparent in the German city of Duisburg, north of Cologne, where the local DITIB branch is also building a large mosque. There, thanks to good co-operation between religious communities and better communications, construction is going ahead much more smoothly.
Despite such local contrasts, Jocelyne Cesari from Harvard University argues that there are national patterns at work. “In places with a long history of immigration, such as France, Britain or Belgium, resistance to mosques is losing its force,” she believes. In contrast, opposition is stronger in Spain or Italy, where Muslim immigration is relatively new.
If Ms Cesari is right, then it may be that reaching a reasonable accommodation between Muslims and non-Muslim majorities over issues of urban planning is only a matter of time. Is that too optimistic? It may well be true that in many countries, Muslim and non-Muslim elites will get better at understanding one another. But the question is whether grassroots politics will evolve at the same pace. Given the dividends that some local politicians are reaping from backing mosques, or opposing them, that seems a less sure bet.
Aug 30th 2007 From The Economist print edition
In many Western cities, plans to erect mosques often stir more passion than any other local issue—and politicians are leaping into the fray
NOT since Cologne was rebuilt half a century ago, out of the rubble of war, has a change in the urban landscape generated so much heat. A city whose main landmark is a medieval cathedral may soon share its skyline with another place of worship: a large mosque with minarets more than 50 metres (165 feet) high.
While the city's (mainly Turkish) Muslim population of over 120,000 is looking forward to the new building—a sign, perhaps, that it has finally put down roots in a country that long treated migrant workers as guests—Cologne as a whole is deeply divided. A poll found that 36% of residents were happy with the mosque plan, 29% wanted to see it scaled down and 31% were entirely against it. The “no” and “yes” camps are not just passionate, they are diverse. Those who approve the plan include many Roman Catholic clergy. But a far-right party, “Pro Cologne”, which holds five of the 90 seats in the city council, has done well by drumming up opposition to the mosque. Also prominent among the “noes” (while distancing himself from Pro Cologne) is Ralph Giordano, a German-Jewish writer and Holocaust survivor, who stirred a national debate by issuing a stark message: “I urge the mayor and the members of the city council to stop the building of this mosque!”
His comments dismayed Germany's four main Muslim associations, all of which have headquarters in the city. Whatever its importance to other faiths, Cologne is a sensitive spot for German Islam. It produced Metin Kaplan, a militant cleric known as “caliph of Cologne”, who was convicted of incitement to crime and extradited to Turkey in 2004. The would-be builders of the new mosque are at the other end of the respectability scale: the Turkish Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB), an arm of the Turkish government.
All over the Western world, mosques and mosque-building plans are generating passionate arguments, particularly in local and municipal affairs. In many cities, both opponents and supporters of Muslim construction projects have realised that this issue engages voters far more than drains or libraries do.
In the east London borough of Newham, for example, proposals to build a “mega-mosque” to accommodate at least 12,000 worshippers have divided local people (of whom at least a quarter are Muslim) and drawn global attention. British Muslims have been lining up for or against Tablighi Jamaat, the conservative missionary movement behind the mosque. Some are dismayed at the thought that this hard-line group could soon become one of British Islam's most obvious faces, only a stone's throw from the site of the 2012 Olympics; others defend the movement's right to build, noting that Newham's existing mosques are visibly overflowing during Friday prayers.
In Newham council, a new party—the Christian Peoples Alliance—has sprung up, mainly to articulate non-Muslim resistance to the mosque. And on the website of Gordon Brown, the prime minister, an experiment in e-democracy had an awkward result: some 277,000 people used a click to register their opposition to the mega-mosque, much the biggest sign of voter interest that the site attracted.
In many places, the accommodation, both literally and metaphorically, of Muslims and their religious needs has led to some strange coalitions. In Boston in June, the capping of the minaret on a new mosque turned into an emotional celebration by 2,000 Americans, hailing the end of several years of conflict and litigation. The Islamic Society of Boston had in 2005 filed a defamation suit against pro-Israel groups and media outlets that accused the mosque's sponsors of extremist links. But liberal Jews and Christians helped solve the dispute; some hailed the fact that a Bostonian tradition of Jewish-Christian dialogue had been extended to Muslims.
The terms of the mosque debate vary widely: in the United States, mosque projects often meet practical objections, to do with “zoning”, water supplies or parking, but they are usually overcome, helped by a legal system that protects all faiths. In southern European countries like Spain and Italy—where attachment to Catholic symbolism is strong—people are much blunter about expressing their objections in cultural terms: this is a Christian land, and mosques have no place here.
In Rome, on August 21st, police halted work at a site on the Esquiline hill, in an area with a high immigrant population. The sponsors of a planned mosque there were found to have begun work without seeking permission from the local authority. The new building was to have gone up just a few metres from a Catholic church; for some, that was the most important point. A spokesman for a new far-right movement, La Destra, called it “an insult to Christian culture”.
Reza Aslan, a Californian writer on Islam, says that to his American eyes the intensity of openly “Islamophobic” opposition to mosques in parts of Europe, especially the south, is a shock. “It's as though some Europeans are confused about their identity and are now trying to construct one in opposition to Islam.”
But California is itself no paradise for Muslims: a mosque near San Francisco has just been burned down. Christina Abraham, a civil-rights lawyer in Chicago, says mosque builders around her city often have to work twice as hard as other religious groups to get the necessary permits, even though they do eventually get their way. One mosque in the Chicago area faced an apparently malicious regulation which banned parking for three hours on Friday afternoons—the time when worshippers were arriving. Lawyers successfully challenged the rule, on grounds of religious discrimination.
In some European countries—like Germany—the atmosphere faced by would-be mosque builders varies a lot, even within cities. Berlin is one example. In the western district of Kreuzberg, Turkish migrants and their prayers have been part of the scene for decades. But in the capital's east, local residents and politicians from the far-right NPD party are leading loud protests against the building of the first mosque in the ex-communist part of the city. In Munich, meanwhile, the conservative government of Bavaria is locked in battle with the centre-left dominated city hall over the plan for a new mosque. For now, the conservative opponents seem to be winning; a local court has called the current plan incompatible with the surroundings.
If controversy over mosques is getting louder in Germany now, that may be because the Turkish community has only recently started claiming citizenship and the right to vote. On the other hand, a much higher share of France's 5m Muslim residents is enfranchised; and yet in some French town halls, the politics of mosque-building are explosive. In Marseille, which is home to 200,000 Muslims but also a bastion of the far right, arguments over the construction of a large mosque have dominated city debates for years. The municipal council voted in July to go ahead, overcoming a raft of legal objections from the far right, which said the Muslim builders got public land (an old abattoir) too cheaply. This week the far-right said it would mount a fresh legal challenge, on grounds that the price being paid for the land was still not enough.
Opponents of mosque building in Europe often claim that the number of mosques is rising much faster than the number of Muslims. That is a hard proposition to test. Statisticians cannot even agree on the definition of a mosque. Idriss Elouanali, editor of the “Yearbook of Mosques” in France, says that in his 2006 survey he used two definitions: first, he counted roughly 100 purpose-built mosques, and then 1,525 prayer rooms, big enough to have Friday sermons with a recognised imam. The combined figure of 1,625 was 75 up from the Yearbook's first edition in 2003, hardly a surge. But Mr Elouanali points out that in the late 1970s, France had fewer than 50 prayer spaces. In the United Kingdom, says Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain, the number of mosques has jumped in the last 20 years from under 400 to 1,699 registered places of prayer today.
Alexa Färber of Berlin's Humboldt University sees a more qualitative change. Between 1998 and 2006, the number of mosques in Berlin grew from 66 to 76—a smallish rise. However, during those eight years 18 mosques moved location within Berlin: this added to people's perception that mosques were proliferating. More importantly, Ms Färber points out, 21 Muslim groups bought rooms or buildings, which in many cases had been rented before. These purchases usually went along with embellishments such as minarets. No wonder many people think Muslim worship is growing more visible.
One explanation for the delayed building boom in Germany, argues Ms Färber, lies in the cultural obstacles faced by first-generation migrants. With a limited knowledge of their host country, they had to wait for their children and grandchildren, who grew up in Germany and understood the system better, to promote their interests. “Now there are more Turkish architects, lawyers or engineers who help to build mosques,” she says.
Recently some Western governments have started to work more closely with Muslim minorities and encourage the building of new mosques. So why do so many conflicts persist? In fact, for every mosque that is impeded, many other projects go ahead. Moreover, as Mr Bunglawala notes, national politicians can only set the tone of the debate; actual decisions are taken by local councils. This distinction has become apparent in the German city of Duisburg, north of Cologne, where the local DITIB branch is also building a large mosque. There, thanks to good co-operation between religious communities and better communications, construction is going ahead much more smoothly.
Despite such local contrasts, Jocelyne Cesari from Harvard University argues that there are national patterns at work. “In places with a long history of immigration, such as France, Britain or Belgium, resistance to mosques is losing its force,” she believes. In contrast, opposition is stronger in Spain or Italy, where Muslim immigration is relatively new.
If Ms Cesari is right, then it may be that reaching a reasonable accommodation between Muslims and non-Muslim majorities over issues of urban planning is only a matter of time. Is that too optimistic? It may well be true that in many countries, Muslim and non-Muslim elites will get better at understanding one another. But the question is whether grassroots politics will evolve at the same pace. Given the dividends that some local politicians are reaping from backing mosques, or opposing them, that seems a less sure bet.
INTERVIEWS - INTERVISTE
here below you will find summary of the interviews each of the 10 groups made to crucial personalities of the city of Venice and surroundings.
Cosa ne pensi della costruzione di una moschea a Venezia?
Studente di arti visive e dello spettacolo - IUAV
“Bello, sarebbe proprio divertente! Una bella moschea a Venezia… vediamo se ci riusciamo!
Dopo i fallimenti dell’idea di vari architetti moderni da Wright, a Le Corbusier, a Kahn che hanno provato a lasciare un segno a Venezia e non ci sono riusciti, possiamo provare a costruire una moschea.”
Prof. R.Nicolini
Docente Università Reggio Calabria
Docente Workshop 2008 – IUAV
“I pochi cittadini di Venezia non credo abbiano problemi di integrazione con gli immigrati anche perché qui ce ne sono pochi, e quei pochi che ci sono sono ben accolti. Venezia è una città multiculturale!”
Studentessa di Arti visive e dello spettacolo – IUAV
“Sì la accetto, e se fossi musulmano la supporterei”
Studente dell’Accademia di belle arti di Venezia
“Bisognerebbe che ci fosse una nuova corrente, molto forte, che a un certo punto dice no!
Deve arrivare anche il contemporaneo a Venezia, e a questo punto potrebbe arrivare anche la moschea.”
Prof.ssa M.Borgherini
Docente IUAV
1-what are the links between oriental culture and venetian one?
Now there aren’t any links. Maybe there were some in the past above all for economic reasons.
I don’t think they’ll build a mosque, the soil cost a lot and build a religious building isn’t economical convenient
4. INTERVIEWS TO HISTORIANS
After an interresting introduction about the historical coexistence between Muslims and Venetians, she says: "There aren't many Muslims in Venice, a great number of them lives and works in Mestre, in terra firma. A mosque wuold be only a political symbol, an icon, because Venice is always under reflatctors, it's the object of medias attention."
prof. CORRADO BALISTRERI (expert in Venetian history and professor in IUAV)
Ciacci è sia d’accordo che contrario all’idea di costruire una Moschea a Venezia: pensa che la città non ne abbia bisogno poichè gli islamici non sono molti tra la popolazione ma, allo stesso tempo, potrebbe essere realizzata per soddisfare la necessità di coloro che sentono la necessità di pregare in una struttura religiosa. Per questo motivo propone di trasformare degli edifici già esistenti in Moschea, sebbene Venezia non offra le condizioni urbane migliori per accogliere i pellegrinaggi dei musulmani in alcuni particolari periodi religiosi. Tuttavia, suggerisce la possibilità di costruire la Moschea in un’altra parte dell’entroterra in modo da poter essere raggiungibile da molte più persone rispetto che a Venezia.
_ALBERTO CECCHETTO
He was born in Venice and he is an architect and also an urbanist. He had realized a large number of masterplan in Italy as, for example, Trieste or Assisi. He had showed him projects at the Biennale of Venice four times and in 1989 he won the International Architectural Prize Andrea Palladio.
01. INTERVISTE AGLI ARTISTI
Interviews to artists
Interviews to artists
Cosa ne pensi della costruzione di una moschea a Venezia?
Supporteresti la proposta?
What do you think about the construction of a mosque in Venice?
Would you support the proposal?
What do you think about the construction of a mosque in Venice?
Would you support the proposal?
Studente di arti visive e dello spettacolo - IUAV
“Bello, sarebbe proprio divertente! Una bella moschea a Venezia… vediamo se ci riusciamo!
Dopo i fallimenti dell’idea di vari architetti moderni da Wright, a Le Corbusier, a Kahn che hanno provato a lasciare un segno a Venezia e non ci sono riusciti, possiamo provare a costruire una moschea.”
Prof. R.Nicolini
Docente Università Reggio Calabria
Docente Workshop 2008 – IUAV
“I pochi cittadini di Venezia non credo abbiano problemi di integrazione con gli immigrati anche perché qui ce ne sono pochi, e quei pochi che ci sono sono ben accolti. Venezia è una città multiculturale!”
Studentessa di Arti visive e dello spettacolo – IUAV
“Sì la accetto, e se fossi musulmano la supporterei”
Studente dell’Accademia di belle arti di Venezia
“Bisognerebbe che ci fosse una nuova corrente, molto forte, che a un certo punto dice no!
Deve arrivare anche il contemporaneo a Venezia, e a questo punto potrebbe arrivare anche la moschea.”
Prof.ssa M.Borgherini
Docente IUAV
03. INTERVIEW TO LEFT HEADQUARTERS “TUTTINPIEDI” ABOUT A NEW MOSQUE BUILDING IN VENICE
1-what are the links between oriental culture and venetian one?
Now there aren’t any links. Maybe there were some in the past above all for economic reasons.
2-is it possible to build a mosque in Venice?
I don’t think they’ll build a mosque, the soil cost a lot and build a religious building isn’t economical convenient
3-where do you build it?
4-how will community react?
It depends how you propose the build. We live in a xenophobic world. It’s really important that the new building won’t become a motif of politic conflict from right side(as it happens for Sinti village).
How do population accept them?
Don’t you think a new Mosque can be a symbol of religious and social integration?
5-who will pay this mosque?
Certainly not the municipality. we think every religious building must be financed by private and not public. We think the autocreation of a mosque is the best direction.
4. INTERVIEWS TO HISTORIANS
prof. MARIA PIA PEDANI (professor in History of Islamic countries in Cà Foscari University)
After an interresting introduction about the historical coexistence between Muslims and Venetians, she says: "There aren't many Muslims in Venice, a great number of them lives and works in Mestre, in terra firma. A mosque wuold be only a political symbol, an icon, because Venice is always under reflatctors, it's the object of medias attention."
prof. CORRADO BALISTRERI (expert in Venetian history and professor in IUAV)
: "I say yes to religious place for everyone, but I saay strictly no to build new modern architectures in Venice. If this workshop's aim is to project a new costruction, I sugest Mestre as site for the more beatiful mosque. Venice as historical centre can't bear changes at all. The city risk to disappear." Then he continues to tell about the only possible site for the mosque into "historical" Venice, he suggests Scuola della Misericordia, because it's a prexistence buliding and it's just a right faith place.
arch. WAEL FARHAT (architect and president of this conference, rappresentative of Islamic comunity in Venice)
In the first part of our interview, he talks about the Islam comunity of V enice (quantity, importance in the whole of commune, required place to pray, what they need to join themself and to cultivate own culture). Then he explains us his ideas of the perfect site for the mosque in Venice and in the whole of commune (the options are or re-establish the old mosque in Fondaco dei Turchi or new costructions in Mestre and in the island of Giudecca, or he talks about an curious idea to build a floating mosque).
8. THREE URBANISTS for a TRIPLE INTERVIEW
Yesterday we interviwed three Urbanists about the proposal to build a Mosque in Venice and surrounding. We tried to undestand the main differences between their points of views in order to underline how some "specialists" can differently interpretate this topic.
Ieri abbiamo intervistato tre Urbanisti riguardo alla proposta di costruire una Moschea a Venezia e dintorni. Abbiamo cercato di capire quali fossero le differenze principali del loro pensiero per sottolineare come la questione possa essere intesa diversamente da degli "specialisti".
The three interviews were based on 8 Questions:
Le tre interviste sono state basate su 8 Domande:
1- Which are the caracteristics of Islam’s culture that have influenced the urban Venice development?
1- Quali sono le caratteristiche della cultura islamica che hanno influenzato lo sviluppo della città di Venezia?
2- What sort of effect could the build of new Mosque cause in Venice?
(urban, social, economic and turistic aspects)
2- Quali effetti potrebbe avere sulla città di Venezia la costruzione di una Moschea?
3- Could the built of a new Mosque cause the creation of a new “ghetto”?
3- La costruzione della Moschea potrebbe portare alla creazione di un nuovo “ghetto”?
4- Wich are the rules to chose the area of building?
4- Quali sono i criteri sui quali basarsi per collocare la Moschea?
5- Have you read/heard about that church in Ponzano which changes into a mosque each Friday now ? What’s your personal feeling/impression about that ?
5- Ha sentito parlare della chiesa di Ponzano che diventa una Moschea ogni venerdì?
6- What do you think about the possibility to build a temporary structure for the new Mosque?
6- Cosa pensa riguardo alla possibilità di realizzare delle strutture temporanee da adibire a Moschea?
7-How do you see Venice reacting to upcoming massive Muslims immigrants wavesprevisions from Asia and Africa to Europe ?
7- Come pensa che reagirà Venezia all’aumento di flussi migratori di islamici dall’Africa all’Asia?
8- Do you think Venice present the need to build a Mosque? Would you support the provision of a mosque in Venice ?
8- Secondo lei si presenta la necessità di costruire una Moschea a Venezia?
The three Urbanists interviewed are:
_MARIA CHIARA TOSI
She was supervisor for the Department of Architectural Monuments and Urban Development in Veneto and Venice. She actually is an urbanist teacher at the IUAV, but she had also worked in Paris, Berkeley and in other italian university. She had realized several masterplans and she is actually working for complete the Ferrara’s masterplan.
She agree about the proposal to built a Mosque in Venice because she consider the topic not only as a “religious need” but she think to the subject in term of “association space”, as an opportunity to satisfy an other requirement feel from a part of population.
She say we should consider the Mosque as a “multifunctional center”, a build that could transform itself sometimes in a Church, other times in a Gym or, why not, also in a park for children. She imagines a space with no boundaries, open to all the possibility of transformation in order to suggest the idea of cultural integration.
She considers Venice a good place to welcome a Mosque because is a city historically and morphologically influenced by other cultures, people and styles.
E’ daccordo con la proposta di costruire una Moschea a Venezia perchè non considera la questione solo come una necessità di tipo religioso, ma pensa all’argomento in termini di “spazio d’associazione”, come l’opportunità di soddisfare un’altra esigenza sentita da una certa parte della popolazione.
Sostiene che dovremmo considerare la Moschea come un “centro multifunzionale”, un edificio che può trasformarsi in una Chiesa, a volte in una palestra o, perché no, anche in uno spazio-gioco.
Immagina una spazio senza vincoli, aperto a tutte le possibilità di trasformazione in modo da suggerire l’idea di integrazione culturale.
Considera Venezia un luogo adatto ad accogliere una Moschea in quanto città storicamente e morfologicamente influenzata da altre culture, popoli e stili.
_LEONARDO CIACCI
He is an urbanist and also an urbanistic teacher at the IUAV. He is expert about urbanistic’s theories and history, and he is particularly interested about intercultural communication in urbanism and geographical development.
He agree and disagree with the possibility to build the Mosque in Venice: he thinks the city don’t need it because islams are not a large part of population but, at the same time, could be realize to satisfy the deside of some people to have a religious building for preyer. For this reason he proposes to cheanges into a Mosque a pre-existente building, although Venice doesn’t offer the best urban condition to confront muslims pilgrimage in some particular religious period.
Moreover, he suggests the possibility to build it in other part of the hinterland in order to be reach by more people than in Venice.
He also speaks about the Mosque’s dimension: we haven’t necessary to think at an huge bulding with a symbolic function because the Mosque could be little and useful to carry out religious function.
Ciacci è sia d’accordo che contrario all’idea di costruire una Moschea a Venezia: pensa che la città non ne abbia bisogno poichè gli islamici non sono molti tra la popolazione ma, allo stesso tempo, potrebbe essere realizzata per soddisfare la necessità di coloro che sentono la necessità di pregare in una struttura religiosa. Per questo motivo propone di trasformare degli edifici già esistenti in Moschea, sebbene Venezia non offra le condizioni urbane migliori per accogliere i pellegrinaggi dei musulmani in alcuni particolari periodi religiosi. Tuttavia, suggerisce la possibilità di costruire la Moschea in un’altra parte dell’entroterra in modo da poter essere raggiungibile da molte più persone rispetto che a Venezia.
_ALBERTO CECCHETTO
He was born in Venice and he is an architect and also an urbanist. He had realized a large number of masterplan in Italy as, for example, Trieste or Assisi. He had showed him projects at the Biennale of Venice four times and in 1989 he won the International Architectural Prize Andrea Palladio.
He believe that islam culture had influenced the urban Venice development under two main aspects: sensuality and softness. We can recognized its typical signs walking on the roads or watching the building’s facades, in the verticalism of forms, in the floreal decorations. Venice is also a city that presents many form of “pilgrimage”: waves of turists every day cover the same routes having the same destination. Venice’s urbanistic is perfect to suggest the ideas of a “journey” and also offers several location to build a Mosque. He suggests the idea of a “floating Mosque” as a mobile building directly in contact with water that could arrive in many location (if Mohammed couldn’t go to the mountain, the mountain go to Mohammed). Also he propose Marghera in order to improve the degrading situation of this industrial area and to mark the Mosque’ symbolic role. In the end, he speaks about the sense of “democracy” that caracterized Venice.
'I despise Islamism': Ian McEwan faces backlash over press interview
Leonardo Ciacci gave us this interesting articol and we think it could be usefull for all the groupes...
"The novelist Ian McEwan has launched an astonishingly strong attack on Islamism, saying that he "despises" it and accusing it of "wanting to create a society that I detest". His words, in an interview with an Italian newspaper, could, in today's febrile legalistic climate, lay him open to being investigated for a "hate crime".
In an interview with Guido Santevecchi, a London correspondent for Corriere della Sera, the Booker-winning novelist said he rarely grants interviews on controversial issues "because I have to be careful to protect my privacy". But he said that he was glad to leap to the defence of his old friend Martin Amis when the latter's attacks on Muslims brought down charges of racism on his head. He made an exception of the Islamic issue out of friendship to Amis, and because he shares the latter's strong opinions.
"A dear friend had been called a racist," he said. "As soon as a writer expresses an opinion against Islamism, immediately someone on the left leaps to his feet and claims that because the majority of Muslims are dark-skinned, he who criticises it is racist.
"This is logically absurd and morally unacceptable. Martin is not a racist. And I myself despise Islamism, because it wants to create a society that I detest, based on religious belief, on a text, on lack of freedom for women, intolerance towards homosexuality and so on – we know it well."
McEwan – author of On Chesil Beach and the acclaimed Atonement and Enduring Love – has spoken on the issue of Islamism before, telling The New York Times last December: "All religions make very big claims about the world, and it should be possible in an open society to dispute them. It should be possible to say, 'I find some ideas in Islam questionable' without being called a racist."
But his words in the Corriere interview are far stronger, although they do fall short of the invective deployed by Martin Amis. He has said "the Muslim community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order", and told The Independent's columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, a Muslim, in an open letter: "Islamism, in most of its manifestations, not only wants to kill me – it wants to kill you."
McEwan's interviewer pointed out that there exist equally hard-line schools of thought within Christianity, for example in the United States. "I find them equally absurd," McEwan replied. "I don't like these medieval visions of the world according to which God is coming to save the faithful and to damn the others. But those American Christians don't want to kill anyone in my city, that's the difference."
But McEwan's specific irritation is reserved for those who find ideological grounds to condemn his and Amis's views. "When you ask a novelist or a poet about his vision regarding an aspect of the world, you don't get the response of a politician or a sociologist, but even if you don't like what he says you have to accept it, you can't react with defamation. Martin is not a racist, and neither am I."
Elsewhere in the interview McEwan serenely predicted the Balkanisation of the United Kingdom. "Great Britain is an artificial construction of three or four nations. I'm waiting for the Northern Irish to unite with the Irish Republic sooner or later, and also Scotland could go its own way and become independent."
Does the prospect disturb him? "No," he replied, "I think that at this point we should start to reflect on Englishness: this is the country of Shakespeare, of Milton, Newton, Darwin..."
10. Interview to a PHILOSOPHER
Luigi Perissinotto Professore Ordinario di Filosofia del linguaggio università Ca' Foscari, VeneziaLuigi Perissinotto si è laureato in Filosofia all'Università Ca' Foscari di Venezia.
Successivamente ha conseguito il titolo di Dottore di Ricerca in Filosofia. Dal 1992 al 2002 è stato prima ricercatore di Filosofia Teoretica e poi professore associato sempre nel settore scientifico-disciplinare di Filosofia teoretica presso il Dipartimento di Filosofia e Teoria delle Scienze dell'Università Ca' Foscari di Venezia. Attualmente è professore ordinario di Filosofia del Linguaggio. Dall'anno accademico 1996/97 al 1999/2000 ha tenuto per affidamento l'insegnamento di Filosofia del Linguaggio. Attualmente insegna Filosofia del Linguaggio e Filosofia della comunicazione 2. E' membro della Società Filosofica Italiana, della Società Italiana di Filosofia Analitica e della Wittgenstein-Gesellschaft (Austria). E' redattore della rivista "Filosofia e Teologia" e direttore del Master di II livello in Consulenza filosofica. La sua attività di ricerca si è concentrata su due temi fondamentali, i quali hanno come punto di riferimento comune la questione filosofica del linguaggio e il problema del nesso linguaggio-interpretazione: (a) la filosofia di Ludwig Wittgenstein, nelle sue diverse articolazioni e nella complessità delle relazioni che essa intrattiene con la filosofia contemporanea; (b) i differenti modi in cui nella filosofia contemporanea - sia nel suo versante analitico che nella prospettiva heideggeriana e, più latamente, ermeneutica - sono stati affrontati i problemi del significato, del linguaggio, della verità.
1- Is religion a need?
Religion is a very common condition. Religion answers to many needs beyond religion itself (guarantee, salvation …). I find it hard to say religion is a need in human soul
2- Why does religion need permanent spaces and visibility?
Historically religion is not an individual issue. Religion is a way to build a community. Rite means making someting together. Public dimension and representation become fundamental
3- How much religion is part of culture and viceversa?
Sometimes mosques rifer to older building types (Hagia Sophia). Culture in its antropological meaning is the way people stay together. Religion is part of culture. Culture in more specific meaning can be the way people express themselves through symbols.Religion is influenced by older and contemporary cultures. Culture and religion are based on something, which is what is given. The relationship between philosophy and theology is very close
4- Would a mosque in Venice be a goal or a defeat?•
Defeat for who? Denying a place of worship means denying religion. A mosque is a chance for cultural developenent and for enrichment. I would be very glad if there were a mosque
5- Which factors in a mosque could disturb public opinion?
Fear of something we do not recognized as ours. Powerful symbols scares who has not got strong symbols anymore. Their unconscious does not trust the strength of their symbols. They build social barrears. I do not mind walking in front of a church or of a sinagogue. Why should it be different in front of a mosque ? If they do not have a place of worship, exclusion will produce underground movements. When you feel excluded, sooner or later you can exclude
6-Which political consequences can a mosque have?
Poverty of political debate in Italy about these subjects, which are used just for a political purpose. Diversity should get people richer, but it is used as a mean instrument in order to increase political power.
A CHURCH NEAR VENICE IS A MOSQUE ON FRIDAYS
A Catholic Church Turns Into A Mosque
By Fr. Chetan, Capuchin, Rome
November 11, 2007Believe it or not! A parish Church turns into a mosque every Friday, for the Muslims brothers and to offer their customary prayers. This isn’t a sequence from any Bollywood film, but a reality in the parish of Our Lady of Assumption of Ponzano near Venice, the romantic city of Italy. The pastor of the parish, Don Aldo Danieli, 69, affirms, “It’s useless to speak of religious dialogue and then bang the door on their face. Pope John Paul II addressed them as, ‘dear Muslim brothers’. How can we close our church doors to them?”
At Ponzano, in the province of Treviso, live some 11,500 people of whom 232 families are immigrants, making their number roughly 650. These are mainly immigrants from North African countries and Eastern Europe. Two years ago, Don Aldo decided to open the doors of the church to these Muslim immigrants and keep a portion of his own parochial house including a kitchen and a little at their disposal. On Fridays an average of 200 Muslim believers gather in the church and offer prayers. But in the month of Ramadan, the number swells to 1000-1200. “They requested me and I said yes, moreover, the kitchen and hall were a home for spiders”.
The decision of Don Aldo has disturbed the peace of mind of more than a few parishioners. The protests of even the local bishop and priests have reached his ears. “I haven’t asked the express permission of the bishop, because it’s an act of charity. No permission is needed to do charity. For the rest, I am older than the bishop and been his professor in the seminary too. Even if had prohibited me, I wouldn’t be obliged to obey him,” Don Aldo is firm in his resolve. He does not hesitate to proclaim, “Better praying Muslims than non praying Christians. If you brand me a racist, you are wrong”. In the last two years a Don Aldo has received a number of emails and letters advising him to “remain with his own flock”. The letters cautioned him, “These people come as immigrants and then claim the place for themselves and throw us out”. Don Aldo has taken into confidence the Parish Pastoral Council and is unrelenting. “The pope has exhorted to open wide the doors to Christ: Christ lives in Muslims too.”
Meanwhile, there have been protests from public spheres too. “I urge the bishop to clarify the position of the Church in this regard”, demands Luca Zaia, the vice president of the Federation of a few right wing politicians, “so that this does not set a precedence for such efforts in the history of Venice”. “Moreover, in this initiative, there isn’t a grain of reciprocity. In some of the Muslim countries, they won’t give an inch to us to offer our prayers. These “feel-good” gestures would lead us nowhere. Integration must begin from their part. The immigrants must learn to insert themselves into mainstream, our culture, traditions and identity. The immigrants must know that before demanding their rights, they must adhere to their duties.” Luca justifies.
Don Aldo runs an Arab School in the church premises, for the education of immigrant Muslim children.
As the case of Don Aldo is being discussed and debated, in Padova, the city of St. Anthony, the members of the federation of the right wing politicians, have paraded a pig in the location where the municipality of Padova had decided to transfer the existing mosque from Anelli Street. The leader of the confederation, Mariella Mazzetto said:” We have blessed’ the place by parading a pig, before the municipality could transfer the mosque to the place.” “This is a question of Italian identity. We demand a referendum be done by the municipality before they venture into such stupidities”.
The mayor of Padova, Flavio Zanonato, condemning the act, said: “The majority of the dwellers of Padova are ashamed of this. This isn’t the culture of Padova. In this city live more than 7,000 Muslim immigrants. While we are discovering ways and means to live a well integrated life, this type of acts sends out a wrong message to them”.
In the changed circumstances of globalization, Italy is slowly getting used to immigrants of religions and cultures other than Christian. Cases like Don Aldo’s, give rise to regional and national debates on integration and immigration, which are so important to a country in which the Heart of Christianity is situated!!
"GENERIC MOSQUE", by Azra Aksamija
The concept of the “Generic Mosque” investigates the representation of contemporary Islamic practice in a secular context. It explores the idea of a mosque as a multifunctional space, through so-called Generative Design Principles, a set of conceptual design guidelines that I derived from my study of Islamic architectural history. These design principles enable designers to develop a stylistic and conceptual continuity with the past, while allowing them to execute spatial transformations in response to the social, political, economic, and technological changes that take place over time. By designing mosques based on these principles, I hope to deconstruct the present Islamophobic mood in Western Europe and the United States, and shift focus from the biased and politicized representations of Islam in favor of the universal beauty of artifacts from Islamic aesthetic culture.
“O men! Behold, we have created you all out of a male and a female, and have made you into nations and tribes, so that you might come to know one another. Verily, the noblest of you in the sight of God is the one who is most deeply conscious of Him. Behold, God is all knowing, all aware.”
[QUR’AN (49:13)]
Inspired by this divine call for peaceful coexistence, the concept of the “Generic Mosque” is aimed at encouraging dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims by providing an interactive infrastructure to accommodate both secular and sacral programs within the same space. I believe that mosque design can contribute to synthesizing learning and interaction among different Islamic and non-Islamic societies. If this relationship is to become a mutual enrichment, mosque design can enable not only their spatial aggregation, but also open up an experimental field for artists and architects to negotiate the way Muslims understand and communicate their presence today.
When dealing with representations of Islam, it is first important to be aware of the tremendous variety of its interpretations, many of which are diametrically opposed to one another. For that reason, Islam cannot be understood as a monolithic structure. At a level of 1.2 billion people, Muslims represent 19-22% of the world population1. Islam is currently the second-largest religion in the world after Christianity. Growing at a faster rate than the total world population, Islam is expected to become the world’s largest religion by the year 2025. It is thus crucial to take into account the high diversity of Muslim communities around the world, as they originate from a wide spectrum of different geographical and cultural contexts. Thus, this is also in line with the wide variety of their religious and social practices.
This diversity is reflected in a similar variety of the formal and organizational structures of contemporary mosques. Due to differences in a community’s size, its cultural origin and ethnic homogeneity, its status in the dominant culture, financial recourses, functional necessities, and many other parameters, mosque Architecture lacks both formal and functional consistencies. This inconsistency represents a major challenge for architects and architectural historians who seek to re-examine the notion of the “mosque” as an overarching term. The History of Islamic Architecture teaches us that mosques have never been explicitly defined as a particular architectural form. Their formal variety around the world evokes the question of whether the notion of the mosque can be understood as a specific building type at all.
In regard to such questions of typology, Rafael Moneo argues that “the work of Architecture is irreducible to any classification”
2. Moneo’s concept of type implies a class of comparable objects with common characteristics.
3 However, the very idea of a type, as proposed by Moneo, has the concept of change
embedded in it.
4 Types are not just reproduced identically; they develop, combine, and transform, forming
new types and sub-types. They can be thought as “the frame within which change operates, a necessary term to the continuing dialectic required by History”.
5 I term this conceptual framework for the formal mutation of types Generative Design Principles. Understood as a series of foundational spatial guidelines that establish conceptual architectural grammar, they can be applied to different sites and different Islamic communities in order to create formal variation in design. The extraction of such principles can be carried out in a number of ways that do not necessarily have to originate in a formalist approach. Architectural historian Nader Ardalan, for instance, explored the question of mosque typology as a historical survey of common architectural features. By analyzing the visual language of mosques, he sought to establish a mosque typology by identifying what he calls “generic forms” through their relative occurrence over the last fourteen hundred years.
6. What his analysis renders visible is that the mihrab -a niche in the wall, which indicates the direction to Mecca -is the only reoccurring architectural element in all surveyed mosques. Thus for Ardalan, the mihrab stands for a generic form that Moneo would interpret as a type. According to my own definition, however, not the mihrab, but the notion of directionality would represent one of the generative design principles for mosques. Mihrab is thus understood as a physical byproduct of the concept of directionality. It is then just one of the many possibilities for the architectural formulation of directionality. Furthermore, as there is no universally accepted method for the determination of the prayer direction across Islamic societies, the term directionality also allows for many spatial interpretations
7. It can be understood as an architectural guideline that can be embodied through many different forms. As such, it
represents a conceptual framework that has the ability to generate a wide range of formal embodiments. In this context, transformation is anticipated as the inner quality of a spatial system to be tested over time. Another generative design principle is the principle of prayer enactment. According to hadith (the sayings of the Prophet Muhammed), the entire world, except for spiritually impure places, can be understood as a mosque. This means that prayer can be performed anywhere, not only at home or in a dedicated space. For instance, if prayers are to be said in the desert, no architectural framework is needed and the ritual ablution can be performed by using sand instead of water. In this case, the mosque is defined by the worshippers’ spatial orientation to Mecca and their performance of the prayer ritual
8. The principle of prayer enactment, in addition to the principle of directionality, reveals yet another principle regarding the mosque size: that the minimal size of a mosque is defined by the volume of prayer. In other words, the mosque space is minimally characterized by the amount of space a person occupies when performing a prayer directed toward Mecca. Another example of an outdoor prayer during the Islamic parade in New York City supports this point. Anthropologist Susan Slyomovics analyzed the phenomenon of people praying on the street as a “specifically Muslim reutilization and makeover of the quintessential urban venue”
9. For the duration of the prayer, prayer enactment transforms the street into a mosque. The spatial juxtaposition of two directions, the one of the city grid and the other of the prayer, reveals the transformative nature of a mosque program.
10 However, this phenomenon is neither solely contemporary nor solely American. Since early Islamic times, the use of mosques was not limited to religious or representational functions. Mosques and mosque complexes also fulfilled various social purposes. They often doubled as hospitals, courtrooms, treasuries, council chambers, sanctuaries, soup kitchens, and even prisons11. Historical examples, but also the contemporary reuse of, for instance, major sports facilities to accommodate the Friday prayer or other larger religious gatherings, clarify yet another generative principle of mosques: their programmatical variability, meaning that the mosque can switch between religious and secular functions and vice versa.
While multifunctional uses of mosques are increasingly present today, mosques in Western Europe and in the United States not only serve as centers for Muslim communities’ religious activities, but they are also institutions that represent, communicate and maintain a particular cultural and ethnic identity. Subsequently, and depending on the community’s origin and its immigration pattern, tendencies to reaffirm or redefine cultural identity are dictated by the relationship between immigrants and the dominant culture. The perception which the majority of non-Muslims hold – that a mosque is a sacred space in which only Muslims are allowed to enter – goes against the very notion of a mosque as a space where prayer is performed, but also where other secular activities, such as reading, learning, lecturing, discussing, playing, and even sleeping, can take place. It is exactly this elasticity of spatial use that represents an important aspect of Islamic practice that can be communicated through mosque design.
My reinterpretation of historical elements of mosques focused on questioning how contemporary mosque design can be derived from conceptual, rather than a formal understanding, of mosque typology. The Generative Design Principles introduced in this article, that is, the principle of directionality, prayer enactment, volume of prayer, and the programmatical variability of mosques, seek to bridge the gap between culturally and historically specific forms and functions of mosques and the needs of contemporary Islamic societies living in America and in Europe. By pointing out the variable nature of the mosque, these conceptual spatial guidelines can be employed flexibly in different sites. Moreover, they can provide a methodology that responds to the challenge of negotiating religious functions with other secular, social and cultural practices with a design of new mosques that are inventive in appearance, yet remain faithful to liturgical necessities. Finally, Generative Design Principles enable a designer to re-symbolize the contemporary Muslim environment in many formal ways. However, the design’s success is contingent upon the actual making and using of such an approach, which can only take place if Muslims themselves recognize and accept the basic ideological elasticity of Islam that allows for its own change and progress.
1 The Muslim Council of Britain (El Consejo Musulmán de Gran Bretaña); CIA, en The Economist. 13 de
septiembre de 2003.
2 MONEO, Rafael José (1978). On Typology, en Oppositions nº 13 23
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5 Segons Moneo, “el tipus deixa de ser el “mecanisme rígid” que immobilitza l’arquitectura i esdevé el mitjà
necessari tant per negar el passat com per anticipar el futur”. Ibid., 27.
6 ARDALAN, Nader (1980). The Visual Language of Symbolic Form: A Preliminary Study of Mosque
Architecture, a Architecture as Symbol and Self-Identity, de KATZ, Jonathan G. Filadèlfia: Premi Aga Khan
d’Arquitectura, p.18-36.
7 Some Islamic communities determine the direction based on the “flat” map system, while others orient
themselves according to the shortest distance on the globe.
8 The notion of orientation is also elastic in this case. If the exact direction to Mecca is unknown, the
prayer can still be performed in any direction. It becomes more a matter of intention of a direction.
9 SLYOMOVICS, Susan (1996). The Muslim Worlds Day Parade and ‘Storefront’ Mosques of New York City,
en Making Muslim Space in North America and Europe, de METCALF, Barbara Daly. Berkeley, Los
Angeles, Londres: University of California Press, p.204.
10 Ibid., 205.
11 IRWIN, Robert (1997). Islamic Art in Context. Art, Architecture, and the Literary World. Nueva York: Harry
N. Abrams, p.58.
“O men! Behold, we have created you all out of a male and a female, and have made you into nations and tribes, so that you might come to know one another. Verily, the noblest of you in the sight of God is the one who is most deeply conscious of Him. Behold, God is all knowing, all aware.”
[QUR’AN (49:13)]
Inspired by this divine call for peaceful coexistence, the concept of the “Generic Mosque” is aimed at encouraging dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims by providing an interactive infrastructure to accommodate both secular and sacral programs within the same space. I believe that mosque design can contribute to synthesizing learning and interaction among different Islamic and non-Islamic societies. If this relationship is to become a mutual enrichment, mosque design can enable not only their spatial aggregation, but also open up an experimental field for artists and architects to negotiate the way Muslims understand and communicate their presence today.
When dealing with representations of Islam, it is first important to be aware of the tremendous variety of its interpretations, many of which are diametrically opposed to one another. For that reason, Islam cannot be understood as a monolithic structure. At a level of 1.2 billion people, Muslims represent 19-22% of the world population1. Islam is currently the second-largest religion in the world after Christianity. Growing at a faster rate than the total world population, Islam is expected to become the world’s largest religion by the year 2025. It is thus crucial to take into account the high diversity of Muslim communities around the world, as they originate from a wide spectrum of different geographical and cultural contexts. Thus, this is also in line with the wide variety of their religious and social practices.
This diversity is reflected in a similar variety of the formal and organizational structures of contemporary mosques. Due to differences in a community’s size, its cultural origin and ethnic homogeneity, its status in the dominant culture, financial recourses, functional necessities, and many other parameters, mosque Architecture lacks both formal and functional consistencies. This inconsistency represents a major challenge for architects and architectural historians who seek to re-examine the notion of the “mosque” as an overarching term. The History of Islamic Architecture teaches us that mosques have never been explicitly defined as a particular architectural form. Their formal variety around the world evokes the question of whether the notion of the mosque can be understood as a specific building type at all.
In regard to such questions of typology, Rafael Moneo argues that “the work of Architecture is irreducible to any classification”
2. Moneo’s concept of type implies a class of comparable objects with common characteristics.
3 However, the very idea of a type, as proposed by Moneo, has the concept of change
embedded in it.
4 Types are not just reproduced identically; they develop, combine, and transform, forming
new types and sub-types. They can be thought as “the frame within which change operates, a necessary term to the continuing dialectic required by History”.
5 I term this conceptual framework for the formal mutation of types Generative Design Principles. Understood as a series of foundational spatial guidelines that establish conceptual architectural grammar, they can be applied to different sites and different Islamic communities in order to create formal variation in design. The extraction of such principles can be carried out in a number of ways that do not necessarily have to originate in a formalist approach. Architectural historian Nader Ardalan, for instance, explored the question of mosque typology as a historical survey of common architectural features. By analyzing the visual language of mosques, he sought to establish a mosque typology by identifying what he calls “generic forms” through their relative occurrence over the last fourteen hundred years.
6. What his analysis renders visible is that the mihrab -a niche in the wall, which indicates the direction to Mecca -is the only reoccurring architectural element in all surveyed mosques. Thus for Ardalan, the mihrab stands for a generic form that Moneo would interpret as a type. According to my own definition, however, not the mihrab, but the notion of directionality would represent one of the generative design principles for mosques. Mihrab is thus understood as a physical byproduct of the concept of directionality. It is then just one of the many possibilities for the architectural formulation of directionality. Furthermore, as there is no universally accepted method for the determination of the prayer direction across Islamic societies, the term directionality also allows for many spatial interpretations
7. It can be understood as an architectural guideline that can be embodied through many different forms. As such, it
represents a conceptual framework that has the ability to generate a wide range of formal embodiments. In this context, transformation is anticipated as the inner quality of a spatial system to be tested over time. Another generative design principle is the principle of prayer enactment. According to hadith (the sayings of the Prophet Muhammed), the entire world, except for spiritually impure places, can be understood as a mosque. This means that prayer can be performed anywhere, not only at home or in a dedicated space. For instance, if prayers are to be said in the desert, no architectural framework is needed and the ritual ablution can be performed by using sand instead of water. In this case, the mosque is defined by the worshippers’ spatial orientation to Mecca and their performance of the prayer ritual
8. The principle of prayer enactment, in addition to the principle of directionality, reveals yet another principle regarding the mosque size: that the minimal size of a mosque is defined by the volume of prayer. In other words, the mosque space is minimally characterized by the amount of space a person occupies when performing a prayer directed toward Mecca. Another example of an outdoor prayer during the Islamic parade in New York City supports this point. Anthropologist Susan Slyomovics analyzed the phenomenon of people praying on the street as a “specifically Muslim reutilization and makeover of the quintessential urban venue”
9. For the duration of the prayer, prayer enactment transforms the street into a mosque. The spatial juxtaposition of two directions, the one of the city grid and the other of the prayer, reveals the transformative nature of a mosque program.
10 However, this phenomenon is neither solely contemporary nor solely American. Since early Islamic times, the use of mosques was not limited to religious or representational functions. Mosques and mosque complexes also fulfilled various social purposes. They often doubled as hospitals, courtrooms, treasuries, council chambers, sanctuaries, soup kitchens, and even prisons11. Historical examples, but also the contemporary reuse of, for instance, major sports facilities to accommodate the Friday prayer or other larger religious gatherings, clarify yet another generative principle of mosques: their programmatical variability, meaning that the mosque can switch between religious and secular functions and vice versa.
While multifunctional uses of mosques are increasingly present today, mosques in Western Europe and in the United States not only serve as centers for Muslim communities’ religious activities, but they are also institutions that represent, communicate and maintain a particular cultural and ethnic identity. Subsequently, and depending on the community’s origin and its immigration pattern, tendencies to reaffirm or redefine cultural identity are dictated by the relationship between immigrants and the dominant culture. The perception which the majority of non-Muslims hold – that a mosque is a sacred space in which only Muslims are allowed to enter – goes against the very notion of a mosque as a space where prayer is performed, but also where other secular activities, such as reading, learning, lecturing, discussing, playing, and even sleeping, can take place. It is exactly this elasticity of spatial use that represents an important aspect of Islamic practice that can be communicated through mosque design.
My reinterpretation of historical elements of mosques focused on questioning how contemporary mosque design can be derived from conceptual, rather than a formal understanding, of mosque typology. The Generative Design Principles introduced in this article, that is, the principle of directionality, prayer enactment, volume of prayer, and the programmatical variability of mosques, seek to bridge the gap between culturally and historically specific forms and functions of mosques and the needs of contemporary Islamic societies living in America and in Europe. By pointing out the variable nature of the mosque, these conceptual spatial guidelines can be employed flexibly in different sites. Moreover, they can provide a methodology that responds to the challenge of negotiating religious functions with other secular, social and cultural practices with a design of new mosques that are inventive in appearance, yet remain faithful to liturgical necessities. Finally, Generative Design Principles enable a designer to re-symbolize the contemporary Muslim environment in many formal ways. However, the design’s success is contingent upon the actual making and using of such an approach, which can only take place if Muslims themselves recognize and accept the basic ideological elasticity of Islam that allows for its own change and progress.
1 The Muslim Council of Britain (El Consejo Musulmán de Gran Bretaña); CIA, en The Economist. 13 de
septiembre de 2003.
2 MONEO, Rafael José (1978). On Typology, en Oppositions nº 13 23
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5 Segons Moneo, “el tipus deixa de ser el “mecanisme rígid” que immobilitza l’arquitectura i esdevé el mitjà
necessari tant per negar el passat com per anticipar el futur”. Ibid., 27.
6 ARDALAN, Nader (1980). The Visual Language of Symbolic Form: A Preliminary Study of Mosque
Architecture, a Architecture as Symbol and Self-Identity, de KATZ, Jonathan G. Filadèlfia: Premi Aga Khan
d’Arquitectura, p.18-36.
7 Some Islamic communities determine the direction based on the “flat” map system, while others orient
themselves according to the shortest distance on the globe.
8 The notion of orientation is also elastic in this case. If the exact direction to Mecca is unknown, the
prayer can still be performed in any direction. It becomes more a matter of intention of a direction.
9 SLYOMOVICS, Susan (1996). The Muslim Worlds Day Parade and ‘Storefront’ Mosques of New York City,
en Making Muslim Space in North America and Europe, de METCALF, Barbara Daly. Berkeley, Los
Angeles, Londres: University of California Press, p.204.
10 Ibid., 205.
11 IRWIN, Robert (1997). Islamic Art in Context. Art, Architecture, and the Literary World. Nueva York: Harry
N. Abrams, p.58.
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