Mosque Building Research Articles

Dialoguing about American Religious Pluralism: An Egyptian Response

Dialoguing about American Religious Pluralism:An Egyptian Response Yosra Elgendi Egyptian religious establishment, conversion, religious freedom, First Amendment The United States has a tradition of religious freedom that is sometimes perplexing to the outside spectator. Indeed, some authors see religion as a competitor to national ideologies, as patriotism assumes similar sacredness and establishes what is right and wrong (lawmaking) and establishes power hierarchies. For that reason, religion was kept in check in Europe and was reduced to the private sphere to avoid pouring into the public sphere and competing with the state. In the traditional conflictual sense of how religion and the state have interacted, the United States has offered a new model. The First Amendment of the U.S. Bill of Rights ensures that the political realm would be separate from the religious realm, and it ensures that both are free. First, the nonestablishment clause declares that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. Second, Congress shall not limit the practice of religion. The first clause detaches the state from any "religious" attachments, while the second allows all forms of religious attachments and affiliations to the people, traditional or not. This perhaps explains the religiously vibrant society that the U.S. enjoys. Religious traditions are socially and civically vocal, such that the United Methodists and the black churches can coexist alongside more secluded [End Page 600] communities, such as the Amish. Whereas the first sees the church to play an important civil role, the second insists on the holiness of their detachment from the rest of society. Furthermore, the religious scene in the U.S. enjoys vibrancy and creativity. Innovative new expressions of religiosity exist alongside the more established religious traditions. In many parts of the world, these new religious expressions can be seen as heresies, particularly if the state does ascribe to a religious establishment. This can be the result of a historical legacy, or it may be a new appropriation that has contributed to the birth of the state. In any case, the establishment of a religion, as in the case of my own country, has led to restrictions on what a country can accept in terms of religious freedom. The Arab Republic of Egypt has an established religion—that of Islam in the Sunni tradition, as the constitution states that "Islam is the religion of the state." It also references the principles of Islamic Sharia as the major source of legislation. The Egyptian authorities' understanding of Islam recognizes only two other religious traditions: Christianity and Judaism. Any other religion (or sect) is not recognized, and thus its adherents have no right to build houses of worship. In that respect, Bahai's and Shiites have no legal recognition as a religious tradition in the country and cannot have public worship spaces. Furthermore, the right to build houses of worship for Christians has only recently been regulated by a legal code—one that is very different and more restrictive than the code regulating the building of mosques. Conversions to Christianity and Judaism are highly restricted, and proselytizing is outlawed. Religious identity is stated on national ID's and is sometimes used as a way to classify people. In that heavily restricted environment, in which the heads of the traditional religious establishment, as well as security, have a say on who has the right to pray in pubic and who does not have that right, the religious experience of the U.S. has much to inform. However, the U.S. also did not wake up to religious freedom until it saw the limitations of religious establishments. William Penn's experiment with Pennsylvania was formative, but that came after the experience of religious conflict and turbulence had marred the peace in states such as Massachusetts. For that very reason, I am surprised by some voices in the U.S. that want to see the First Amendment wither. In 2013, for example, lawmakers from North Carolina filed a bill allowing the state to declare an official religion and allowing public bodies to offer Christian prayers. In May, 2017, [End Page 601] President Trump proposed an executive order that would allow some individuals and organizations to discriminate against other...

UNIVERSAL DESIGN AND ACCESSIBILITY FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN MASJID NEGARA, MALAYSIA

<span lang="EN-US">Malaysia to become seeks to become a fully developed country by 2020. Among nine central challenges demonstrated in the body of the “Vision 2020” is “the challenge of establishing a fully caring society” (WAWASAN 2020). Along with developed societies overcoming such dysfunctional built environments has become under consideration in Malaysia as well to remove barriers and provide equal access of people with disabilities (PWDS) to all public services. Notwithstanding practical steps taken, there are still dissatisfactions from the members of public toward public buildings which cause restriction in PWDS daily life. Previous studies has also raised claims against inaccessibility of mosque buildings as well.<span> </span>In order to realization of a barrier-free built environment for a huge portion of Malaysia population, this research aimed to investigate accessibility and usability of Malaysian mosques for PWDS. Masjid Negara was selected for the purpose of this study. The most recent revision of available Malaysian Standard of MS 1184:2014, “Universal Design and Accessibility in the Built Environment - Code of Practice”, became the reference in this study. A comprehensive evaluation checklist was constructed for the purpose of a systematic observation including 162 checkpoints under 22 items of accessibility.</span>

FUNCTION, FORM, AND MEANING OF RITUAL AND MARKET IN HISTORICAL SITE OF KAMPUNG LUAR BATANG, JAKARTA, INDONESIA

Functions or activities that occur on a historic site did by a community will affect the formation of its physical environment. This research observes the ritual and market activities did by the community in the historic site of KampungLuarBatang, North Jakarta, and sees its influence on the formation of its physical environment. The purpose of this research is to explore the meaning of ritual and market in historic site of KampungLuarBatang, by relating the function or activity of ritual and market with the formation of its physical environment. The research method used is descriptive qualitative interpretative method. The observed function or activity is a pilgrimage ritual activity in the historic mosque building and market activity around the mosque. The form of physical environment observed is the spaces used as places of pilgrimage and market. The conclusion of this research is the function or activity of pilgrimage ritual and market did by the community of KampungLuarBatang, North Jakarta, has a meaning of survival strategy in the modern city environment of Jakarta.

AN ANALYSIS OF GEOMETRIC ELEMENTS OBSERVED IN BANDUNG’S SALMAN MOSQUE

Abstract- The Salman Mosque was constructed in the era of modern architecture guided by geometric elements. Geometric elements enable architects to easily design with accurate measurement. These geometric elements were applied to the Salman Mosque by Achmad Noe’man. The applications of these geometric elements were made to the roof, walls and floor of the Salman Mosque building. The purpose of this paper is study the aspects of geometric elements within this research. The other purpose is to study the application of geometric elements to the Salman Mosque in Bandung. The theories behind this research are the ones concerning geometric elements, modern types of architecture, Mosque architecture, structuring principles, and archetypes. The method used to conduct the research is the research object analysis, in this case of theSalman Mosque. This paper discusses the background, formulation of the problem, purpose, utility, method, theoretical study, object data and research object analysis, as well as the ultimate research conclusion and suggestion. The benefits of the research outcome that can be derived from this research study are yielding knowledge concerning the application of geometric elements to a Mosque building in Indonesia as well as producing recommendations for the design of geometric elements in Indonesia. Keywords: geometric elements; roof, wall, and floor; Salman Mosque Bandung

Indoor Environmental Quality in Air-conditioned Mosque Buildings in Kuwait

In this study, the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) of air-conditioned mosque buildings in an extremely dry desert climate is examined from the perspective of the occupants via two aspects: thermal comfort and indoor air quality. The study presents statistical data about the worshiper thermal comfort together with data describing the indoor air quality in Kuwaiti mosque buildings. With respect to the latter, the overall IEQ acceptance using two measurements, namely, physical measurements and subjective information collected via questionnaires, was used to evaluate 140 worshipers visiting six air-conditioned mosque buildings in the state of Kuwait. The operative temperature based on actual mean vote (AMV) and predicted mean vote (PMV) was identified using a linear regression analysis of the responses on the ASHRAE seven-point thermal sensation scale and was found to be 26.1°C in the summer season .The indoor air quality (IAQ) with respect to the carbon dioxide concentration levels was compared with the acceptable limits of international standards, i.e., the ASHRAE Standard 62.1 [1]. The proposed overall IEQ acceptance findings in the mosque buildings show CO2 concentrations between 730 and 1220 ppm. However, this is considered a slightly higher than the ideal CO2 concentrations, which may require increasing ventilation rates by opening windows and, doors or by mechanical ventilation.

Architecture according to the Perspective of the Qur'an: An Evaluation

Islamic architecture is part of the element of art produced by a group of people who love something beautiful in nature. In the Quran itself has stated that the beauty of something is no relation to love, faith and God. In this paper, the author felt compelled to see Islamic architecture according to the perspective of the Quran that pointed less existence of institutional building of the mosque as a symbol and a landmark of Muslims in the world. One of the main objectives in this writing was discussing the definition of the architecture in the debate of the concept, philosophy and goals of Islamic architecture itself and in the context of the human relationship with the Creator. In addition, this writing discusses the characteristics of Islamic architecture that became the foundation of a building. In this writing also, author is using qualitative methodology focusing on research on the analysis of documents and observations in the study to make it more effective. The study found that, Islamic architecture that can be seen through the mosque building which has distinctive features in architecture, complementing the exhibit uniqueness based on Islamic syariah.

Thermal Comfort Around the Holy Mosques

Due to the increased number of worshippers in and around Muslim holy mosques, portion of worshippers perform their rituals such as prayers in open spaces surrounding mosque buildings which are usually vented and air-conditioned. In this paper the thermal comfort of worshippers in piazzas of the holy mosques is evaluated using different thermal comfort indices such as the heat index HI, the wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT), the physiological equivalent temperature (PET) and the predicted mean vote (PMV). Hourly weather data for Makkah, Madinah and AlQuds were used to evaluate the thermal comfort conditions. A MATLAB code was written to evaluate the hourly natural wet bulb temperature and globe temperature in order to calculate the hourly WBGT. The hourly weather data were also used with RayMan software to predict PET and PMV. Focus times were 13, 16 and 19 h which are approximately Dhur, Asr and Magrib prayer times. Overall, using different thermal comfort indices it was found that the outdoor condition which is closer to thermal comfort is in AlQuds, followed by Madinah and then Makkah. Several appropriate strategies were suggested for each city in order to bring the environment closer to human thermal comfort level. The study suggests shading piazzas and open spaces leading to the mosques have strong favorable impact on human thermal comfort. Madinah weather in particular is very much appropriate to utilize evaporative cooling (mist system) to provide thermal comfort in and outside buildings economically.

Strengthening of Nurul Ilmi Mosque with Concrete Jacketing

Abstract—Nurul Ilmi moesque is one of building for worship located in University of Andalas. In 2008 the new building of mosques was designed using previous indonesian seismic code, SNI 1726: 2002. The right side of the new mosque was constructied in 2009. Due to the limitation of the budget, the construction of the left side of the mosque was continued on 2014. However, a new indonesian seismic code SNI 03-1726-2012 was established and the designed mosque should be revised based on the new indonesian seismic code. Since the right side of the mosque was designed by using the old seismic code (SNI 1726: 2002), so it is necessary to evaluate the strength of the structure by using the seismic code (SNI 03-1726-2012). Based on the analysis results, it was found that the right side of the building structure is not strong enough to resist the combination loads acting on the structure, especially the earthquake load. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthening (retrofitting) the right side of the building structure before connecting with the left side of the building. In this study, the concrete jacketing method was used to the retrofit the column structure. The results show that the jacketing method is effective to increase the capacity of the column and reduce internal forces and displacements that occur in the structure of the mosque, so the structure can resist the working loadsKeywords—column, concrete jacketing, earthquake, displacement, strengthening.

Südtiroler Moschee-Konflikte seit den 1990-er Jahren Argumentationslinien in den Tageszeitungen „Dolomiten“ und „Alto Adige“

South Tyrolean’s Mosque conflicts since the 1990sLines of argumentation in the newspaper “Dolomiten” and “Alto Adige” The following paper is about the perception of mosque buildings in the daily South Tyrolean newspaper, the German-language ‘Dolomiten’ and the Italian-language ‘Alto Adige’. The particle has two aims, for one, it gives an historical overview about the mosque debates in South Tyro from 1990 until today. Building on that, the paper offers an analysis, and particularly a comparison, of argumentation paradigms present in the two South Tyrolean newspapers. As will be seen, both newspaper use argumentation patterns in different kind of ways.

The NGO-ization of Everyday Islam: The Expansion of a Shi'I Islamic Organization within and beyond Senegal

For decades, religion was effectively ignored by practitioners concerned with development and humanitarian aid. However, in recent years, religion has become central to the agenda of major donors and NGOs. This paper helps us understand a moment of significant transformation for religious movements as they increasingly present themselves to the world in the institutional form of non-governmental organizations. These formalized and bureaucratized structures allow Islamic movements to engage in various public spheres and translocal networks and to access material and symbolic resources. Yet even as religious communities plug into global institutions and discourses, Islamic practice and identity are perceived as matters of personal choice and responsibility. Through the case study of Institut Mozdahir International, a fast-growing indigenous Shi'i organization in Senegal, I examine the sometimes complementary, sometimes contradictory relationship between individual moral fulfillment and joining religious networks institutionalized as NGOs. The establishment of a Shi'i Islamic network in Senegal is one alternative to following the country's dominant Sufi orders. Lebanese migrated to Senegal as early as the 1880s, but Senegalese began to “convert” to Shi'i Islam mainly as a result of the Iranian revolution of 1979. Shi'i advocates spread their religious convictions in Wolof or other local languages through teaching, conferences, holiday celebrations, and media publicity. Leaders skillfully detach this foreign religious ideology from Middle Eastern politics and make this branch of Islam relevant to Senegalese through establishing religious centers as NGOs, which work to bring economic development to neighborhoods in the name of Shi'i Islam. In Senegal spiritual progress is thought to lead to material progress and Senegalese Shi'a are firm advocates of their religious work having concrete secular benefits for society. They move into areas such as health care and agro-pastoral development underdeveloped by the weak Senegalese state. Contrasting their movement to Sunni reformism financed by Saudi Arabia, Senegalese Shi'a firmly declare that operating merely as Islamic organizations no longer suffices without also providing services to the people. Thus the new face of Islamic reformist movements couples religious education and the building of mosques and institutions with extra-religious benefits. More than their Sunni counterparts, Shi'i organizations are dependent on NGO status in order to obtain legitimacy and convince their growing network of followers of the wider benefits of adhering to a minority branch of Islam. This paper examines how Mozdahir merges the sacred and profane to present themselves to the wider world of both Middle Eastern and Western potential donors while proselytizing to and consolidating a growing community of loyal employees, followers, and grateful aid recipients. Ethnographic research is based on participant observation, interviews, and discourse analysis of religious preaching and promotional materials.

Architectural mimicry and the politics of mosque building: negotiating Islam and Nation in Turkey

This paper discusses the politics of mosque architecture in modern Turkey. The classical Ottoman mosque image has been reproduced in state-sponsored mosques throughout the second half of the twentieth century. Defining this particular design strategy as architectural mimicry, I discuss the emergence of this image through the negotiation between the nation-state and the ‘nationalist conservative’ discourse within the context of Cold War geopolitics. Comparing the Turkish case with the Islamic post-colonial world, I argue that the prevalence of architectural mimicry is related to the nostalgia it generates. Nostalgia is a discursive effect of architectural mimicry which is in tune with the nationalist conservative worldview in its relationship to the state's anti-communism. This particular image was taken up by the Islamist AKP in the 2000s, within the context of the global rise of political Islam. In this instance, the same representation took on a different meaning. It functioned as a simulacrum representing the ‘nation in Islam’ with a claim to authenticity amongst the competing Islamic representations.

INSKRIPSI HURUF ARAB DAN RAGAM HIAS PADA MASJID TUA AL-MUJAHIDIN KABUPATEN BONE SULAWESI SELATAN

<p>Archaeology is history; archaeological research cannot be separatedfrom the history, because history<br />reveals the story of material culture. The Old Mosque is part of a cultural thing that will describe the<br />history of the Islamic society and the reconstruction of the mosque building in accordance with local<br />cultural character of local genius in its time. The Old Mosque of al-Mujahidin Watampone is the oldest<br />and the first mosque of the royal heritage of Bone in Islam development era. The mosque has specific<br />stylistic and architecture that describes how the Islamic symbols interacted with local culture and art.<br />The strong influence of Islamic teachings was implicitly reflected in a wide variety of the mosque<br />ornaments. This research aims to reveal the decoration and Arabic inscriptions located in the<br />Old Mosque, to promote the history and archaeological traces of the Islamic kingdom of Bone, and to<br />recommend to the local government of Bone to make Qadi's cemetery as part of archeological history<br />of the kingdom Bone that deserve to be considered by the community and the Government of Bone as a<br />cultural heritage of the archipelago to be protected as Objects of Cultural guaranteed by Indonesian<br />Law Number 5 of 1992 about Objects of Cultural Property. The research methodology was a field<br />research with a survey which is descriptive, archaeological, historical, and explanative on the Old<br />Mosque al-Mujahidin, Watampone, Bone regency, South Sulawesi. The techniques of collecting data<br />in this study were: literature data, field data (archaeological assessment, observation, and interviews),<br />documentation and recording, surface surveys, and the withdrawal of sampling. This study also used<br />the architectural analysis on the mosque, i.e. morphological, technological, stylistic, and contextual<br />analysis.</p>

Protected and Controlled. Islam and ‘Desecularisation from Above’ in Russia

This essay examines two recent Russian public debates related to Islam: the building of new mosques in Moscow and the terrorist action against Charlie Hebdo. It is argued that these cases exemplify two contradictory attitudes towards Islamic religiosity: a strong protection of ‘traditional religions’, but also tightening control and the wish to keep non-Orthodox religiosity outside the public space. The opposition to new mosques reveals an attitude towards Islam as something alien, but the protection of religious sensitivities, including Islamic ones, finds much support. These two examples reflect the simultaneous projects of the desecularisation and secularisation of Russian society.

Spaces of Right-Wing Populism and Anti-Muslim Racism in Austria. Identitarian Movement, Civil Initiatives and the Fight against ‘Islamisation’

This article argues that the current right-wing social movements in Austria are taking part in a right-wing populist hegemonic project relying on anti-Muslim racism, anti-immigration sentiment and xeno-racism (Fekete 2001). Analysing texts and interviews of two right-wing populist social movements, the Identitarian Movement and the Civil initiatives against the building of mosques, with a critical frame analysis approach, the paper identifies their spaces of political action with the aim of under- standing their success. We argue that, rather than competing with the Austrian Freedom Party in the space of national (party) politics, these movements have established their own niches in the Austrian political space. This strategy not only enables them to co-exist with the main right-wing populist actor, the Freedom Party, in a mutually supportive environment, but it also broadens the right-wing populist discursive strategy of constructing a double antagonism between ‘us’ and ‘them’ (the Elite) and ‘the others’. Hence, while the Identitarian Movement is concerned with meta-politics on the level of the ‘supra-regional’ space which is understood to shape European culture and ‘ethnic identity’, the civil initiatives’ niche is located on the local level and is presented as the space where conflicts between ‘us’ and ‘the other’ are experienced. In our approach of analysing spaces of political action, we argue that recent right-wing populism is successful because it manages to ‘diversify’ spaces of action and to colonize all levels of social life with its idea of antagonistic politics.

The Original Identity of the Safavid (Mosque) In Isfahan

Kafran is among villages the general region Rouydasht, at the extreme eastern end Isfahan province, having a long past, due to it’sexisting documents. The present study, being just a part the whole program known as development the history Iranian architecture, tries to uncover the identity and development the Mosque. Todo this, and with the aid of librarian and field studies, we shall try to investigate this structure attributed to Safavid period, by representing a description of its features, through maps. These are followed by some architectural analyses, according to which it is found that the southern nave is nothing more than a later addition to the original building. This hypothesis may be proved through employing such arguments as the non-existence of the mentioned space in the initial design the structure; therefore one may conclude that the initial using the original building had not been religious at all. Other [visual] evidences corroborate our hypothesis; among them one can mention the lack form, scale and shape proportions the main (northern)nave for performing prayer ceremony, unsuitability first story spaces for usual functions mosques, lack historical precedence for the model in the known Iranian History mosque building, and etc. Ultimately it should be noted that the original nucleus Hadji mosque is very similar to Safavid pavilions, and thus one may put forward the proposal that the original nucleus the structure might have been formal-ceremonial, or -administrative type. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s6p242

Tamils and the Haunting of Justice: History and Recognition in Malaysia’s Plantations by Andrew C. Willford (review)

Reviewed by: Tamils and the Haunting of Justice: History and Recognition in Malaysia’s Plantations by Andrew C. Willford Henry S. Barlow Tamils and the Haunting of Justice: History and Recognition in Malaysia’s Plantations Andrew C. Willford with the collaboration of S. Nagarajan Singapore: NUS Press, 2014. xviii, 318 pp. ISBN 978-9971-69-839-3 The main author, Andrew Willford, an associate professor of anthropology at Cornell University, has previously written extensively on the subject of [End Page 184] the treatment of Indian estate communities by the Malaysian government. This book focuses on the plight of Tamil communities in Selangor, displaced and threatened by displacement when estates, which had been established in many cases over a century ago, are closed down and the land used for housing development. Given the extraordinary speed with which development has taken place recently, this is a timely exposé of problems which have been encountered by the Indian community in Malaysia’s most prosperous state. It is fair to assume that similar problems and pressures, albeit to a lesser extent, face most Indian estate communities along the length of the west coast of the Peninsula. Although Malaysians of Indian ethnic origin comprise less than 10 per cent of the population of Malaysia, they have been concentrated on the west coast of the Peninsula, from the time rubber estates were introduced there in the boom years of the early twentieth century. Since the Malays were reluctant to work on the estates, British estate owners recruited labour from whole villages of impoverished Tamils in southern India to undertake this work. It is the plight of the third and fourth generations of these migrants which is the subject of this book. Like other isolated migrant communities, they have in many cases retained the traditional customs of their original communities with extreme fidelity: so much so that those studying such communities in India have been known to visit the Malaysian Tamil villages to obtain some idea of the customs in India a century ago. Religion observances are therefore fundamental to the life of the community, focused round the temples, in many cases over 100 years old. Moreover, the structure, social fabric and cohesion of the community depend on ties of marriage and peer pressure, which can only be weakened when the community dispersed. The first significant disposals of estate land for development took place in the 1970s and 1980s. In these cases, the author shows that because the intrinsic value of the land, even with conversion permission for housing, was relatively low, well-organized communities were reasonably successful in obtaining alternative housing in areas where the majority of the community could continue to live in fairly close proximity, bringing with them their temple gods. More recent conversions of estate lands for housing have had significantly less satisfactory outcomes for the Tamil communities thus displaced, partly because the underlying value of the land has increased very substantially. There is thus extreme reluctance by either the estate or the developer to set aside land for low-cost housing for displaced workers. Added to this is the strong perception within the Tamil community that those responsible for such large new housing developments wish to reflect a middle-class Islamic culture: hence the building of many mosques and surau, and the extreme reluctance of developers to accommodate any un-Islamic (in this case, Hindu) places of worship. [End Page 185] The legal compensation payable to displaced estate workers is modest and quite inadequate, on its own, to enable the purchase of alternative low-cost accommodation. However, by a process of trial and error, estate communities threatened with displacement, assisted by NGOs and lawyers working pro bono, have learned to use the law to its full extent to delay their eviction. This tactic of exacerbated delay together with the threat of publicity adverse to the developers appears to be the only way by which the displaced Tamil communities can force developers into any sort of reasonable settlement, which takes into account the many years they and their forebears have worked on the land, thus contributing to the prosperity of the country. Deep concern and resentment were also expressed by many Tamils in...

„Chorwaci islamskiej wiary” – byt rzeczywisty czy twór propagandy?

The “Croats of Islamic faith” – reality or a creation of propaganda? According to the latest census, in 2001, 56, 777 Muslims live in the Republic of Croatia. The present article is an attempt to answer the following questions about these “Croats of Islamic faith” (Hrvati islamske vjeroispovjesti): Who are they? Where do they come from? And how are they socially perceived?The notion that the Bosnian Muslims are “Croats of the purest blood” was first formulated in the first half of the XIX century by Dr. Ante Starčević, the founder of the Law Party and the originator of a modern Croatian national doctrine. His views were fully adopted and accepted by the Ustasha propaganda, which claims that Bosnia and Herzegovina is the historical cradle of the Croatian state. As a result of this, local Muslims enjoyed a status which was equal to that of the Catholic community. Some propaganda gestures of the time, such as a celebration of the opening of a big mosque in downtown Zagreb, were meant to make the Bosnian Muslims accept the idea of the NDH state and induce them to enroll in the Ustasha Army. After World War II numerous Muslims, who uncritically became advocates of the Ustasha propaganda also shared the fate of Pavelic and his followers. The other Muslims who left their country before the war cultivated the infamous traditions of the NDH state, as well as the myth of an apparent Catholic-Muslim brotherhood.Following the civil war (1991–1995) thousands of Muslim refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina returned to Croatia, and the issue of their ethnic identity caused some problems. The level of social acceptance of the Muslim community in this traditionally Catholic community, however, is insufficient given the history, and displays of religious activity such as the establishment of Islamic schools and the building of mosques, raise anxiety and a fear of Islamicization amongst many Catholic Croatians. One can observe ongoing and endless Internet debates on the issue as to whether or not the Muslims living in Croatia are true Croatians, while politicians struggle to make use of the Muslim issue for their own purposes. In reality the “Croats of Islamic faith” are simply trying to adapt themselves to the global community and are too busy with everyday matters that they seem not to notice these debates that are largely theoretical.

The Influence of Society's Cultural Aspects on Mosques' Architectural Symbolism-The Mosques Built Between “1970-1990” in Erbil city as Case study

There are spiritual and physical symbolic values of the mosques architecture. From the birth of Islam mosque architecture appeared in a simple form but with a spiritual symbolic value, then the mosque architecture developed as Islam spread in various regions and some new elements have been added for the functional needs and numerous styles of mosques appeared as a result in the diversity of identity and culture of each region. The research discusses that symbolism is one of the cultural aspects as it is one of the humane needs which rectifies society’s identity. On the other hand the evolution of mosque architecture mentions that new elements were added for utilitarian need and lasted a period which became symbols for the mosque buildings as well, then it sheds light on the interpretation of mosque architecture with other regions that resulted in various styles of mosque architecture. Therefore, the symbolism of mosque architecture could be obtained through two points one from its key symbolic elements and the other from its relation with local architecture. Thus, the research started to search and seeks to find the reasons for lacking a known local style of mosques in Erbil city, and the lack of symbolism in them. They even have been built in such a way that contrasted with some of the Islamic regulations. The research takes the factor of "cultural aspects" as an effective factor on appearing these kinds of mosques. The research concludes that removing some elements in the mosque building which most of them has a desirable symbolic value and besides that neglecting local architecture in the design of mosques led to lose symbolism in the mosque buildings in Erbil city. Thus, a large ratio of the architects could not recognize the mosque buildings as compared to some other buildings. The thesis sheds light on the cultural background of the society (governmental parties, architects, clients, etc.) that have a distinct effect on the symbolism ratio of the mosque buildings, unlike the project cost has a little bit influence, as most of the mosques which were built by the governmental parties have low symbolic value in spite of not having problems in the cost budget. The thesis concludes another important point which is the characteristics of the site (orientation, area and number of elevations) have a positive relation with the symbolism ratio of mosque, so the research recommends governmental parties and architects to take these points into consideration in the design of mosque buildings.

Significance of the Application of Universal Design in Mosque Buildings in Malaysia

<span>As a key national target, Malaysia has been trying to become a sustainable and developed country by 2020. In this way, social sustainability, one of the three pillars of sustainable development involves participation of all people and communities as well as their enjoyment of equal human rights. Based on World Health Organization (WHO), one billion disabled people with impairments live in the world. However, the social model of disability proposes that much more people are disabled due to environmental barriers. In this regard, the universal design concept has been implemented as a notion through which built environment is required to service all people with different range of abilities. Mosque buildings are the main religious spot for Muslim people and their most important community center that play a significant role in their daily lives. Accordingly, application of universal design in this built environment is crucial to cater wider range of users. Reviewing the relevant literatures, this article proposes the significance of the application of universal design as an exigency in mosque design process.</span>

Whose Niqab is This? Challenging, Creating and Communicating Female Muslim Identity via Social Media

The 2010 annual report of the US State Department on Human Rights reported a rising bias towards Muslims in Europe (US State Department, 2010) while France, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland enact laws restricting religious dress and/or mosques. Despite this bias, Gallup reports that 77% of UK Muslims identify with their country versus only 50% of the general public (BBC News, 2009). North American Muslims face similar challenges. US news reports of mosque building or expansion draw vocal opposition like that expressed about an Islamic Cultural Center opened near Ground Zero in New York City. US reality series All American Muslim lasted one season due to vocal opposition and a loss of sponsors. In Canada, the sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie has gained an online following because it dramatizes the challenges and biases faced by Muslims in a small Canadian Prairie town. Faced with increasing bias and imperfect representations in the mainstream media Muslims are increasingly using social networks to build community and to regain control of representing their faith and their lives.