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Spaces and modes of Muslim community
organizaon(s) in Paris and London
Spaces and modes of Muslim community organization(s)
William Barylo
University of Warwick
Drawing on eldwork conducted at Rumi’s Cave in London and Amatullah in
the Parisian suburb of Bagnolet, this arcle discusses the changing modalies
and structures of contemporary European Muslim community organizaons.
Having idened a shi from purely ritual-related acvies towards broader
engagement with social challenges linked to homelessness, discriminaon,
and poverty in parcular, the analysis discusses the signicance of Islam as a
common cultural base. These grass-roots organizaons oer spaces for devel-
oping alternave ways of being together, premised on concepts of spiritual
well-being and social jusce. The analysis of their existence and the acons
they carry out suggests that they oer a vital alternave to contemporary
hegemonies of neoliberal governance.
Keywords: Social cizenship, volunteer organizaons, faith and friendship
bonds, diasporic cultures, spirituality, social capital, heterotopias
S’appuyant sur des enquêtes de terrain conduites à Rumi’s Cave (Londres) et
auprès de l’associaon Amatullah à Bagnolet, en banlieue parisienne, cet arcle
aborde l’évoluon des organisaons communautaires musulmanes en Europe.
Celles-ci ne se constuent plus seulement autour d’acvités et de revendicaons
directement associées à la praque religieuse mais s’intéressent de plus en plus
à de nouveau dés sociaux liés à la précarité, à la discriminaon et à la pauvreté
en parculier. Pourtant, elles gardent un ancrage important dans le partage des
cultures d’Islam. Proche des structures de la vie quodienne, ces groupes et
réseaux font émerger des espaces où de jeunes Musulmans et d’autres parci-
pants peuvent développer de nouvelles manières d’interacon, basées sur des
principes de quête spirituelle et de jusce sociale. L’analyse de leur existence
même et de leurs acons tend à montrer qu’elles représentent des alternaves
vitales à l’hégémonie contemporaine de la gouvernance néolibérale.
Mots clefs: citoyenneté sociale, organisaons bénévoles, liens d’amié et de
foi, cultures diasporiques, spiritualité, capital social, hétérotopies
Francosphères, vol. 7, no. 2 (2018) hps://doi.org/10.3828/franc.2018.14
William Barylo220
Introducon
Aware of the current economic, political, ideological, environmental, and
social challenges across the world, many young European Muslims have
set up initiatives aiming to resist global hegemonies at the grass-roots level.
Noticing the inability of the state to solve local social problems, these young
Muslim students, civil servants, or neighbours gathered a few friends and
took action in the s, inspired and motivated by inclusive and altru-
istic Islamic traditions. These initiatives took the shape of local charities,
founded and managed by unpaid volunteers, often female, serving meals
to the homeless, helping students, or visiting the elderly. However, the
traditional shape and role of these grass-roots European Muslim charities
are evolving. Gathering volunteers from various religious and cultural
backgrounds, these charities oer services to everyone in their area and
work in open systems with local stakeholders. They are therefore much
more than charities: providing young Muslims with strong social capital,
buzzing with ideas, gathering various skills and talents, they have slowly
given birth to new initiatives more focused on the nurturing of cultural
capital, and thus becoming community hubs.1 How are these new spaces
organized and what are their modes of inclusion and participation?
In times marked by Islamophobia and relentless controversies around
Muslims, these spaces paradoxically display how religious ethics fuel
civic participation and produce original forms of active citizenship.2 More
connected than ever to current social challenges and with younger genera-
tions more informed about their plural identities, these organizations not
only play the role of safe environments but also become liberating spaces
where religion and diasporic identities are expressed and celebrated
through arts, culture, and science. Modern and traditional at the same
time, they bridge the gap in societies that see faith and belief as opposed
William Barylo, Young Muslim Change-Makers: Grassroots Charities Rethinking Modern
Societies (London: Routledge, ).
Asmaa Soliman, European Muslims Transforming the Public Sphere: Religious Participation
in the Arts, Media and Civil Society (London: Routledge, ); Mario Peucker and Rauf
Ceylan, ‘Muslim Community Organizations: Sites of Active Citizenship or Self-segregation?’,
Ethnic and Racial Studies, . (), –; Nora Amath, The Phenomenology of
Community Activism: Muslim Civil Society Organisations in Australia (Melbourne:
Melbourne University Press, ); Mario Peucker and Shahram Akbarzadeh, Muslim Active
Citizenship in the West (Oxford and New York: Routledge: ); Konrad Pędziwiatr, The
New Muslim Elites in European Cities: Religion and Active Social Citizenship amongst
Young Organized Muslims in Brussels and London (Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag: );
Gerdien Jonker and Valerie Amiraux (eds), Politics of Visibility: Young Muslims in European
Public Spaces, (Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, ).
Spaces and modes of Muslim community organizaon(s) 221
to their modern ethics.3 Contrary to the first generation’s mosques, they do
not solely serve a ritual function; they become social spaces for resistance,
healing, growth, and self-determination.
This article stems from ethnographic and micro-sociologic research
undertaken between and with participant observation and
individual semi-directed and informal interviews in France and the UK,
with grass-roots charities as a starting point and focusing on the particular
cases of Amatullah in Paris and Rumi’s Cave in London. Following volun-
teers and attendees, who are respectively not paid and do not pay for these
free community events (thus in a non-utilitarian context), this research uses
Alain Caillé’s anti-utilitarian theory for action as a framework, taking into
account non-numerable factors such as emotions, gifts, friendship bonds, or
faith to analyse social dynamics.4 Omnipresent throughout the fieldwork,
religion is here considered as a complex, evolving, and fluid system which
shapes behaviours but is also shaped by its cultural, social, environmental,
and political contexts, and by subjective interpretations.
I begin with a brief review setting out the context of Muslim commu-
nities’ initiatives in France and the UK. Following an overview of the research
method employed and the case studies, I subsequently analyse the character-
istics of two organizations which illustrate how these initiatives have become
alternative social spaces through their emphasis on religion, culture, arts,
their modes of action, and their modes of governance. Finally, this article
discusses the originality of these organizations and their symbolic impor-
tance as forms of contestation of modern hegemonies, and how they help in
negotiating plural diasporic cultures and spiritualities in European societies.
Context: From charies to community hubs
While Muslim charities had predominantly focused on ritualistic aspects
of the faith in the latter decades of the twentieth century (such as mosque
management organizations and halal meat certification) and humanitarian
aid (Islamic Relief, Muslim Hands, and more), the grass-roots initiatives
that emerged in the s in neighbourhoods or universities had a dierent
focus. Starting from the observation that, at the local level, government
institutions do not solve problems such as homelessness, students’ financial
Nilüfer Göle, Interpénétrations: l’Islam et l’Europe (Paris: Galaade, ).
Alain Caillé, Théorie anti-utilitariste de l’action: fragments d’une sociologie générale (Paris:
La Découverte, ).
William Barylo222
struggles, or precarious school support for secondary schools, some young
Muslims decided to take action. First as informal groups of friends, they
started preparing and serving meals to the homeless, setting up a blog, or
copying exam paper corrections for friends before expanding to registered
charities up to ten volunteers strong. Sharing Islam as a common cultural
base but not focused on the ritual or development of the community, they
provide aid but remain focused on their local area as opposed to the interna-
tional scene, as their elders tended to be. These not-for-profit organizations
came into existence with the rise of the digital age, as Facebook and Twitter
became standards for the average citizen, during a time also marked by
growing global awareness of environmental and social challenges arising
as consequences of globalization. Working on a small scale, they are
independent of any political party or larger representative Muslim organi-
zations and their funding comes mainly from private donations.
Their volunteers are mostly aged between and years old, working
or studying at the same time, and often highly skilled. Many have university
degrees and work in fields such as law, finance, medicine; others are
graphics designers, videographers, illustrators, teachers, while others still
are pursuing Masters degrees or PhDs in areas such as history, sociology,
chemistry, physics, or genetics. Throughout the s and s, research
has shown that the younger generations benefit from better social insertion,5
and have a dierent approach to religion from their parents: their Islam is
visible and practised as a form of identity; more than an inheritance, their
Islam is a choice.6 Most of the volunteers interviewed take their inspiration
and motivation from Islamic ethics, perceived as a framework encouraging
contributions to society as ‘active citizens’ taking part in the public life of
the city (bios politikos7). In that sense, they are infrapolitical structures.8
Ever more fragmented and individualistic modern societies are charac-
terized by increasing feelings of uncertainty, where individuals become more
‘self-seeking, calculating, greedy, with weaker social ties and loyalties and a
diminishing sense of trust and social solidarity’.9 As a consequence, modern
times oer a fertile ground for grass-roots charities to develop, presenting
Abderrahim Lamchichi, Islam et musulmans de France: pluralisme, laïcité et citoyenneté
(Paris: L’Harmattan, ).
Sophie Gilliat Ray, Muslims in Britain (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, );
Farhad Khosrokhavar, L’Islam des jeunes (Paris: Flammarion, ); Jonker and Amiraux.
Here, bios politikos highlights the link between public life and politics through its etymology.
Philippe Chanial, La Sociologie comme philosophie politique et réciproquement (Paris: La
Découverte, ).
See discussion in Jean Bethke Elshtain, Democracy on Trial (New York: Basic Books, ),
pp. –.
Spaces and modes of Muslim community organizaon(s) 223
an alternative to corporate life, bureaucracy, hierarchy, or the government’s
inaction.10 Their success can be explained by the fact that not only are they
primary social groups, they also allow volunteers to find immediate opportu-
nities for social action and observe concrete results,11 and gather participants
around a common good rather than a common interest.12 Consequently, and
because they do not have the rigidity of bureaucratic organizations, grass-
roots initiatives are flexible spaces with infinite possibilities and open to
experimentation, which is extremely appealing to young people.
As European Muslim identities are continuously evolving, people’s
interests are shifting as well: there has been an increasing focus on relation-
ships and matrimonial services,13 fashion,14 cool, neo-theo tribalism, and
music.15 The s have seen the emergence of culture- and faith-sensitive
alternative media and community hubs such as Foul Express (a collective
blog), Lallab (an intersectional feminist collective), and Um’Artists (an
artists’ collective) in France, or the OOMK and Khidr collective (zine and
artist collectives) and Rumi’s Cave (a community hub) in London. Having
achieved relative material security, their focus is more on achieving a higher
level of education, especially for women, and spiritual well-being as well as
living a life in line with ethics of social justice.16 On the same wavelength
as global movements for environmental protection and sustainability, they
rethink global challenges in light of Islamic and diasporic traditions: organic
(halal) food, fairtrade products, ethical finance, representative media, and
social inequalities.17 Looking for spaces safe from judgement, racism, and
Daniel Cefaï, Pourquoi se mobilise-t-on? Les théories de l’Action Collective (Paris: La
Découverte, ); Patrick Haenni, L’Islam de marché: l’autre révolution conservatrice
(Paris: Seuil, ).
Jacques Ion (ed.), Le Travail social en débat[s] (Paris: La Découverte, ).
Jean-Louis Laville, Politique de l’association (Paris: Seuil, ), p. .
Bochra Kammarti, ‘L’interpénétration européenne de la Finance Islamique’, in En-quête
de l’Islam Européen, ed. by Nilüfer Göle (Paris: Halfa, ), pp. –; Fauzia Ahmad,
‘Graduating towards Marriage? Attitudes towards Marriage and Relationships among
University-educated British Muslim Women’, Culture and Religion: An Interdisciplinary
Journal, . (), –.
Sadek Hamid (ed.), Young British Muslims: Between Rhetoric and Realities (London:
Routledge, ).
Pam Nilan, Muslim Youth in the Diaspora: Challenging Extremism through Popular Culture
(London: Routledge, ).
Ahmad, ‘Graduating towards Marriage?’, and Fauzia Ahmad, ‘Modern Traditions? British
Muslim Women and Academic Achievement’, Gender and Education, . (), –.
Ruth Helen Corbet, ‘Tayyib: British Muslim Piety and the Welfare of Animals for Food’,
in Muslims in the UK and Europe I, ed. by Yasir Suleiman (Cambridge: Centre of Islamic
Studies, ), pp. –; Davide Pettinato, ‘“MADE a Dierence?” – British Muslim Youth
and Faith-Inspired Activism between “Post-Conventional Politics”, “Post-Secularity”, and
“Post-Immigration Dierence”’, in Muslims in the UK and Europe I, ed. by Yasir Suleiman
and Paul Anderson (Cambridge: Centre of Islamic Studies, ), pp. –.
William Barylo224
Islamophobia, they are also looking for spaces to express themselves, which
they did not find in traditional humanitarian charities or mosques.
Method and case studies
Following a social phenomenology approach, this research describes
phenomena with the subjects’ own words, references, and meanings, using
them as the basis for analysis. The data were collected through an ethno-
graphic approach, comprising participant observation and face-to-face
interviews (semi-directed and informal) which were conducted between
and around Paris and London. The volunteers participating
in these organizations come from dierent cultural, professional socio-
economic, and religious backgrounds. They do not share the same level
of education or understanding of Islam: it is common to find people with
a literal understanding of the religious scriptures volunteering alongside
people who do not necessarily pray. There is a great deal of diversity in
past experience, giving rise to a range of personality types and characters.
As a result, the charities and the volunteers do not tend to identify or label
ideal types, preferring to stay faithful to the complexity and diversity of the
identities and dynamics at play.
As these organizations are managed mostly by unpaid volunteers and
oer free activities, I have used anti-utilitarian analysis of actions here
which, rather than explaining phenomena through utilitarian dynamics,
considers that some actions and modes of thought do not necessarily
occur because of utilitarian interests, but can be motivated by generosity,
friendship, emotions, or faith.18 Moreover, as social relations are not limited
to economic and power interests,19 hierarchical relations and financial
interest play a minor role in explaining volunteers’ motivation. Thus the
volunteering reveals social bonds more eectively, as well as foregrounding
the psychological and spiritual elements at play: amongst Muslim volun-
teers, both the anthropos and the theos are factors, thus the need to consider
God as a real actor with a relative existence (these terms are a shorter way
of saying ‘the realm/universe of humans’ and the ‘realm/universe of the
divine’).20 This work analyses in particular how non-numerable elements
Caillé, Théorie anti-utilitariste.
Chanial, La Sociologie, p. .
Matthew Day, ‘How to Keep It Real’, Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, .
(), –; Philippe Descola, Par-delà nature et culture (Paris: Gallimard, ).
Spaces and modes of Muslim community organizaon(s) 225
are exchanged and how a practice of generosity is established, providing a
foundation for the dynamic operating in these hubs.21
Furthermore, this work looks at Islam beyond the limited Western idea
of religion, which tends to translate and categorize rituals under Christian
concepts (salat and du’as as prayer, sadaqa and zakat as alms and more),
and approaches religion as a fixed concept according to which the ‘religious’
and the ‘non-religious’ are clearly separate.22 Lastly, the concept of religion
is too damaged by its colonial and globalizing legacies to be used as it
stands if the aim is to broach ideas that stem from outside Greek or Latin
etymologies and Christian heritage.23 Here I consider Islam as a framework
that results from the mixing of multiple, various, and overlapping frames
of references such as philosophies, political views, and life experiences.
This system, as per Edgar Morin’s theorization, is fluid and continuously
evolving, where all actions can become devotional practice: these spaces
are not only the expression of religion in a way which shapes behaviours
and thought, they are also spaces where religion is shaped and made, as
in the two main case studies – Rumi’s Cave in London and Amatullah in
Paris.
Amatullah was founded in by a group of Muslim women in Bagnolet,
in the banlieue of Paris. First set up to visit prisoners, the founders decided
to provide soup kitchens for the homeless in and around Paris. Three times
a week, volunteers and sometimes their families cook hot meals in the oce
kitchen, then take a van to distribute the meals. Besides soup kitchens,
Amatullah’s volunteers regularly set up projects like visiting orphanages
in North and West Africa, organize cultural events and fun fairs in their
home town, and oer Arabic classes. Amatullah is one rare case of a French
Muslim charity not undermined by its city council. The organization works
exclusively thanks to private donations and food bank donations. None of
the volunteers receives a salary.
Located in Kilburn, northwest London, Rumi’s Cave was founded in
by Sheikh Ahmed Babikir, a prominent British Muslim scholar, as an
alternative space dierent from the mosque, home, the workplace and also
dierent from shisha cafés (which were a social space by default for Muslims
in the UK). Sheikh Babikir was inspired by Rumi’s Café in Islamabad during
a trip to Pakistan. Since its foundation, it has served various functions.
Marcel Mauss, Essai sur le don (Paris: Presses Universitaires France, ).
William Barylo, ‘Islam as a Matrix: Young Muslim Volunteers Blurring the Lines between
Mundane and Sacred’, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, . (), –.
Thomas A. Tweed, Crossing and Dwelling: A Theory of Religion (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, ).
William Barylo226
It started as an internet café, then a charity shop, and eventually all the
successive managers gave it its current shape. Rumi’s Cave, according to
its own definition, is a ‘non-defined social space’; however, on a practical
level, it is a community hub with a religious background. People can attend
daily prayers and Friday sermons (during which collective meals are served);
people can break fast together during Ramadan, but also attend talks on
social issues, philosophy (from hipsters to theories of Carl Gustav Jung),
workshops on traditional Arabic calligraphy but also photography and
film-making or herbal medicine. Every month, Rumi’s Cave holds an ‘open
mic’ where people are welcome to perform poetry, storytelling, songs, and
music. Every Sunday, the Rumi’s Kitchen project oers hot freshly cooked
meals to the homeless in Kilburn and Cricklewood. Rumi’s Cave has been
supported by private donations and through partnerships with larger NGOs
while preserving its independence.
Hubs as spaces of gi
Rumi’s Cave’s and Amatullah’s premises are no larger than a small corner
shop. Both host a kitchen and a main room where people sit, chat, and pray.
Walls are decorated with Arabic calligraphies, religious pictures (Makkah,
Madinah), hadiths, and other art pieces, especially since Rumi’s Cave
hosts regular art exhibitions. At Rumi’s, people sit on carpets and pillows
on the floor. Both are loci where people share spaces, times, and meals:
they are convivial spaces in the sense of Ivan Illitch’s convivial society.24
Sana, echoing many other volunteers and attendees, sums up the reasons
why she enjoys the Cave: ‘there is a dierent vibe than other mosques. I
feel at peace. People can sit, have tea, there is internet, people can nap […]
I love Rumi’s Cave’.25
In contrast, Amatullah’s main focus is to cook and serve soup kitchens,
as well as sometimes organizing Arabic classes. Rumi’s Cave has been
designed to host talks, workshops, musical events, art exhibitions and
film nights, and afternoon teas as the space is open regularly during the
week and weekend. While Rumi’s has been functioning as a community
hub since its inception, Amatullah’s role as hub is a collateral eect of its
activity. Nonetheless, volunteers often meet outside of charity hours or
host dinners at each other’s homes, sometimes in the context of religious
Ivan Illich, Tools for Conviviality (New York: Harper & Row, ).
Interview with Sana, London, June .
Spaces and modes of Muslim community organizaon(s) 227
occasions; people often form bonds of friendship which go beyond the
organization.
Both spaces gather an audience in search of flexible and diverse activities,
which is facilitated by their informality and the organic social interactions
rather than a bureaucratic organization: ‘I find Amatullah more humane:
everyone knows each other, there is no need for authorization, one can come
spontaneously.’26 Volunteers do not perceive their charity as a mere working
environment but more like a home. People are part of a same ‘family’ rather
than ‘colleagues’: all, even non-Muslims, are ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’. There
is no formal hierarchy and each volunteer is responsible for making the
charity work:
It’s more humane, more natural, less industrial. They have their faults, like
the schedule, but I prefer Amatullah to Islamic Relief. Amatullah is a charity
on a humane level which makes volunteers feel responsible: everyone does
the clean-up, everything is collective […] contrary to Islamic Relief or the
Red Cross […] them, it’s more like a factory.27
During a process called ‘the circle’ at the end of each soup kitchen, all
the volunteers share their impressions and suggestions for improvement,
especially newcomers.
These structures share non-material commonalities: they both put the
emphasis on spirituality and the sharing of religious references and practices
(explained to non-Muslim volunteers), they both celebrate diasporic cultures
with the sharing of food and arts, they both have a strong family-like
collective dimension and function on a non-utilitarian basis (they do not
have material goals or aims besides sustainability). Although bearing these
common references, they are also open and inclusive: they welcome and
work with people of various cultural backgrounds, faiths, and beliefs, and
Muslims with dierent levels of orthodoxy and understandings of religion.
This allows people of sometimes conflicting opinions to meet, which, in the
long term, can foster a wider and balanced understanding of Islamic ethics
and etiquette.28
They also implement Islamic traditions in their governance and guide-
lines, and draw inspiration for their modes of action from Islamic sources:
they rely on informal decision-making processes such as shura (consul-
tation and consensus) rather than universal surage; they focus on conflict
Interview with Sonia, Paris, June .
Interview with Sabr, Paris, February .
Barylo, Young Muslim Change-makers.
William Barylo228
resolution and cultivate a family-like working environment as opposed to
models inherited from corporate culture. They have a limited presence on
social media, and a large part of their activities is communicated by word
of mouth. In counterpart, the proximity of local structures and neighbour-
hoods allow volunteers to stay committed over the course of several years
and consequently contribute to the building of strong social capital and
bonds of trust between volunteers, beneficiaries, and stakeholders.
The informal dynamic based on trust gives birth to a circular gift
economy. People welcome others, listen, and receive training and knowledge.
People give time, space, food, opinions, stories, artistic performances; to
the beneficiaries, to other volunteers, but also to God. When volunteers
acknowledge that in Islamic tradition even a smile is an act of charity, every-
thing that happens at Amatullah or Rumi’s can be considered a devotional
practice. At the same time, volunteers are also the recipients of these gifts,
which are interpreted as the expression of God’s mercy. Consequently, they
feel the need to give back, thus closing the circle of generosity. Shamsuddine
explains what keeps him at Amatullah:
We have an appointment with them [the recipients] every Wednesday and
Saturday evening, whether it’s windy, raining, or it’s -°C; if conditions
allow us, we have to be there because they’re waiting for us […] If I’m not
there, it will not work.29
For Fatima, involvement in a charity is an act of love for the divine: ‘and
there is Paradise as a reward. After all, Allah tests people he loves the
most, right? […] the charity is a tool for getting closer to Allah. It’s all that
matters.’30
Connected to various roots, whether they are religious (Makkah),
cultural (North, West, East Africa, South Asia, and more) or social (Paris’s
banlieue, London), Amatullah and Rumi’s Cave exemplify the forms of
travelling and dwelling described by James Cliord in multiple ways.31 As
a result, they provide non-judgemental physical and non-physical spaces
for encounter between people who do not fit dominant norms. However,
being founded by younger generations, they also break with traditional
Muslim institutions like mosques, which do not always accommodate their
needs and modes of being and expression. For many Muslims, these spaces
Interview with Shamsuddine, Bagnolet, January .
Interview with Fatima, Paris, May .
James Cliord, ‘Travelling Cultures’, in Cultural Studies, ed. by Lawrence Grossberg, Cary
Nelson and Paula Treichler (New York: Routledge, ), pp. –.
Spaces and modes of Muslim community organizaon(s) 229
are dierent from the mosque, dierent from the parents’ home, and also
dierent from the workplace and the university. The literature has elabo-
rated various concepts for describing these spaces which do not fit any
traditional structure: safe space, borderlands, heterotopia, or thirdspace.32
However, being alternative spaces in the context of a white-dominated,
neoliberal, modern society confers them a symbolic importance. By their
mere presence, they are decolonial spaces contesting global hegemonies.
Spaces of expression, spaces of contestaon
While their parents’ and grandparents’ generations focused on the building
of places for religious knowledge and ritual practice such as mosques or
madrasas, younger second- and third-generation Muslims are looking
for spaces which allow the expression of their plural identities and oer
services or possibilities in line with their concerns: how can one live well
as a Muslim in a society which discriminates against Muslims? How can
one overcome traumas, emotional struggles, and mental health issues? How
can one be faithful to Islamic environmental ethics in a time of industrial
food production? The answer to these questions are sought through novel
insights into religious scriptures provided not only by religious scholars,
but also by activists, artists, and other people in the community. As an
example, Rabiah Mali, one half of the duo Pearls of Islam and trained
herbalist founder of the Herbal Blessing Clinic, often organizes events to
raise awareness about the protection of the environment, reducing the use
of plastic, the consumption of meat, all backed with scriptural references.
In both Amatullah and Rumi’s Cave, there is an emphasis on the khilafat
(translated as ‘stewardship’) dimension of existence, the responsibility of
human beings towards their social and natural environment. The concept
emanates from the Qur’an, which presents humans as delegates or stewards
of God on Earth: ‘there is no dominance of humans. We were given a trust.
There is no control, no ownership’, says Rabiah.33 The concept has been used
extensively by Muslim organizations working on environmental issues, like
Christina B. Hanhardt, Safe Space: Gay Neighborhood History and the Politics of Violence
(Durham: Duke University Press, ); Lynn C. Holley and Sue Steiner, ‘Safe Space: Student
Perspectives on Classroom Environment’, Journal of Social Work Education, . (),
–; Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (San Francisco: Aunt
Lute Books, ); Michel Foucault, The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human
Sciences (New York: Vintage Books, ); Edward W. Soja, Thirdspace: Journeys to Los
Angeles and Other Real-and-Imagined Places (Malden: Blackwell, ).
Presentation by Rabiah Mali at Rumi’s Cave, January .
William Barylo230
the Muslim Action for Development and Environment (MADE).34 While
governments and the media usually consider Muslims as the ‘other’ coming
to Europe to ‘take’, whether it is money, jobs, and more, these active Muslim
citizens deviate from dominant expectations by being ‘givers’. Through
their social actions, they make it clear that politics is not solely the attribute
of the state: they become actors and cease being mere subjects.35
Volunteers at Amatullah and Rumi’s Cave advocate a more balanced
repartition of power, wealth, and knowledge, with culture and spiritu-
ality as instruments and ends at the same time. As a result, the subjects
of this work are the opposites of Homo oeconomicus, who earns,
possesses, and consumes, driven only by personal and utilitarian interests,
continuing the tradition of grass-root charities that develop core resistance
to neoliberalism.36 Through the presence of Islam in the environment of
these organizations as both a system of beliefs and a general framework
for social harmony, they also resist secularism. While modern times are
marked by the weakening of bonds of responsibility, these organizations
resist the individualization of society through their collective and convivial
dimension. Through the celebration of their plural diasporic heritage, they
resist cultures of conformity. Finally, through their focus on non-numerable
elements such as emotions, friendship, love, and values such as patience
and their mode of functioning according to an anti-utilitarian gift cycle,
they also resist materialism and corporate culture. If one considers modern
hegemonies as new forms of colonialism, these spaces therefore are
decolonial spaces by essence.37
Independent from the main Muslim religious, political, or represent-
ative organizations, they become spaces for emancipation from traditional
conventions and social expectations. They are safe spaces (in the sense of
being non-judgemental) for two reasons: first, they provide a faith-based
environment in a secular society where politicians and media often reject
Muslims; second, they provide an environment free from the culture of
ego, possessions, and power which defines success by material comfort,
wealth, and fame, elements which most volunteers try to avoid. Physically
occupying premises or public spaces like streets for the soup kitchens,
Muslim community hubs are the opposite of utopias (utopia being a
Pettinato, ‘“MADE a Dierence?”.
Barylo, Young Muslim Change-Makers.
Paul Cloke, Justin Beaumont, and Andrew Williams (eds), Working Faith: Faith-based
Organizations and Urban Social Justice (Milton Keynes: Paternoster, ).
Hussein A. Bulhan, ‘Stages of Colonialism in Africa: From Occupation of Land to Occupation
of Being’, Journal of Social and Political Psychology, . (), –.
Spaces and modes of Muslim community organizaon(s) 231
non-place); rather, they echo Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia or
its more encompassing definition presented by Edward Soja as ‘thirdspace’,
drawing from concepts developed by Henri Lefebvre, bell hooks, Gloria
Anzaldúa, and Homi Bhabha.
Yet how safe can these spaces be? Alternative spaces are not necessarily
safe from the pressure of economies or politics, and therefore appear to be
more an exception than the rule.38 However, initiatives such as Um’Artists
in France, or the Ta’Leef Collective and the Muslim Writers Collective
in North America, show that the demand is growing. This gives rise to
a further question: how sustainable are these spaces? Given that they are
only funded by private donations, sustainability can be conditioned by the
need to expand or be supported by larger structures, through potential
partnerships with larger charities or political organizations. But what will
happen if they expand? Will they be able to maintain the qualities that made
them attractive in the first place, such as their informal organization, fluid
hierarchy, and organic social interactions? These questions remain open.
Nonetheless, these initiatives are an important landmark of the evolution
of Muslim community organizations in the s.
Conclusion
Muslim community hubs in Europe and beyond mark a rupture from
traditional modes of organization in the Muslim community. After the
development of the system of mosques and madrasas, followed by multi-
national humanitarian charities, the s saw the emergence of local
grass-roots charities which subsequently became de facto places of sociali-
zation. While early initiatives focused on allowing Muslims to practise
the ritual aspects of Islam, grass-roots groups opened the door to other
devotional practices through social participation. Growing a strong social
capital rich with talents and skilled volunteers, they naturally evolved into
spaces for the creation of a unique cultural capital, born from the plural
identities of Muslims in the ‘Western’ world.
Not only do these spaces welcome and provide services to communities
and individuals of all faiths and none, they are also spaces for expression
where the diversity of cultures, religions, and opinions forms the cement
which builds these social loci. Anti-utilitarian, informal, flexible, and
William Barylo, ‘Neo-liberal Not-for-profits: The Embracing of Corporate Culture in
European Muslim Charities’, Journal of Muslim Minority Aairs, . (), –.
William Barylo232
attractive, they commit volunteers in the long term and establish solid bonds
of trust through cycles of gift-giving in which every participant gives and
receives. Although the crux of these cycles of generosity is the transcendent,
these community hubs align and identify themselves with contemporary
movements of contestation of global hegemonies, such as Black Lives
Matter, #MeToo, or the older Occupy and Indignados. As heterotopias or
thirdspaces, they show that minorities in dominant cultures have dierent
kinds of capital which are not necessarily valued by modern societies. As
the work of Tara Yosso shows, Muslim community hubs are spaces where
people can not only build social capital, but also develop the linguistic
capital from their diasporic backgrounds (as with the Arabic classes oered
at Rumi’s or Amatullah), their familial capital (these are intergenerational
spaces where parents come with their children), resistance capital (learning
how to collaborate and organize for social justice), navigational capital (the
ability to navigate dierent social institutions and spaces), and perhaps most
importantly, aspirational capital – community hubs are a testimony of the
dreams and aspirations of the younger generations about how they imagine
their society.39 While post-/ Europe seems caught in an existential crisis,
perhaps these Muslim hubs oer a glimpse of the future of European social
spaces.
Tara J. Yosso, ‘Whose Culture Has Capital? A Critical Race Theory Discussion of
Community Cultural Wealth’, Race Ethnicity and Education, . (), –.
ICI Léon, internal courtyard © Melissa Thackway
