The Religious Dimensions in Muslims Housing Within the Helsinki Metropolitan Area: Challenges and Opportunities. Hossam Hewidy

Transcription

1 The Religious Dimensions in Muslims Housing Within the Helsinki Metropolitan Area: Challenges and Opportunities Hossam Hewidy

2 Today, cities and nations around the world struggle in the face of increased diversity: culturally, ethnically and religiously.

3 Finland & immigrants Immigrants are identified, in official statistics, by either a foreign language (language other than Finnish or Swedish) spoken at home or by place of birth. This means that the second generation of immigrants, who are born in Finland, will easily get lost in the statistics. In Sweden, the second immigrants generation is registered by a term called born to at least one single parent of foreign origin.

4 The Question is to: Identify the specific religious dimensions in Muslims housing, based on Quran, as well as the interrelated preferences and what those mean for Muslims specifically living in the Helsinki metropolitan area (HMA).

5 Religious dimensions Religious dimensions include all the faith-related obligations of a Muslim household that may constrain or define the way the spaces of a residential unit are used, for example, in seeking a certain pattern of privacy or choosing its location. The religious dimensions also extend to include the limitations of property rights by the obligation to the Islamic prohibition of loans.

6 Hybrid of methodologies Quantitative methodology is used to allocate Muslims within HMA major district and draw their spatial pattern characteristics (GIS maps etc.). Qualitative methodology is used to gather information from targeted sample through questionnaires and interviews (interviews are used also with planners to examine their reflectivity to the term of Multiculturalism ). A theological analysis is used to understand the gathered information and distinguish what is cultural from what is religious. To situate the research question within the conceptual framework, literature reviewing is used.

7 Interviews Process The choice of a mosque for the questionnaires distribution and interviews arrangements was made in order to reach those Muslims who are religiously observant as these are the ones whose perceptions would most likely be based on their religion. Since the purpose of this study was to understand the faith-related sociocultural needs in residential space and how such needs were activated by the actual use of the house, I have tried to hold my interviews at the homes of the informants, whenever possible. Interviews with Muslims were done mainly as a side procedure while discussing with them their answers to a questionnaire that had been distributed prior to the interviews.

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9 Where Do Muslims Live Within the Helsinki Metropolitan Area? Since the civil registration is not based on the faith/religion parameter, the study was based upon three criteria: Citizens from the countries with a Muslim majority Citizens born in the countries with a Muslim majority Citizens with Finnish as mother tongue in countries with a Muslim majority The conclusion was that the Muslim population, within Helsinki Metropolitan Area, is roughly estimated to be , which is 3.9% of the Metropolitan population.

10 Muslim citizens, % Helsinki ,3 % Espoo ,3 % Vantaa ,6 % Metropolitan area 3,9 % Unemployment Rates Helsinki Espoo Vantaa Metropolitan Area = 7,2 % 12,0-14,7 9,0-11,9 7,2-8,9 4,0-7,1 under 4,0 8,0-15,8 6,0-7,9 4,0-5,9 2,0-3,9 under 2,0 N= ,0 5,5 7,1 Vantaa Vantaa Vantaa Vantaa Espoo Espoo Espoo Espoo Helsinki Helsinki Helsinki Helsinki Helsingin kaupunki, Kaupunkimittausosasto 056/2008 Helsingin kaupunki, Kaupunkimittausosasto 056/2008 Average Income EUR Helsinki Espoo Vantaa Metropolitan area over under University level degree, % Helsinki Espoo Vantaa Metropolitan Area = 38,3 % 37,7 % 46,3 % 32,1 % 47,0-76,0 38,3-46,9 32,0-38,2 25,0-31,9 11,1-24,0 Vantaa Vantaa Espoo Espoo Vantaa Vantaa Espoo Espoo Helsinki Helsinki Helsingin kaupunki, Kaupunkimittausosasto 056/2008 Helsinki Helsinki Helsingin kaupunki, Kaupunkimittausosasto 056/2008

11 Muslims/Major districts/helsinki The Southern major district (Lauttasaari) 5 % The Southeastern major district (Herttoniemi) 6 % The Western major district (Pitäjänmäki) 15 % The Eastern major district (Vuosaari - Merirastila) 41 % The Central major district (Pasila) 10 % The Northeastern major district (Malmi) 20 % The Northern major district (Maunula - Oulunkylä) 3 %

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13 Our residence is where we live, but our home is how we live (Ginsberg 1999) Home is the place where Muslims rest and worship and where they get rid of being Others and practice their life in the way they prefer. In a Muslim dwelling, particular spaces are considered as the women s domain, while other spaces remain for visiting men with clear borders (mainly visual borders). The public and private in a Muslim dwelling are very well defined.

14 Privacy When dealing with the privacy among the needs of religious groups in dwellings, it is architecture that plays the main role in achieving such needs. Individuals, and groups, practicing social behavior in a certain space to obtain a desired function in a definite time are mainly controlled by the architecture of such space.

15 Findings Social behavior and privacy needs (Gender Separation, External opening, Guest Hospitality, Cleanliness and Prayer) Household structure and overcrowded dwelling (Extended Families, delayed Children s Departure Age) Prohibition to take out interest-bearing loans, restricting the spread of home ownership among Muslims. Geographical location of neighborhoods and typologies

16 Privacy and Gender Separation

17 External opening

18 Guest Hospitality Privacy concerns affect the functionality and circulation between various parts of the home. For example, the kitchen probably functions well for cooking food but poorly when it comes to gender separation.

19 Cleanliness and Prayer

20 Extended Families

21 Murabaha and Ijara In the first arrangement, the bank buys the property and sells it back to the purchaser at a higher price, which is repaid in installments. In the second, the bank buys the property and rents it to the purchaser, who makes payments which cover purchase of the equity by installments and rent for use of the amount of equity still owned by the institute. The monthly payment may last up to 25 years and ends with a transferal of the property ownership to the purchaser.

22 Architecture has a role in integration The circulation in a Muslim residential unit should have a high flexibility. The unit should also allow for multi generational households as most people from other cultures feel some obligation to be close to their parents.

23 The European Liaison Committee for Social Housing (CECODHAS) report 2007 Integration as assimilation and dispersal (e.g. Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Germany). In these cases the governments have mainly designed polices aimed to minimise cultural differences and promote ethnic de-segregation.

24 Multiculturalism Multiculturalism should be clearly defined and understood by parties making decisions on how the city should be developed. The misleading universalities with its various references and political strategies are the resistance streams that multiculturalism faces. Identity politics dealing with sameness excludes Muslims for their different behavior and the way they look.

25 Planners say We have that idea; if we try to plan Helsinki the way that Finns would like to stay in, also foreign people may like to come and enjoy it as it is. Most probably immigrants preferences in general are similar to that of Finnish people

26 Rinkeby, Stockholm

27 Charles Taylor, in his essay The Politics of Recognition (Heble, A. & others (ed.) 1997), ends with the conclusion that the neutrality of liberalism is not equipped to accommodate people of different cultural backgrounds; there is a clear absence of politics of difference.