Barcelona Metropolis

The opening of an Islamic prayer hall in Carrer del Japó, in the Prosperitat neighbourhood, has been fraught with tension because of the residents’ opposition to this centre. Management of the conflict has allowed an approach between the two communities in the framework of a broader policy in defence of human rights and promotion of diversity.

Since early 2017, Carrer del Japó, a street in the Prosperitat neighbourhood of Barcelona's Nou Barris district, has been experiencing an unusual situation of noise, protest and neighbourhood tensions. The reason: the Islamic Community of Nou Barris, an organisation founded in 2016 by local Muslim residents, had leased the premises at number 28 to open a prayer room. And so the name of Carrer del Japó was added to the list of conflicts associated with the formal and institutionalised presence of Islamic communities that have arisen in districts and towns around our nation over the last twenty years, alongside Premià de Mar, Lleida and Santa Coloma de Gramenet. While the noisy protests of some years ago might have abated, many of these disputes are far from being resolved, because although the protests are no longer there, nor are the mosques, or at least not on the terms that the Islamic communities planned. In Prosperitat, the mosque is now there, and the process leading to its opening offers us new elements for reflection and intervention to ensure that cultural and religious diversity (and all other diversities we might consider) find their natural place within the collective consciousness of our public spaces.

The Carrer del Japó mosque, or strictly speaking prayer room (there is unfortunately no established mosque as yet in Barcelona) is the 29th in the city, according to figures from the OAR (the Religious Affairs Office of Barcelona City Council), and is just one of more than five hundred places of worship currently run by different faith traditions, according to the OAR's 2017 Operational Report. This is, however, the first time that Barcelona has seen an opposition movement on this scale and of this nature.

The course of events is very similar to that in other such cases. A number of local residents of the Islamic faith, having lived in a particular area for years, come together to open a mosque in their neighbourhood, a communal meeting point for prayer, teaching and socialisation, and at the same time a resource allowing them to open up to their surroundings, make themselves visible, identifiable, and so engage in active dialogue. Without this organisation and without the mosque, how would others know where to find the Muslim community?

Although from the very outset the community had set out to forge alliances and enjoyed the support of other organisations in the region (the Xarxa 9 Barris Acull network and the Els Propis Cultural Centre), and the assistance and technical support of the City Council, the reaction from a sector of the local populace was one of absolute and outright rejection. They claimed there were technical issues (the premises seemed inappropriate, the street was too narrow), but also more intangible elements, such as fear. And they embarked on a protest campaign, the cornerstone of which was a daily rough music protest. The terrorist attack on the Rambla on 17 August and the far-right groups that joined in the demonstrations served to increase the tension, including among residents on the street themselves, and there were repeated incidents of graffiti and vandalism of the shutters of the prayer room, which was still being refurbished. The prayer room finally opened its doors in February 2018 amid the din of pots and pans and whistles, which has since then been toned down.

Situations like that on Carrer del Japó are not simply a conflict between that specific Islamic community and local residents who object to their presence in particular, but instead show us the difficulties and challenges in making cultural and religious diversity work at the overall city level. The solution to the conflict, then, is not a question of appeasing one side or another, or offering one-off responses to specific situations, but instead the initiatives taken, particularly on the part of local authorities, must be adopted within a broader framework policy to uphold fundamental rights and promote diversity.

In this case, the basic criterion for the intervention by the various municipal services involved, and also local organisations, with the Prosperity Neighbourhood Association to the fore, was the right of the Islamic community to open their place of worship, provided that they fulfilled all the technical and urban planning requirements imposed by the regulations. And from this starting point, which is at the same time a limitation, a long process of outreach and dialogue began with the local residents and the area around the prayer room, including those who objected to its opening, with the aim of providing information and assuaging fears and prejudices, but above all listening and supporting.