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New Cities in the Muslim World: The Cultural Politics of Planning an ‘Islamic’ City

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Religion and Place

Abstract

This chapter examines expressions of state Islamic identity in three new cities: Putrajaya (Malaysia), Grozny (Chechen Republic) and Masdar (United Arab Emirates). In each city, great care has been taken to evoke a sense of religiosity through architecture and planning, and each has sought a distinctive ‘Islamic’ style where none existed previously. This chapter contends that in the context of development and identity construction, the city increasingly constitutes a key scale for pan-Islamic imaginings. I suggest that the Islamic idiom adopted in these cities is evidence not of growing Muslim fundamentalism but rather of the use of Islam to address secular issues relating to nation-building, competition with rival groups, anti-colonial sentiments and global cosmopolitanism.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This is the subject of a paper in preparation that examines how and the extent to which popular culture in Muslim Southeast Asia has been ‘Arabized’ in recent years.

  2. 2.

    Nusajaya, the new capital of Malaysia’s Johor state, and Taman Tamadun Islam [Islamic Civilizations Park] in Terengganu are both Islam-themed and are oriented towards Mecca (Moser 2011a).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Asian Studies and Culture, Department of Cultural Studies, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA, USA

    Sarah Moser

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  1. Sarah Moser
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Correspondence to Sarah Moser .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , School of Geography, Politics and Sociol, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, United Kingdom

    Peter Hopkins

  2. , Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, Arts Link 1, Singapore, 117570, Singapore

    Lily Kong

  3. , School of Geosciences, The University of Edinburgh, Geography Building, Drummond Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9XP, United Kingdom

    Elizabeth Olson

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Moser, S. (2013). New Cities in the Muslim World: The Cultural Politics of Planning an ‘Islamic’ City. In: Hopkins, P., Kong, L., Olson, E. (eds) Religion and Place. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4685-5_3

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