Case Study 2: The Transformation of a House of Prayer in Hamburg

Abstract

Building a mosque in Germany has been a highly controversial issue in recent years. As part of the discourse about the position and visibility of Islam, mosques have raised fears of long-term-residents and have been seen as a claim to power within the public space. Against this background, the case of a deconsecrated Christian Church that is sold to a Muslim community to be repurposed as a mosque is a risky endeavour.

This case study shows that the transformation could be reframed into a common project of neighbourliness, hospitality and multi-religious encounter. The process that I want to retrace, illustrates the relevance of intersectional local identities to produce meaning of religious space.

The local protestant church community and Al-Nour, the mosque community that bought the former church, started a mutual dialogue, by which the performative interreligious process of the architectural transition was embodied, and a logic of fertile interaction was displayed.