Comparativeurban Studies Project

COMPARATIVE URBAN STUDIES PROJECT URBAN UPDATE September 2007 NO. 12 Cities and Fundamentalisms WRITTEN BY: Nezar AlSayyad, Professor of Architecture, Planning, and Urban History & Chair of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of California at Berkeley; Mejgan Massoumi, Program Assistant, Comparative Urban Studies Project (2005-2007); Mrinalini Rajagopalan, Assistant Professor, Draper Faculty Fellow (The City), New York University. With the unanticipated resur- gence of religious and ethnic loy- alties across the world, communities are returning to, reinvigo- rating, and giving new meaning to religions and their common practices. Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Hinduism, among others, are experiencing new in- fl uxes of commitments and traditions. These changes have been coupled with the breakdown of order and of state power under the neo-liberal economic para- Top Row, Left to Right: Salwa Ismail, Mrinalini Rajagopalan, Raka Ray, Blair Ruble, Renu Desai, Nezar AlSayyad. Bottom Row, Left to Right: digm of civil society which have Omri Elisha, Emily Gottreich, Mona Harb, Mejgan Massoumi. created vacuums in the provi- sion of social services. Religious groups in many countries around the world are increasingly providing those services left unattended to by state bureaucracies. The once sacred divide between church and COMPARATIVE URBAN STUDIES PROJECT state or the confi nement of religion to the pri- fundamentalisms in several parts of the world. The vate sphere is now being vigorously challenged systematic transformation of the urban landscape as radical religious groups not only gain ground through various strategies of religious funda- within sovereign nation-states but in fact forge mentalism has led to the redefi nition of minority enduring and powerful transnational connections space in many cities. In turn, urban environments by expanding their memberships with blind or have been seized as the new scale at which con- obedient recruits. Meanwhile, the spread of global temporary radical religious movements mobilize. terrorism (and the equally brutal measures to con- Keeping this general context in mind, the “Cities tain it) have been inadequately explained either as and Fundamentalisms,” workshop was arranged a “clash of civilizations” or as an irreconcilable rift around the following key questions: When do between Third World traditions and First World certain religious rituals/customs turn into exclu- modernities. It would, of course, be a grave sim- sionary practices that ultimately lead to funda- plifi cation to view religious orthodoxies or doc- mentalist positions? What are the contemporary trines as the cause of terrorist violence or to deal expressions of these new forms of radical religios- with fundamentalisms as isolated phenomena, di- ity in the space of the city? In a global landscape vorced from the various economic, political, and increasingly fragmented by religious ideologies social vectors that shape the contemporary mo- and frictions, who claims the right to the city? ment of globalization. In his book, The Right to the City: Social Justice In partnership with the Center for Middle and the Fight for Public Space, Don Mitchell has ar- Eastern Studies (CMES) at the University of gued that that exclusive cities erode our collective California at Berkeley, the Comparative Urban social repertoires and allow the rise of brittle, fear- Studies Project hosted a two-day introductory ful, and unimaginative spaces, citizens, and soci- workshop from June 15-16, 2007 titled “Cities eties. This project seeks to better understand the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion within cities that are dominated by “The systematic transformation of the urban righteous groups. How are they al- tering the face of the urban landscape landscape through various strategies of through their claims to the city? What religious fundamentalism has led to the follows are a few defi ning key points and questions raised throughout the redefi nition of minority space in many cities. introductory sessions. In turn, urban environments have been seized The workshop started with an important discussion of the varying as the new scale at which contemporary defi nitions of fundamentalism, and a revisiting of the popular uses of radical religious movements mobilize.” the term and dictionary defi nitions from sources such as the Oxford and Fundamentalisms.” This workshop juxta- English Dictionary and the American Heritage posed and analyzed the cross-relations between Dictionary. Although neither of these is con- two of important phenomena of our contem- temporary and also quite different from one an- porary world: the fi rst is the historic transition other, they are in consensus that fundamentalism of the majority of the world’s population from may simply be defi ned as the strict maintenance a rural to urban existence and the second is the of orthodox traditional religious beliefs or doc- robust, albeit unexpected, emergence of religious trines. In terms of scholarly investigation, Martin 2 WOODROW WILSON INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR SCHOLARS Although fundamentalism is a categorization that “This project is very has principally been based on religion and religious affi liation, the members of this workshop agreed specifi cally called ‘Cities that the term is very problematic. For instance, the and Fundamentalisms’ and complex nature of various forms of religious expression which often get labeled as ‘fundamen- addresses both the urban talist,’ even when active affi liates of the religious group reject the terms themselves. The term itself component and radical religious does not capture the array of meanings associated movements in the plural in with it and moreover its usage in popular parlance tends to obfuscate its particular historical origins order to stress, that cities in nineteenth century Protestant movements in and fundamentalisms are not the United States. In sum, the participants found it diffi cult to ground a single defi nition of the term; monolithic, and that they range however, there were a few agreements. The group in a wide spectrum.” referred to ideologies and movements being clas- sifi ed as fundamentalist not only because they are orthodox, but because they involve the active E. Marty and Scott Appleby were among the fi rst demonstration of resistance against modernity, to recognize the growing interest in fundamental- secularism, the nation, or the state via the rhetoric ism in the early 1990s. The American Academy of of religious recovery. Members also agreed that as Arts and Sciences supported their “Fundamentalism opposed to ultra-traditionalist movements which Project” which lasted from 1993 to 1998 and in- are prefaced on a retreat or disengagement from volved many scholars and experts. The fi ve-volume the public sphere (for example, as espoused by the publication that resulted from this project argues Amish communities of North America); funda- that there is a family resemblance within fundamen- mentalism is accompanied by activist strategies, talisms and to a certain extent unites movements where the public sphere is used to showcase the within the religious traditions of Christianity, Islam, engagement of that struggle. Second, fundamen- Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism. Marty talism has negative political connotations that are and Appleby also argue that even as fundamentalists not always accurate to the frame of reference, and react to certain tenets of modernity, they frequently the traditional defi nition of the term does not ac- employ modern tools in the technology and devices count for the interplay of different forms of reli- they use to achieve their goals and attract adher- gious expression that are connected to issues of ence. In other words, while fundamentalists reject class, gender, historical trajectories, etc. The par- the values that are grounded in modernization, they ticipants fi nally agreed that, fundamentalism is do so without rejecting the means of modernity it- the hegemony of the majority and only when the self. Indeed, it might be argued that the essential majority recognizes that the rights of the minor- relation between fundamentalism and modernity is ity must be equally attended to and claimed can less antagonistic and more transactional. Critics of democracy prevail. What then, does this have to the Martin and Appleby project have also pressed do with cities? the possibility that radical religious movements are The city has been very important to the formu- further motivated by social, ethnic, or nationalistic lation of fundamentalism as an ideological frame- grievances—elements that need careful study in any work. Whether fundamentalism is essentially rural investigation of fundamentalisms. or urban does in fact change from place to place. 3 CITIES AND FUNDAMENTALISMS This project is very specifi cally called “Cities and radical religious movements are seeking aggres- Fundamentalisms” and addresses both the urban sively to redefi ne the terms of citizenship in the component and radical religious movements in city and problematize its moral and cultural fac- the plural in order to stress, that cities and fun- ets. In essence, fundamentalist religiosity seeks damentalisms are not monolithic, and that they to recalibrate the individual’s relationship to the range in a wide spectrum. The group agreed that nation, the state, or the city. An underlying con- there are increasingly different types of cities and cern within the discussions was the variety of different types of fundamentalisms

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