Tablighi Jamaat and the Quest for the London Mega Mosque Continuity and Change

by Pieri, Zacharias P.

• ISBN13: 9781137464385
• ISBN10: 1137464380
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2015-03-05
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

The book charts the attempts of Islam's largest missionary movement, the Tablighi Jamaat (TJ), to build Europe's biggest mosque in London – the so-called Mega Mosque. The book follows TJ from its founding in India in 1926, to its establishment in Britain during the 1940s, to its plans for construction of a controversial mosque in London. The book addresses the issues emerging at the forefront of national debates across liberal democracies: the role of Islam in the west, conceptions of changing citizenship and national identities, and how best to integrate increasingly diverse populations. What happens to illiberal and politically disengaged groups that wish to segregate themselves from what they regard as corrupt and immoral wider societies? How do these groups engage with government policy that seeks to define good citizens as those that are actively engaged in the socio-political life of the community? Zacharias Pieri provides context and insight to answer these and other important questions.

Author Biography

Zacharias Pieri is a Research Fellow with the Global Initiative on Civil Society and Conflict at the University of South Florida, Tampa. He has extensive ethnographic research experience of British Muslim communities. His current research focuses on Islam in the modern world and on the relationships between religion, politics and violence.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Framing the Context 
3. Conceiving Tablighi Jamaat 
4. Tablighi Jamaat: Organization, Structure and Methods
5. Tablighis in Britain: Adapting to Shifting Contexts
6. Tablighi Jamaat in Transition 2005 – 2010
7. Tablighi Jamaat and the Politics of Adaptation
8. Tablighi Jamaat from Within
9. Conclusions