islam,
urban space,
Muslim leaders,
mosque,
migration
Abstract
The article examines the practices of marking urban space as “Islamic” by Muslims and non-Muslims. The purpose of the study is to test the hypothesis that “religious” spaces are perceived by city residents as forming a border situation between “their” and “foreign” cities, and the idea of this border is supported by both Muslims and non-Muslims. It is assumed that labeling an area as “Islamic” provokes symbolic conflicts over the “right to the city”. Belonging to Islam is considered by local residents as a marker of an expansive “alien” space, which has the ability to transform the surrounding territories into similar ones. In urban narratives, the factor of belonging to Islam leads to competition between various urban subjects. For example, between representatives of Muslim communities and residents of houses close to religious sites or “migrant” infrastructure, also often labeled as “religious”. The study is based on semi-structured interviews and observations on the territory of the Irkutsk mosque and in the surrounding areas. It has been established that by producing religious space, Muslim activists, migrants and “indigenous” Muslims label urban objects as Islamic. They place advertising signs with religious symbols and Arabic inscriptions, include sound effects, change the style of buildings from secular to Islamic, etc. These considerations, in turn, legitimize for Muslim activists the “right to the city,” which in this case is expressed in the establishment of new rules in the form of religious ethics for all actors included in the context of a given space - Muslims and non-Muslims.
