Labours of Inter-religious Tolerance: Cultural and Spatial Intimacy in Croatia and Turkey

Author: Berghahn Journals Jeremy F.  

Publisher: Berghahn Books

E-ISSN: 2047-7716|33|2|59-76

ISSN: 0305-7674

Source: Cambridge Journal of Anthropology, The, Vol.33, Iss.2, 2015-10, pp. : 59-76

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Abstract

Based on ethnographic research in Croatia and Turkey, this article explores two projects of inter-religious tolerance in relation to broader logics of cultural and spatial intimacy. In the Croatian case, the focus is on the public discourse surrounding Rijeka's Nova Džamija [New Mosque] which pivoted on a perception of the shared victimization of Catholic Croats and Muslim Bosnians at the hands of Serbs during the wars of the 1990s. For Turkey, we focus on a project in Ankara that aims to provide a single site of worship for Sunni and Alevi Muslims, a 'mosque-cem house'. The analysis highlights some common formations of tolerance and cultural intimacy expressed by both projects, as well as the divergent spatial practices and modes of spatial intimacy that distinguish the two sites.