Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Patronage and territoriality: Islamizing space in the Western city

  • Published:
Contemporary Islam Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Today’s cosmopolitan Western City contains large numbers of sub-cultures within its neighbourhoods, streets and buildings that are re-configuring the norms of citizenship and place. This paper examines the role of citizenship as a sense of cultural identity, territorial belonging and place attachment in the building of three mosques in Adelaide across a 100-year time span. Starting with the colonial period and the building of the first mosque in Australia up until the post-colonial period of large-scale Muslim immigration to Australia, the paper demonstrates the forms of social organization and patronage that were created as a strategy for collective action to make the building of these mosques possible. Set against the marginal political position of Muslims in Australia throughout this period, this paper shows the creativity of social and resource mobilization to stake a claim for the ownership of land in the Western City and to define a Muslim ethnic boundary.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adelaide Observer (1891). p 34cd.

  • Adelaide Observer (1892). p 37.

  • Adelaide’s heritage study. (1984). Department of city planning. Australia: Adelaide.

    Google Scholar 

  • Al-Sayyad, N., & Castells, M. (2002). Muslim Europe or Euro-Islam: politics, culture, and citizenship in the age of globalization (transnational perspectives on space and place). New York: Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Appadurai, A. (2003). Sovereignty without territoriality: Notes for postnational geography. In S. Low & D. Lawrence-Zuniga (Eds.), The anthropology of space and place. Locating culture (pp. 337–349). Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Armstrong, H. (1994). Cultural continuity in multicultural sub/urban places. In K. Gibson & S. Watson (Eds.), Metropolis now: planning and the urban in contemporary Australia. Sydney: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Australian Council on Population and Ethnic Affairs (ACPEA). (1982). Multiculturalism for all Australians. Our developing neighbourhood. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

    Google Scholar 

  • Banton, M. (2007). Max Weber on ‘ethnic communities’: a critique. Nations and Nationalism, 13(1), 19–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barth, F. (Ed.). (1969). Ethnic groups and boundaries: the social organisation of cultural difference. Bergen-Oslo: Universitets Forlaget.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell, P. (1993). Multicultural Australia in the media. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bouma, G. D. (1994). Mosques and Muslim settlement in Australia. Canberra: Bureau of Immigration, Multicultural and Population Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brubaker, R. (2004). Ethnicity without groups. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Burayidi, M. (2000). Urban planning as a multicultural canon. In M. Burayidi (Ed.), Urban planning in a multicultural society. Westport: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burnley, I., Murphy, P. & Fagan, R. (1997). Immigration and Australian cities. Sydney: Federation press.

  • Carnes, J. C. (1984). Moslem Albanians in North Queensland. Lectures on North Queensland History, 4, 184–194.

    Google Scholar 

  • Centre for Muslim Minorities and Islam Policy Studies (CMMIPS). (2009). Report on: Muslim voices: hopes and aspirations of Muslim Australians. Australia: Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cerulo, K. (1997). Identity construction: new issues, new directions. Annual Review of Sociology, 23, 385–409.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chai, S. (2005). Predicting ethnic boundaries. European Sociology Review, 21(4), 375–391.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Choo, C. (1993). The impact of Asian-Aboriginal Australian contacts in Northern Australia, particularly the Kimberley, Western Australia. Paper presented to the Asia-Pacific Migration Affecting Australia: Temporary, Long-term and Permanent Movements of People, 14–17 September, Darwin.

  • Committee on Discrimination Against Arab Australians with the Committee of Arab Australians. (1990). Documentation of incidents of harassment of, and racism towards, Australians of Arab descent and Australian Muslims: August–October 1990. Clifton Hill: Committee on Discrimination Against Arab Australians.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cornell, S. (1996). The variable ties that bind: content and circumstance in ethnic processes. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 19(2), 265–289.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunn, K. (2001). Representations of Islam in the politics of mosque development in Sydney. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Scoaiale Geografie, 92(3), 291–308.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eade, J. (2013). Crossing boundaries and identification processes. Integrative Psychology Behaviour. doi:10.1007/s12124-013-9244-0.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ebaugh, H. R., & Chafetz, J. S. (2000). Religion and the new immigrants: continuities and adaptations in immigrant congregations. New York: Altamira Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ethnic Affairs Commission of New South Wales. (1985). Eighteen years after: the Turkish settlement experience in NSW. Interim report. Sydney: Ethnic Affairs Commission of NSW.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fincher, R., & Jacobs, J. M. (Eds.). (1998). Cities of difference. Guildford: Guildford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Germain and Gagnon, (2003). Planning Theory and Practice, 4(3).

  • Ganter, R. (2008). Muslim Australians: the deep histories of contact. Journal of Australian Studies, 32(4).

  • Goffman, E. (1975). Stigmate. Les usages sociaux des handicaps. Paris: Minuit.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gold, J. (1982). Territoriality and human behaviour. Progress in Human Geography, 6, 44–67.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grafmeyer, Y. (1999). La coexistence en milieu urbain: echange, conflits, transactions. Recherches Sociologiques, 1, 157–176.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grassby, A. (1973). A multicultural society for the future. Canberra: Department of Immigration/Australian Government Publishing Service.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greider, T., & Garkovich, L. (1994). Landscapes: the social construction of nature and the environment. Rural Sociology, 59(1), 1–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hage, G. (2000). White nation: fantasies of white supremacy in a multicultural society. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holston, J. (1999). Cities and citizenship. Durham: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holston, J., & Appadurai, A. (1996). Cities and citizenship. Public Culture, 8(2), 187–204.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC). (1991). Racist violence. Report of the national inquiry into racist violence in Australia. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs, J. M. (1996). Edge of Empire: post-colonialism and the city. London: Routledge.

  • Jacobs, J. M. (1998). Staging difference: Aestheticization and the politics of difference in contemporary cities. In R. Fincher & J. M. Jacobs (Eds.), Cities of difference (pp. 252–279). Guildford: Guildford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, P.G., & Kenny, A. (2007). Australia’s Muslim cameleers‬: pioneers of the Inland 1860s–1930s‬. Wakefield Press‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

  • Jordens, A. M. (1997). Alien to citizen: settling migrants in Australia, 1945–75. St Leonards: Allen and Unwin in Association with the Australian Archives.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kheir, M. (1991). Community profile of the Lebanese Muslim community. Lakemba: Lebanese Muslim Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kihato, et al. (Eds) (2010) Urban diversity: Space, culture and inclusive pluralism in cities worldwide. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.

  • Kintrea, K., et al. (2008). Young People and territoriality in British cities. Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

  • Klauser, F. R. (2012). Thinking through territoriality: introducing Claude Raffestin to Anglophone sociospatial theory. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 30(1), 106–120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knox, P. (1982). The social production of the built environment. Ekistics, 49, 291–297.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lalli, M. (1992). Urban-related identity: theory, measurement, and empirical findings. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 12, 285–303.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Low, S. M., & Altman, I. (1992). Place attachment: A conceptual inquiry. In I. Altman & S. M. Low (Eds.), Place attachment (pp. 1–12). New York: Plenum.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, K. (1960). The image of the city. Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mackie, F. (1983). Structure, culture, religion in the welfare of Muslim families: a study of immigrant Turkish and Lebanese men and women and their families living in Melbourne. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malmberg, T. (1980). Human territoriality: survey of behavioural territories in man with preliminary analysis and discussion of meaning. The Hague: Mouton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Manderson, L. (1988). Malays. In J. Jupp (Ed.), The Australian people (pp. 691–693). Sydney: Angus and Robertson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meinig, D. W. (1979). Symbolic landscapes: Models of American community. In D. Meinig (Ed.), The interpretation of ordinary landscapes (pp. 164–192). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Multicultural Life, SAMEAC’s 25th Anniversary (2005). Special Feature: Fred Shahin OAM,1, 14.

  • Nagel, J. (1994). Constructing ethnicity: creating and recreating ethnic identity and culture. Social Problems, 41(1), 152–176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olzak, S. (2006). The global dynamics of racial and ethnic mobilization. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pratt, D. (2011). Antipodean Ummah: Islam and Muslims in Australia and New Zealand. Religion Compass, 5(12), 743–752.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raffestin, C. (1976). Peut-on parler de codes dans les sciences humaines et particulierement en geographie? L’Espace Geographique, 3, 183–188.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raffestin, C. (1980). Pour une geographie du pouvoir. Paris: LITEC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Raffestin, C. (1986). Territorialite: concept ou paradigme en geographie sociale? Geographica Helvetica, 2, 91–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rashid, M., & Bartsch, K. (2014). Architecture of the Adelaide Mosque: hybridity, resilience and assimilation. TDSR, 25(11), 65–75.

    Google Scholar 

  • Relph, E. (1976). Place and placelessness. London: Pion Limited.

    Google Scholar 

  • Remy, J. (1992). La transaction, une method d’analyse: contribution a l’emergence d’un nouveau paradigm. Environnement et Societe, 17, 9–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Remy, J. (1998). Villes, espaces publics et religions: recits d’esperance et pratiques quotidiennes. Social Compass, 45(1), 23–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Review of Migrant Services and Programs. (1978). Report of the review of migrant services and programs (Galbally Report). Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riis, O. (1998). Religion re-emerging. The role of religion in legitimating integration and power in modern societies. International Sociology, 13(2), 249–272.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ryden, K. C. (1993). Mapping the invisible landscape: folklore, writing, and the sense of place. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sacks, R. (1986). Human territoriality: its theory and history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saeed, A. (2003). Islam in Australia. Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sandercock, L. (2000). When strangers become neighbours: managing cities of difference. Planning Theory and Practice, 1(1), 13–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sandercock, L. (2003). Planning in the ethno-culturally diverse city: a comment. Planning Theory and Practice, 4(3), 319–323.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, T. L. (1976). Religion and ethnicity in America. In G. E. Pozzetta (Ed.), The immigrant religious experience, 19, American immigration and ethnicity series. New York /London: Garland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spickard, P., & Burroughs, W. J. (2000). We are a people: narrative and multiplicity in constructing ethnic identity. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stevens, C. (1989 and 2003). Tin mosques & ghantowns: History of afghan cameldrivers in Australia. Melbourne: OUP Australia and New Zealand.

  • Thompson, S. (2003). Planning and multiculturalism: a reflection on Australian local practice. Planning Theory and Practice, 4(3), 275–293.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tilly, C. (1978). From mobilisation to revolution. Englewood Hills: Prenctice hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tuan, Y. F. (1977). Space and place: the perspective of experience. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tuan, Y. F. (1980). Rootedness versus sense of place. Landscape, 24, 3–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallman, S. (1986). The boundaries of ‘race’: processes of ethnicity in England. Man, 13(2), 200–217.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Warner, R. S., & Wittner, J. G. (Eds.). (1998). Gatherings in Diaspora. Religious communities and the new immigration. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson, S., & McGillivray, A. (1995). Planning in a multicultural environment: A challenge for the nineties. In P. Troy (Ed.), Australian cities: issues, strategies and policies for urban Australia in the 1990s. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waxman, L. (2006). The coffee shop: social and physical factors influencing place attachment. Journal of Interior Design, 31(3), 35–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weber, M. (1978). Economy and society. An outline of interpretive sociology. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wimmer, A. (2008). The making and unmaking of ethnic boundaries: a multilevel process theory. American Journal of Sociology, 113(4), 970–1022.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wimmer, A. (2013). Ethnic boundary making. Institutions, power, networks. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Yasmeen, S. (Ed.). (2010). Muslims in Australia: the dynamics of exclusion and inclusion. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young, I. (1990). The ideal of community and politics of difference. In L. J. Nicolson (Ed.), Feminism/postmodernism. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the generous Visiting Scholarship grant at the International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding at the University of South Australia and Professor Salman Sayyid for the opportunity to run a Symposium entitled ‘ReOrienting Diverse Space: Neighbourhoods, identity and citizenship’ which formed the basis for this paper. I would like to also thank Zoe Garnaut, City of Charles Sturt Council, Planning Department, Adelaide; Linda Lacey, City of Charles Sturt Council, Cultural Heritage Project Officer, Community Projects Unit, Adelaide; Toufic Kaissi, TK Building, Adelaide Architect; Sher’ee Ellis, Register Clerk, State Heritage Unit, People, Parks and Places, Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, South Australian Government; Dr. Minerva Nasser-Eddine, Research Fellow, International Relations, School of International Studies, Flinders University; Charlie Shahin, Director, Peregrine Corporation Pty Ltd; and Dominic Scutella, Architect, for their invaluable support in providing the material needed to write this paper. I would like to thank the three reviewers of this paper who gave constructive comments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Architecture and Landscape, Kingston University, Knights Park, Kingston, KT1 2QJ, UK

    Noha Nasser

Authors
  1. Noha Nasser
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Noha Nasser.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Nasser, N. Patronage and territoriality: Islamizing space in the Western city. Cont Islam 9, 291–319 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-015-0344-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-015-0344-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation