Abstract
Scholarship addressing Shia Muslim minorities in Western contexts often refers to them as a ‘minority within a minority’ or ‘the other within the other,’ highlighting their dual-marginalization within non-Muslim societies. This paper challenges the concept of double-marginalization by examining the dynamics of transnational Shia communal spaces in north-west London and the creation of Shia spaces through local networks and organizations. While being perceived as ‘the other within other’ emphasizes their marginalization, it also presents opportunities within the discourse of post-9/11 securitization of Islam, distinguishing between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Muslims. This discourse, focused on militant Sunni expressions, allows Twelver Shia Muslims to position themselves as ‘moderate’ Muslims targeted by the same radical forces responsible for global terrorism. Using transnational Twelver Shia networks in London’s Brent borough as a case study, this article explores the agency of these networks across different spatial scales—local, national, and transnational—while also creating a ‘utopian’ space of Shia religious imagination that transcends physical boundaries. In conclusion, the concept of ‘complex diasporas’ is employed to understand the social heterogeneity, coexistence of discourses, and dual orientation of diasporic communities. The Twelver Shia networks in Brent exemplify multi-spatial and multi-temporal diasporic formations, engaging locally, nationally, and transnationally. These networks interact with the local environment, connect with clerical authorities in the Middle East, engage in diasporic politics, and create a global Shia unity, illustrating their simultaneous ethnic-parochial and cosmopolitan nature.
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Notes
- 1.
Sachedina, “A Minority within a Minority: The Case of the Shi’a in North America,” 3.
- 2.
Takim, Shi‘Ism in America, 143.
- 3.
Cesari, The Securitisation of Islam in Europe.
- 4.
See: Birt, “Good Imam, Bad Imam: Civic Religion and National Integration in Post 9/11 Britain.”; Brown, “The Promise and Perils of Women’s Participation in Uk Mosques: The Impact of Securitisation Agendas on Identity, Gender and Community.”; Yazbeck Haddad and Balz, “Taming the Imams: European Governments and Islamic Preachers since 9/11.”; Volpi, “Constructing the ‘Ummah’in European Security: Between Exit, Voice and Loyalty.”; Jackson, “Constructing Enemies:‘Islamic Terrorism’in Political and Academic Discourse.”. On this discourse and its historical roots see: Mamdani, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror, 15–16, 22–24, 260.
- 5.
Scharbrodt, “Sha** the Public Image of Islam: The Shiis of Ireland as “Moderate” Muslims.”; Olsson, “Shia as Internal Others: A Salafi Rejection of the ‘Rejecters’.”
- 6.
The article is based on research in the borough of Brent, northwest London, between September 2014 and November 2016 as a part of a larger research project investigating transnational Twelver Shia networks operating between Britain and the Middle East. Ethnographic research was undertaken in Arabic, Persian and English and included participant observation at numerous religious gatherings in twelve community centres and five private homes, mostly located in Brent. As part of the research, 32 semi- and unstructured interviews and seven focus group discussions were conducted, primarily with the male elites within these networks and community centres. The research for this article was funded by a research grant of the Gerda Henkel Foundation for the project ‘Karbala in London’: Transnational Shia Networks between Britain and the Middle East.
- 7.
Michel Foucault, “‘Des Espaces Autres’,” in Dits et écrits: 1954–1988 (Paris, France: Éditions Gallimard, 1994); Henri Lefebvre, La production de l’espace (Paris, France: Anthropos, 1974); Yi-Fu Tuan, Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1977).
- 8.
Jonathan Z. Smith, Map Is Not a Territory: Studies in the History of Religions (Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 1993); Kim Knott, The Location of Religion: A Spatial Analysis (London, UK: Equinox, 2005); Thomas A. Tweed, Crossing and Dwelling: A Theory of Religion (Cambridge, MA - London, UK: Harvard University Press, 2006); Manuel A. Vásquez, More Than Belief: A Materialist Theory of Religion (Oxford, UK - New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2011).
- 9.
Knott, The Location of Religion: A Spatial Analysis, 3.
- 10.
Vásquez, More Than Belief: A Materialist Theory of Religion, 280.
- 11.
Ibid.
- 12.
Knott, The Location of Religion: A Spatial Analysis, 7.
- 13.
Ibid., 3. see also Kim Knott, “From Locality to Location and Back Again: A Spatial Journey in the Study of Religion,” Religion 39, no. 2 (2009).
- 14.
Thomas A. Tweed, Our Lady of Exile: Diasporic Religion at a Catholic Shrine in Miami (Oxford, UK - New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1997).
- 15.
Vásquez, More Than Belief: A Materialist Theory of Religion, 299.
- 16.
Ibid., 302.
- 17.
John Richard Bowen, “Beyond Migration: Islam as a Transnational Public Space,” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 30, no. 5 (2004): 880.
- 18.
M. C. Barrès-Baker, “A Brief History of the London Borough of Brent,” Brent Museum and Archives Occasional Publications 5 (2007): 14.
- 19.
London Borough of Brent, The 2011 Census: A Profile of Brent (London, UK: Borough of Brent, 2013), 19.
- 20.
It is not possible to provide reliable estimates of the number of Iraqis living in London as a whole or in the different boroughs where they are concentrated. Estimates suggest a total of around 250,000 Iraqis living in the whole of the UK. See: Monica Davey, “Iraqis from Far Home Sign up to Vote,” The New York Times, 19th January 2005.
- 21.
See its website, <http://www.minab.org.uk/> [accessed 28 September 2017].
- 22.
Al-Khoie Foundation, Al-Sadiq and Al-Zahra Schools: Experience of Community Cohesion (London, UK: Al-Khoie Foundation), 8.
- 23.
Ibid.
- 24.
Justin Cohen, “London Mosque Hosts Jewish Community for Succot,” Jewish News Online, 24th October 2016.
- 25.
“Constructing Cohesion: Sukkah Built at Mosque as Communities Come Together,” Asian Express Newspaper, 24th October 2016.
- 26.
Cohen, “London Mosque Hosts Jewish Community for Succot.”
- 27.
Seán McLoughlin and John Zavos, “Writing Religion in British Asian Diasporas,” in Writing the City in British Asian Diaspora, ed. Seán McLoughlin, et al. (London, UK - New York, NY: Routledge, 2014), 175.
- 28.
Faleh A. Jabar, The Shi‘ite Movement in Iraq (London, UK: Saqi, 2003), 77–142; Laurence Louër, Transnational Shia Politics: Religious and Political Networks in the Gulf (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2008), 82–88.
- 29.
Louër, Transnational Shia Politics: Religious and Political Networks in the Gulf, 88–99; Jabar, The Shi‘ite Movement in Iraq, 216–24.
- 30.
Reza Gholami, Secularism and Identity: Non-Islamiosity in the Iranian Diaspora (London, UK - New York, NY: Routledge, 2015).
- 31.
On the history see: <http://www.arafeh.co.uk/about-us/> [accessed 28 September 2017].
- 32.
See personal profile of Ali Shomali <http://www.ic-el.com/en/DrShomali_biography.asp> [accessed 28 September 2017].
- 33.
Louër, Transnational Shia Politics: Religious and Political Networks in the Gulf, 69–82.; see also Elvire Corboz, Guardians of Shi’ism: Sacred Authority and Transnational Family Networks (Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press, 2015).
- 34.
Benedict Anderson and Gail Kligman, Long-Distance Nationalism: World Capitalism and the Rise of Identity Politics (Berkeley, CA: Centre for German and European Studies, University of California, 1992).
- 35.
Linda S. Walbridge, The Most Learned of the Shi‘a: The Institution of the Marja‘ Taqlid (New York, NY - Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2001), 3–16.
- 36.
See <https://www.facebook.com/AlSibtayn/> [accessed 28 September 2017].
- 37.
The current homepage of the association is flanked by photographs of Golpaygani and the current resident imam on each side. See <http://www.arafeh.co.uk/> [accessed 28 September 2017].
- 38.
Elvire Corboz, “The Al-Khoie Foundation and the Transnational Institutionalisation of Ayatollah Al-Khui’i’s Marja’iyya’,” in Shi’i Islam and Identity: Religion, Politics and Change in the Global Muslim Community, ed. Lloyd Ridgeon (London, UK: I.B. Tauris, 2012), 93–112.
- 39.
Al-Khoie Foundation, Mu’assasat Al-Imam Al-Khu’i Al-Khayriyya (London, UK: Al-Khoie Foundation, 2015), 99–149.
- 40.
Ibid., 86–88.
- 41.
Louër, Transnational Shia Politics: Religious and Political Networks in the Gulf, 85, 200; Jabar, The Shi‘ite Movement in Iraq, 288–89.
- 42.
McLoughlin and Zavos, “Writing Religion in British Asian Diasporas,” 170.
- 43.
Knott, “From Locality to Location and Back Again: A Spatial Journey in the Study of Religion,” 156.
- 44.
Femke Stock, “Home and Memory,” in Diasporas: Concepts, Intersections, Identities, ed. Kim Knott and Seán McLoughlin (London, UK: Zed Books, 2010), 26.
- 45.
Steven Vertovec, Transnationalism (London, UK - New York, NY: Routledge, 2009), 136.
- 46.
Mihran Dabag and Kristin Platt, “Diaspora und das kollektive Gedächtnis: Zur Konstruktion kollektiver Identitäten in der Diaspora,” in Identität in der Fremde, ed. Mihran Dabag and Kristin Platt (Bochum, Germany: Universitätsverlag Dr. Norbert Brockmeyer, 1993), 125–31.
- 47.
Itzhak Nakash, “The Muharram Rituals and the Cult of Saints among Iraqi Shiites,” in The Other Shiites: From the Mediterranean to Central Asia, ed. Alessandro Monsutti, et al. (New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2007), 115–37.
- 48.
Yafa Shanneik, “Remembering Karbala in the Diaspora: Religious Rituals among Iraqi Shii Women in Ireland,” Religion 45, no. 1 (2015): 90.
- 49.
Michael Fischer, Iran: From Religious Dispute to Revolution (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1980), 19–26.
- 50.
On goriz see: Janet Afary and Kevin B. Anderson, Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism (Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 2014), 47.
- 51.
Khomeini developed the argument that the most learned Shia cleric is not only the ultimate source of religious guidance but ought to become the head of an Islamic state. On his concept see: Norman Calder, “Accommodation and Revolution in Imami Shi’i Jurisprudence: Khumayni and the Classical Tradition,” Middle Eastern Studies 18, no. 1 (1982): 3–20.
- 52.
Chibli Mallat, The Renewal of Islamic Law: Muhammad Baqer as-Sadr, Najaf and the Shi‘I International, second ed. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
- 53.
Pnina Werbner, “Complex Diasporas,” in Diasporas: Concepts, Intersections, Identities, ed. Kim Knott and Seán McLoughlin (London, UK: Zed Books, 2010), 74.
- 54.
Ibid.
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Scharbrodt, O. (2024). Creating Shia Spaces in British Society: The Role of Transnational Twelver Shia Networks in North-West London. In: de Rooij, L. (eds) British Muslims and Their Discourses. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45013-6_5
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