Muslim Urbanists is a place where architects, planners, social geographers and anyone else interested in the intersections between faith and space can share their ideas and experiences.

Some of the things that interest us:

Spatial Justice

As Muslim urbanists we need to be engaged with spatial justice through both theory and praxis. Praxis manifests as learning about what Islam says about our responsibility to alleviate the hunger of our neighbor and working to alleviate that same need. It manifests as learning about the importance Islam places on learning and advocating for better libraries in the city. It manifests as learning about the importance of cleanliness in Islam and Islam’s environmental imperatives in general and working on sanitation projects to provide dustbins and clean up the streets/improve recycling in Joburg. There are so many ways in which a commitment to spatial justice manifests through theory and praxis.
As Muslim urbanists, we felt engaging with spatial justice means learning more about:
  • Apartheid geography and how that affects communities today (Alex/Sandton and Tembisa/Midrand for example) that are proximal but separate because of unequal resources, public good access, quality housing, access to jobs and more
  • Ethical land use management and land reform
  • How/if space can be used to reduce stigmas and increase community vibrancy
  • Women’s safety and the safety of vulnerable populations
  • RDP housing
  • How housing is linked to social identity and value creation
  • How the city is changing through migrant communities
  • How we respond as urbanists when our work and our ethical beliefs contradict. (An example of this occurring is when we need to approve development applications while knowing a project may perpetuate inequality.)
Working towards spatial justice also means spreading awareness within the Muslim community of existing municipal systems that allow for public input into decision making in order to increase Muslim engagement with those processes.
Finally, working towards spatial justice means visiting sites and learning from their failures and successes (Cosmo City and Newtown could be potential site visits)

Muslim Spaces

Islamic practice is about more than salaah and therefore, Muslim spaces are about more than salaah too. Space is central to Islamic life and the ideal Muslim space simultaneously is spiritual, peaceful, contemporary, traditional, embodies practice, is welcoming to children, is generally inclusive, involves water, is clean, has soothing sounds and architectural features and generally incorporates nature elements into its design. It is a site of the expression of religious and cultural identities.
Ideally Muslim spaces are also multi-purpose, income generating spaces that interact with their surrounding environment/community and educate people. Muslim spaces are ideally spaces where personal stories and relevant issues can be discussed, solutions to social and personal problems can be found, and interpersonal relationships and community can be formed. They are mixed income, culturally pluralistic spaces where scholars, families, activists, seekers can all come together to learn and benefit from one another. They are dynamic, active spaces that host events that engage the community.
Muslim urbanists can help create ideal Muslim spaces by analyzing the societal, environmental and historical needs of the broader community in which they are situated, researching best practices, facilitating community discussions and design charettes, helping to transform mosque committees, and helping to create guidelines for how a particular space can foster creative connections. Ideally “community decision” committees should govern Muslim spaces.
  • Mosques, cemeteries and Islamic banks are examples of permanent Muslim spaces. Any place that has space devoted to activities done by Muslims is a Muslim space. The prayer room in the mall, the souk, a Muslim school, all of these are Muslim spaces, because even if they do not involve religious activities, they are predominately used by Muslim people.
  • Home and private vehicles and public transit can all function as Muslim space
  • Muslim spaces can be temporary spaces: for example at weddings or funerals
Positive examples of Muslim spaces: Brixton Masjid, Kerk Street (very beautiful), the Rustenburg mosque (has shops that generate income and has counseling services available in the mosque and on the phone) ad the As-Salaam Centre and Bosmont Mosque (both excellent examples of community centres)
Negative examples of Muslim spaces: Muslim spaces that are limited to one particular community
This begs the question: Is a Muslim space simply one where Muslims are or is there more to it?
For example, participants felt that Mayfair is not an accommodating space though the principle of inclusivity is central to the Islamic ethos. For this reason, though Mayfair may be a Muslim space because of the density of Muslims in the area, participants argued that Mayfair is arguably not an Islamic space. Making a space Islamic requires more from a community than simply incorporating particular design elements (like minarets and arches) into a space. It requires continual reflection and analysis and work in order to transform a space from one that simply looks Islamic to one that genuinely embodies principles of economic and cultural inclusivity. This is particularly important in Johannesburg, a city that is an increasingly polarized city of high-income, gated communities and informal housing for those who are newer arrivals to the city. This stark difference is mirrored in Muslim spaces where township mosques radically differ in their access to resources from mosques located in more affluent areas. Neither space is reflective of the demographics of South Africa as a whole.
To be Islamic spaces, Muslim spaces in SA must challenge existing societal divisions and inequalities and Joburg Muslim urbanists regardless of whether they are designing/planning a space for Muslims or non-Muslims should be committed to the Islamic principles of spatial justice that are needed to create a more inclusive South Africa for all.

Community Development

As Muslim urbanists, it is important to use our profession to help beyond simply distributing food parcels. We have knowledge to share, and there are a variety of ways we can get involved. For instance we can:
  • Talk to pre-varsity students that it is okay (and good!) to be involved in school and speak to younger students about potential careers as urbanists because there are many potential careers beyond medicine if you want to do good.
  • Teach young people about how Joburg developed and the history of Joburg
  • Mentor young people within the field
  • Partner and share knowledge with others (people, organizations, communities) that could use spatial expertise.
  • Host discussions about community service and personal capacity because it can be hard to find the balance between your day to day work and giving back

Professional Development

MUJ could be an important space of personal professional development. Some ways that were suggested as professional development opportunities were:
  • Mentorship and in particular, mentorship programs of how to survive and thrive as a Muslim female urbanist in a male dominated field and general mentorship/sharing of experiences by more experienced urbanists about how to navigate the professional world and plan your own career path
  • General skill-building outside of our fields because there are so many varied backgrounds and skills within this group
  • Program to learn how to confidently navigate new environments and learn how to interact with others because sometimes the schooling and education we have do not equip us for integrating into the workplace
  • Job-shadowing
  • Opportunity sharing, “goodreads” sharing
  • Sharing (panels etc) of career and development experiences
  • Design Skill Workshops
  • Workshops on “greening the masjid”
  • Learning from and increase our own understanding of Johannesburg and the communities and populations that call it home. Unlearning our inherited cultural understandings that may hinder us as urbanists. For example it would be amazing to learn from the Somali community on 8th Avenue and learn more about this place from them.

Urban Explorations

In all the groups, participants mentioned that they would be interested in doing site visits/urban explorations to understand the connection between space and spirituality to learn how we strengthen and further this connection in our work and whether this strengthening is indeed even possible.
Possible site visits suggested:
  • Art gardens
  • Visits to positive Muslim spaces and mosques in general with particular learning intentions in mind that could be facilitated/guided through mosque audit forms and guided questions about accessibility, environmental elements among other themes
  • Museums and other interesting spaces. Every place has a context for Islam and we can learn from different spaces about the process of building if we read a space with intent.

Decolonizing/Diversifying Spatial Thought

Planning and architecture education focuses on North American and European cities, and “good planning” is always depicted as Western cities in planning school. But you can’t import these theories and examples into South Africa. We need theories that fit our context. What aren’t we learning about? What is missing from our urban education? Ways we can re-educate ourselves:
  • Reading group that looks at African writers and thinkers
  • Panel discussion events
  • Conferences to present research
Things we want to learn about
  • Epistemological erasures that have taken place in order to form today’s urban theory canon. How do we undo/interrogate legacies of spatial thought?
  • Land reform (and the limitations of such process) and problematizing the notion of private property
  • Geographies of religion
  • Diversity of Muslim cultures and how and in what ways the Arabization of Islam is erasing our pluralistic spatial history
  • The evolution of the city and what existed before colonial times
  • Diverse theorists (what did Ibn Khaldun say about the city for example)
  • Contemporary African cities and their development paths
  • Interrogating notions of informality and urban normative aspirations
  • Migrant integration
  • Norms of city use (how cities are used beyond the 9-5) and how institutions such as wage labour altered the development of cities
  • Genderization of space
  • How spatiality of cities hinders or helps in breaking cultural and religious barriers between neighbours
  • How Muslim cities did urban planning in the past and the urban development of Muslim cities today (for example: Morocco’s urban development, Ethiopia’s development as a case study)
  • Local micro case studies. What are the social factors that make communities thrive for example? Lenasia residents experience Lenasia as a place of vibrancy and unity, but what are the factors that contribute to that social cohesion?