The Conflict Around Islamic Symbols Between Pragmatically Embedded Rules of Hospitality and Formal Law: a Case Study

Abstract

The present article is a result of an ethnographic case study. It deals with a conflict on minaret building and the call for prayer in a small German town. The author had the opportunity to observe the conflict which was enacted in the context of several neighborhood assemblies in which Muslim and non-Muslim neighbors came together. His analysis shows that the dynamic of the conflict is shaped by arguments which rely simultaneously on formal law and on deeply embedded rules of hospitality. These two dimensions and further modern forms of discourse act together in this conflict, which becomes a sort of a modern ritual of incorporation. This in turn comes very close to rituals of incorporation of strangers that are well known and widely studied by modern ethnographers.