American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting – San Diego, 2014 Religious Architecture Tour (original) (raw)
Related papers
Islam in California: Views from the Minaret
The Muslim World, 1996
In her wide-ranging, provocative essay on Islam and democracy, the Moroccan feminist Fatima Mernissi recounts a conversation with her Aunt Aziza, who asks after a broadcast of the evening news, 'But why does no one explain this dh~7qr~+ya[democracy]? Is it a country or an Sh7aor an animal or an island?' Then Mernissi tells us how her aunt turns to perform her ablutions in order to pray. Later, while discussing the Qdiin and the modern construction of knowledge, she observes that Muslims who have immigrated to Europe are hindered from engaging in a mutual exchange with the dominant cultures there by the petro-dollars that wealthy Persian Gulf countries use to create centers for the transmission of traditional Islamic knowledge. Cloaked by the sacred, this investment, she argues, cultivates "f& (obedience to authority) and the docility and proverbial fatalism that are continually dinned into our ears. '2 Voices such as Mernissi's, reinforced by Western discourses about Islam such as those emanating from essays by Samuel Huntington, as well as Martin Marty and R. Scott Appleby's monumental fundamentalism project, convey the impression that Muslims are largely estranged from the West, both in their native lands and in their adopted homes. Indeed, Mernissi even talks of a "fear' of democracy, freedom of thought, and individualism. Such discourses generally fail to take into consideration that such issues-along with civil society, pluralism and human rightsare today being actively discussed and debated by Muslims in many different contexts, from Kuala Lampur and Cairo to Paris and Los Angeles. Rather than testifying to a fundamental estrangement, this modern discourse actually represents a process of appropriation. This study is concerned with the formation of Islam in California. In reaction to research which conceives of Islam in the modern world as a juxtaposition of immutable religious norms with rapid historical and cultural change, it argues that Islam is more adequately grasped when conceived as a discursive entity appropriated and shaped by people and institutions in a finite cultural milieu. Islam as construed in California will therefore bear the imprint of the interactions of a diversified Muslim Fatima Mernissi, hhm and Democr8cy. Fear of /he Modern Wor.k! trans. Mary Jo Lakeland (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1992). p. 52. [bib!, p. 81. 294 minority population with each other and with a complex configuration of non-Muslim individuals and groups in a secular milieu. Validation for this hypothesis will by sought by a description and content analysis of ZzeMiharet the monthly (formerly bimonthly) publication of the Islamic Center of Southern California, covering a period of ten years. Data has also been obtained through interviews and fieldwork conducted intermittently during this period. By focusing on an Islamic publication intended for Muslims, this endeavor has the advantage of adumbrating how Muslims represent Islam to themselves over an extended period of time. Such a systematic textual analysis has not yet been attempted by researchers working on Islam in America, who have preferred to base their work largely on data from non-Muslim sources, fieldwork, and statistical questionnaires, or who have chosen to focus on the lives of prominent Muslims instead of on institutions. I. The Emergence of the Islamic Center and The Minaret The history of The Mharetis interwoven with the history of the Islamic Center of Southern California. The beginnings of the Center can be traced to 1953 when a small group of Arab Muslim immigrant families and converts in Los Angeles created the Muslim Foundation of America to foster the pursuit of religious obligations, particularly prayer and religious learning. In 1967 this organization changed into the Islamic Foundation of Southern California, and moved to a wood-frame house it had acquired on St. Andrews Place, near the intersection of Washington and Western. This was in a neighborhood that had sprung up in L.A. between the two world wars, evolved into a predominantly African-American residential area, and is now home to a growing community of Central American immigrants. The impetus for this research was initially provided by the University of California at Santa Barbara Department of Religious Studies 'Religious Contours of California' project, 1984-86, funded by the California Council for the Humanities. An early draft of this article was delivered at a UCSB conference, P/urahm as a Rehgious TradiZion: The Case of Souther. Cahyornik, organized by Wade Clark Roof and G. Gordon Melton 1994. 1 am grateful to the Council, the UCSB Academic Senate, and the UCSB Interdisciplinary Humanities Center for funding this research. Richard Callahan and Pratap Kumar provided invaluable assistance with compiling the database for Z5e Minaret's contents.
International Journal of Modern Trends in Social Sciences
The purpose of this study is to outline the design elements of church architecture and activities towards encouraging a less isolationist image within a multifaith community. The research case studies include Calvary Church (CC) and Calvary Convention Centre (CCC). Qualitative case studies through observations and interviews are conducted to get information on perceptions of the architectural spaces, programs, and design elements applied to the case studies. The data analysis approach used is content analysis and descriptive analysis for both case studies, creating a less isolationist image and encouraging the multifaith community urban context. The results revealed that intimacy, proximity, neutrality, universal character, and flexibility are essential for creating a positive shared space design for a church building.
Journal of Islamic studies and culture, 2016
This paper explores the development of mosques, or masajid in plural, in America after Imam W.D. Mohammed assumed leadership of the then Nation of Islam and named it the World Community of Al-Islam in the West (WCIW). The societal, institutional and cultural challenges facing the distinct communities of Muslim in America historically stymied mosque development for years before the introduction of a new stabilizing force that produced massive growth of the physical institution of a mosque or masjid. This stabilizing force was a nationwide organization. An examination of The Phoenix Mosque and Institute Project, that produced Masjid Jauharatul Islam in Phoenix and Tempe Cultural Center in Tempe, was an initiative directly related to Imam W.D. Mohammed, in particular, reflects the experiences in funding, ownership and actual architecture of mosque building nationwide.
Mosque in the Valley: A Space for Spiritual Gathering & Cultural Learning
2015
DEDICATION To my parents Md Iqbal Faruque Khan and Rezina Sultana and beloved husband, Fahim Mahmud. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS All my sincere thanks to Professor Kathleen Lugosch and Professor Max Page, without who's insightful ideas and enormous inspiration I could not have went along with the project this far. Thank you so much Carl Fiocchi, for appreciating my thoughts. Cannot thank my parents any less for supporting me all the way through and always being the center of all inspiration and all my thoughts. At last but not the least I would like to thank the Department of Architecture for facilitating me with everything I needed to complete this thesis. In the history of Architecture, religious structures have always awed people whether a person corresponds to the concerning religion or even he or she is not religious at all. Those structures have been patronized by the riches or the royal highnesses of the time and mostly got the utmost priority regarding planning and construction an...