UK – Day 3

Today we interviewed the imam of a local mosque in Rugby making him very influential in the Muslim society. He talked to us about how practicing Islam in England has been for him, and how it is different for different generations, those who were born in England and those who moved to England at some stage of their lives, we learnt that for those who are born in England their knowledge for Islam is not as strong as those who were moved here at some stage of their lives. Although saying that, he also mentioned how for those younger generation born here practicing Islam, they are able to integrate with everyone of the English society and become one with them which in future will be good as a better understanding of each others cultures will unfold and possibly stereotypes and divide amongst non-Muslims and Muslims will come to a close. Like the other interviews we have conducted he also believed how England provides a really good environment to practice he’s religion, going on to say he wouldn’t live anywhere else but England thou he was not born here. Other European countries such as France which he had previously visited, he said to have found them to be intimidating and didn’t find himself comfortable being there. Something, which we found interesting that he mentioned, is how he believes the difference in environments is caused by the Muslims who in fact live in those countries, for example he mentioned how in England the Muslim community in their many forms provide so much for the English community, from food to corner shops pharmacist doctors etc. Where as in countries like Norway the Muslims there don’t help the Norwegians, majority of them living of benefits working low class jobs and also they don’t have the mentality to integrate and join with the community they choose to stay with their own.

It was really interesting to hear he’s point of view as a man who understands he’s religion deeply as well as knowing the bible well and understanding Christianity, he was able to give us an unbiased insight into Muslims in the UK and outside from both sides of the spectrum.

Day 5 – Our Second Gatekeeper and the ‘Islamic Cultural Centre’ guided tour

After /breakfast we met up and completed the blog posts from the day before as we have not had the time to do them during the as it has been a fast past week. As we didn’t have any interviews or meetings with the gatekeepers planned until the evening we decided to spend a lot more time on our blog work, editing photos and transcribing the interviews from previous days. We headed out of the hotel at around 2pm once we had completed a few hours work. During the afternoon we decided to head back to the mosques to see if we could enter them and have a look around and speak to individuals within the mosques, after several attempts at trying to get into the mosques, we decided to leave it until we went with our gatekeeper. We wanted to gain as much information as possible as the trip for our project was coming to an end.

Over lunch (a cheap lunch!!!) we messaged our gatekeeper to see what time we were meeting and asked if he could take us to the Islamic community Centre, which turned out to be a mosque. Which of course was brilliant because we would now be able to have a guided tour around the mosque. On walking back to the hotel to meet our gatekeeper we noted that there were several detailed clocks around the city, very similar to the one that sits on the side of the City Hall, with all the zodiac signs for numbers. It was as though the government was constantly reminding the citizens of Oslo that they had to keep moving, we also noticed that the citizens of Oslo did not move as fast as individuals in the City of London.

When we arrived back the hotel our gatekeeper was waiting for us, we were running a little late as we got lost making our back to the hotel. On our way to the Islamic Culture Centre we made our way down streets that we hadn’t been down before in which we made observations on every road, many of the roads had groups of males standing outside the mosques in groups of 6/7 talking and blocking the pavement, they would not let us past, so we had to walk on the road to get around them, this made us as girls feel very uncomfortable and uneasy at the situation, our gatekeeper just carried on as he is used to this area of Oslo.

We first went to the mosque that we tried to enter earlier that day, but unfortunately it was locked and we could not get inside, so we decided to make our way to the Community Centre which is the Islamic Cultural Centre. On arriving at the Islamic Cultural Centre, it was clear that it was a lot bigger than any of the other mosques we have been to. However, it was still set back into a residential and shopping area, the building was of a cream colour which did not stand out on the street, there was a big sign on the side of the wall that read “The Islamic Cutural Centre Norway”.

Our gatekeeper lead us to the women’s entrance of the mosque, which worried us slightly that we would be entering the mosque on our own with no guidance from someone who practices Islam. On entering the mosque, it was clear that we had to remove our shoes, we made our way up the stairs to be asked if we needed help. This was a miracle; someone who would help us. She lead us to a young girl probably the same age as ourselves and she gave us a guided tour of the mosque, showing us all the prayer rooms; male and female. Asking us questions about what we were researching and also giving us an insight into the Islamic religion.

This building used to be a mosque, but is not used anymore as a new one has been built next door.

On first observation, many of the women were staring at us, but no one asked if we would wear a hijab because many of the women did not have one on themselves. We felt comfortable in the mosque once we had someone to show us around. When talking to the young female she gave us an insight into what the cultural centre does. They have regular classes at the weekend, teaching individuals the Islamic religion and once a year they have an open day where members of the public can enter the mosque and have a guided tour like we did. She said that this is never that highly attended.

Having a guided tour around the mosque was overwhelming and inspiring, all four of us finally had insight into the inside of a mosque and Islam. It was a special experience that has helped us gain a great insight for our project.

Once arriving back at the hotel around 7pm we had a skype call with UK group on how everything was going from both sides. We talked about what we have done and they gave us an insight into what they have also completed, it was good to be able to compare and contrast the two different aspects of our project.

 

 

Day 4 – Mosques’, Pediga and Our First Gatekeeper

After breakfast, we headed out to a very snowy Oslo During our research in the UK about the Mosques within Oslo we found that they were close to the hotel, so we went and look for all the mosques as they were 5 within the space of 5 to 10 minutes of each other. We found three Mosques’, two of the three mosques were obvious as they had the Islamic symbol at the top of a tower or built into the wall. The third mosque was not so obvious; it was as though they had rented an old shop and made it into a mosque, from first observation this seemed only to be for men as there was only one entrance to the building. During the walk around the area where the mosques are we also found a Muslim primary school, which looked as though it had almost been abandoned, it was all open, with no gates or fencing to secure the school and its next to a main road and opposite one of the mosques. It was a very run down building with graffiti on the sides of the wall.

Oslo on first observation is very different to the UK in terms of mosques, there are no obvious signs at first glance, they are built into a row of shops and look like an ordinary building. It is not until you look at the up to the sky that you see the tiny Islamic symbol at the top of the spiral tower. The first one is the most common one. It is smallest of all mosques we saw today. We almost passed it when we realized that it is a mosque as it looks more like a office, blue windows and a square room, all the windows were blocked out with cardboard and curtains, you could not see in, unless you waited for someone to come out of the door, it wasn’t until this happened that we realized that it was a men’s mosque. There was some Islamic writing on the door, but you could barely see it, unless you walked up to the door, we were unsure of what this said. But passers by said that it was a mosque, but a very small mosque.

When walking around the area where the mosques’ were there was a lot of graffiti, some of the graffiti was writing, with words such as ‘freedom’ and ‘Satan is King’ written on the side of abandoned buildings are car parks. Some of the other graffiti was art; an individual had obviously taken their time to produce a piece of art of the side of the building to express how they are feeling. On observation it was clear that no one had even tried to scrub it away the graffiti, as it is very interesting to look at, it’s a way for people to express how they are feeling in the surrounding area.

Muslim Primary School

All three mosques all had different characteristics. The second mosque in comparison to the first was a lot bigger, it looked more like a mosque, as it had the Islamic symbol at the top and Islamic writing on the front of the building, but still it was built into a row of different shops, local shops, run down businesses, that were local to the Muslim community, selling cultural foods. Again, we tried to enter this mosque, but as we were not local to the area, we found it difficult to see which entrance we had to go in as it was predominantly males entering the mosque at this particular entrance. When observing the area, we noted that many of the women in the area were wearing traditional hijabs or full traditional clothing, whereas the males did not wear anything that identified them as Muslims. It is worth mentioning that majority of the dresses that they wear within the mosques’ are black; this was on observation, watching women walking into the mosques’.

After observing the mosques’ for a couple of hours we made our way back to the hotel for to prepare for the interview with PEDIGA at 3pm. The interview was very successful and went on for about an hour, with a lot of in-depth answers to help us with our project. The transcript is being completed by Lydia and will shortly follow this post. We had planned 12 questions to ask pediga, but the interview went beyond these 12 questions and went into a general chat about the work they do and how this affects Oslo and the Muslim community.

After the meeting with Pediga we met with our first gatekeeper at 5pm to go to the rest of the mosques that we had not seen.

The fourth one is a Pakistan mosque. It is the most beautiful one, which has a mosaic pretty wall with fantastic architecture with Islamic writing printed on the tiles, this is the one mosque that stands out from the building it sits in line with. It wasn’t until we started talking to our gatekeeper she informed us that there was a high security prison and police station in triangle with the mosque, Moving on from this we asked her about the public disorder and security within the area and she expressed that there wasn’t much of an issue.

She also mentioned that the male who carried out the shootings within Oslo in 2011 was put in the prison opposite the mosque for a few months. After being told that we were standing outside a high security prison, we became very uneasy within the area and felt slightly uncomfortable, the high security prison also over looked a child’s playground, and at the time we were there, there was a Muslim family in the playground. The last Mosque that we saw  was a Turkish mosque; which is not noticeable, it has a grey appearance and sits neatly back into the other buldings, we would not have noticed this mosque if we were not with our gatekeeper, the Turkish mosque was located by little boutique shops.

On walking to the mosques’ we visited a beautiful white bridge, which was a waste yard ten years ago. It leads us through a residential and office area of Oslo, waling over the top of the central station. It gave us a different viewpoint of the City of Oslo, which was nice to see. Especially as the sun was going down, we were able to see a new architecture and building project called ‘The Barcode’ which is new, modern and exciting for the City. This also lead us to opera house, which is amazing, they had built the Opera house on a slight modern slant, but made it so it has modern and traditional Scandinavia in one. The Opera house over looked the ocean; you could see many different parts of the City of Oslo, old and new. Different layers of architecture and the different spaces they had used for different things.

After a whole day’s tired exploring and interviewing, we bought a simple lunch-dinner together, and took it away to our hotel, because we wanted to interview our gatekeeper and ask her a few questions. During that period, we all felt delighted with the results of the day, we had gained so much insight of the Muslims community and the surrounding area.Not only because the chat and interview with our gatekeeper processed smoothly, but also we acquired a lot of meaningful things in yesterday. We all think it would be very helpful and useful to our project.

Day 2 & 3 – Tour of Oslo and Interview With Our Second Gatekeeper

Day 2-

We went into the centre of Oslo this morning, and witnessed the first solar eclipse this century. A lot of people were out to watch the event, and looking out of windows. Walking around we noticed a poster which said ‘down with the USA the worlds biggest terrorist’, picturing the USA flag surrounded by flames on the side of an electricity box.This stood out, as it was the first anti-terrorist item we have came across since being in Norway. The area this was in was rife with graffiti art on shop shutters and any spare wall there seemed to be available.

Walking into the centre of Oslo, there were a lot of fast food restaurants, with many of the workers being of Middle Eastern decent, rather than Norwegian. This stood out to us, as we saw this regularly while walking into Oslo.

Within the city, there are a lot of modern buildings and globally recognised shops such as Micheal Kors and Starbucks. This contrasts with the architecture just a few minutes out of the centre, as they are very much period, and classic Norwegian design. This shows how over time, the influence of American chains have drastically altered Oslo’s centre to a much more commercial area. Music is a constant within the centre, with near enough all the music played is American chart music apposed to Norwegian. This further demonstrates the Western Europe and American influence on the country.

 

We met our second gatekeeper at 4pm at our hotel, he was the president of the Islamic Society at Oslo University, and we were privileged to be able to interview him on his experience as a Muslim living within Norway, and the issues which have arose within recent times. During the interview, he mentioned how there is a growing harmony between Norwegian and Muslim resistance. However, that there is an on-going, underling tension that is always present. He mentioned a recent event, where a white, Norwegian man spat at a Muslim woman who was wearing a hijab. The man  was later arrested and fined for the incident. He also shed light on the rise of many anti-Islamic groups within Norway, such as PEGIDA. Mentioning, how since recent events such as the Charile Habbo incident in France, and the shootings in Copenhagen, these groups have had a surge in global support.

The interview helped us a lot in shedding light on what its like to be a Muslim in a predominantly white nation, and the recent tensions which have arose from these events.

After the interview, we made our way back into the centre for dinner. On our way we saw the palace in the distance, and we were surprised by how close it was to the main shopping district. After dinner, we explored the centre and saw a parade to celebrate the Kurdish New Year, with a large turnout holding flags, banners and flames in order to celebrate the event.

Day 3-

We woke up and had breakfast together, planning the day ahead. We have been told a lot by the people we have met so far, that our hotel is next to a hipster area, and that we should check it out. This morning, we took a walk around the area. Straight away we noticed the vast difference in food prices, as in the centre prices for main meals are around 160-230 krn (…). A lot of the places we first saw in the area were independent takeaway shops, selling kebab and Indian cuisine. The area we initially explored was very quite, and not many shops were present.

Walking further we realised we were walking towards a residential area, where many of the buildings were flats and apartments, all of individual design. The design of them really did fit in well with the ‘hipster’ image the area was trying to achieve. We later found our way to the main shopping area, where we noticed all the shops were independently owned, drastically different to that in the centre. All the shops were boutiques, selling quirky clothing and antique items.

 

We later met with our gatekeeper again, as he offered to take us on a tour of Oslo. We first caught a tram ride into the centre, which wasn’t cheap! It cost is 90krn (£7.50). We saw the houses of parliament and palace, where we were able to get extremely close to which was strange to us, as at Buckingham Palace and Downing Street, they are closed off and heavily guarded. Our gatekeeper also took us to the city hall, where we found the clock we found for out time lecture. It was a lot bigger than we imagined, and placed on a building which design didn’t fit with the design of the clock.

We went to the Nobel peace prize museum also, which was extremely interesting and enjoyable. Later traveling up a mountain to view Oslo by the sea, which we all enjoyed. From this we were able to see the mixture of period and commercial buildings. We also haven’t seen many gift shops in the city; maybe this is a reflection of Oslo not being a tourist attraction to many.

Within the centre we have seen many homeless women of Romanian and Muslim decent. From what we have seen they all tend to be within groups and seem controlled by who they approach and the tactics they use.

Talking to our gatekeeper, he mentioned how Norwegians don’t like halal meat being sold in Norway, and that many of the restaurants won’t mention that they sell halal unless they are asked. Because the animal rights groups within Norway appose to the ways the animal is killed, and thus the restaurants don’t want any confrontation from these activists. This was interesting to hear, as the day before he was mentioning how there is a growing harmony and acceptance within society. However, they are still apposing the selling of halal meat within Norwegian culture.

 

Day 1 – Travel Day / Film Premiere

Day 1 has been hectic, lots of travelling, but also a lot of observation taking place whilst travelling from London Gatwick to Oslo.

Since landing in Oslo it has been clear that the white race are the majority, they are the wealthy. On the flight from London Gatwick to Oslo the majority of the passengers were white with the minority being of the asian race. This also tells us that the white majority are wealthy ones, who are able to afford to travel out of Norway to different places.

When travelling on the train from Oslo airport to Oslo central station it became clear that there were no other religions / races present. All the passengers were white, either from Britain, America or Norway. They were very quiet with not a lot of conversation between one another, this came across quite rude, showing that Norwegian’s may not want outsiders coming into their country.

It wasn’t until we walked from the train station to out hotel that we noted that Oslo itself was actually a multi cultural city with a diverse population , this may be due to the university being in the centre. When looking around Oslo once we had arrived it became clear to us that there were many of the same race, predominantly women that were ” using images of their children to draw us into donate money. In Oslo, they have many different religions making it a multi cultural city. The surroundings grace many different restaurants suited to the various cultures visiting.

After contacting out gatekeeper  we received an invitation from her to attend the Norwegian Film Institute to watch a film premiere called ‘I Am Kuba’ which is a film based around Polish parents who leave Poland to find work in the UK and Poland, leaving their children behind to look after themselves. Within the film premiere we noted that our gatekeeper was the only muslim present within the film premiere, again the audience being predominantly white. This did not seem to faze her, our gatekeeper was full of confidence around us and everyone else in the room, including the stars of the film. However the white majority seem to have control of the room and at times seemed to gaze at us knowing that we were not Norwegian.

After the first very long day of travelling and the observations that were made it became clear that Oslo and the Norwegian culture is very different to any culture that I have been on contact with. It is very laid back,  individualistic society, many of the Muslim community tend too be on their own or in pairs when walking around Oslo, they tend to also wear their traditional religious clothing for example women wear the Hijab. Its almost as though the Muslim community have taken on the individualist society that Norway is. Oslo is becoming more and more multi cultural.

UK-DAY 2

On our second day of research  we interviewed a female student from Coventry university she’s a member of the coventry university islamic society. originally from Guinea-Bissau, she grew in Portugal and moved to the UK when she was 16.   She talked to us about her experience as as muslim in Portugal and the UK as well friends and family’s experience in Sweden, Luxembourg and germany? where she visited shortly. like our first interviewee, she mentioned how the UK provides a better environment for her as practising muslim and that she has total freedom of religious expression than all the places she’s lived and visited. she talked to us about the racial and religious discrimination she faced living in Portugal and compared it to how she felt about being a black muslim living in the UK. she also talked about being a muslim  woman and dressing accordingly, insisting that wearing the hijab is a personal choice for her to please Allah and how she felt about restrictions on religious expression in countries suck as France and Portugal, where she has first hand experience.

Given that we’re researching scandinavian society, we were interested in hearing about her trip to Sweden where her hosts told her about their experiences of being called “dirty” because they were black and that local government had refused permission to build a mosque.

UK-DAY 1

For the group staying in the UK, today was our first day of Research.

We interviewed a muslim student from Nigeria on our course. We wanted to ask him about his experience as Muslim in the UK compared to his experience as muslim in Nigeria, a country that has almost equal numbers of muslims and christians and has been devastated by terrorist attacks on its people from the terrorist group Boko Haram. the later has recently pledged allegiance to ISIS which was accepted shortly after. This causes a bigger threat to Nigeria and the surrounding west-african region. In the interview he mentioned how he feels more free and safer to practise his religion than he does in his home country where there are tensions between muslims and christians. He also mentions how the UK provides a better environment for him as a practising muslim by getting easy access to mosques in the place he lives and also the university he studies at. And most importantly he has freedom of religious expression as he hasn’t encountered any restrictions and discrimination. It was interesting to hear about his experiences of being a muslim in two geopolitically different countries.