Muslim spaces and mosque architecture

The subject of this chapter is threefold. First, in a brief historical summary, we examine the origins of the American mosque in the postbellum era up to the present day. Then we discuss the theoretical assumptions on the aesthetic language and function of the American mosque, highlighting the spatial and cultural elements, public space, and gender by way of three examples. Finally, we critique the political tensions and the contentious political discourse in the post-9/11 era, especially the widespread misunderstanding of the so-called Ground Zero Mosque. The design conceptualization of an American mosque and its aesthetics support two primary themes: to preserve the identity of the various forms that constitute the elements of a religious edifice for men and women and the relationship between spiritual repose and aesthetics; and to organize the communal worship and public space of the mosque according to religious practice and the shari‘ah (sacred law). Furthermore, there is a common consensus that Muslim religious aesthetics is a theo-centered dogma. This conceptual framework must also consider the unique aesthetic language, which explains the elements employed in spatial treatment within a mosque. In the Muslim world, shari‘ah has substantive meaning for the study of urbanism in the madinah or the premodern Islamic city. In the West, this formula holds true with the added proviso that the North American urban context has no parallel to the Muslim world.