Reinventing Muslim Space in Suburbia: The Salaam Centre in Harrow, North London

Abstract

I develop an analysis of a new religious building, the Salaam Centre, under construction in a suburb of northwest London (UK) in the context of wider debates about religion, migration and the symbolic presence of new religious buildings in urban landscapes. I argue that these buildings, associated with the settling of postcolonial migrants are often contested sites strongly opposed by the settled population. Mosques, in particular, are often challenged. Migrant religious buildings are opposed by those because of fears about noise or parking or on the groups that their architectural forms are unfamiliar and unsuitable within existing townscapes and planning regimes. The established settlement of migrant religious groups in the UK is now producing more imposing religious buildings. Such buildings, like the Swaminaryan Hindu temple in Neasden, London, are often ambitious recreations of traditional buildings. But there are also new architectural forms emerging which represent creative responses to both the local environment and the migrant experience. The Salaam Centre, constructed for a Shia Ithna’ashari Muslim community which originated from East Africa is envisaged not as a mosque, but as a shared community religious space. Its innovative design incorporates influences from Islamic heritage with modern design drawing particularly on ideas about light and space. Woven into the façade are patterns which connect the migratory journeys of the Shia Ithna’ahsaris from Persia, India and Tanzania with the suburban vernacular landscape of northwest London. The Centre emerges as an important intervention in our understanding of suburban architectures and transnational religious landscapes in the imagination of a new form of suburban religious space.