Ein „stummes Minarett“

For Beratungsgruppe A’s digital residency, I am revisiting an earlier site-writing exercise in which I contemplated the rigid discursive separation between ‘Europe’ and its ‘Other’.[1] The initial text moved from scattered remarks on the spatial and sonic remnants of French colonialism in Syria, into a curious observation on Graz’s ‘silent minaret’.

In the following text, I expand on these observations. In the background is the larger discourse on the legacies of colonialism and orientalism, as well as the many conflicts around purpose-built mosques in Austria—especially those which can be perceived as mosques, or, most notably, those that (might) have a minaret.[2]

***

“Allô! Where is Europe?”[3]

I once asked, contemplating how ‘Europe’ has and continues to spill over beyond its increasingly fortified territories into places it once colonized. I was writing from the position of someone who had lived in Syria her entire life and, at the time of asking that question, was navigating the regimes of borders, residency, and citizenship that defined the parameters of possibility in her new country of residence, Austria.  

“Allô!” referenced linguistic remnants from the period of French colonial rule over Syria. But the ‘spillage,’ I thought, is far from being only linguistic. The boulevards sprouting from large roundabouts and the deep wounds cut into the thousands-of-years-old urban fabric in Old Damascus are some of the not-so-subtle traces left by France in today’s Syria after a relatively short-lived direct colonial rule.[4]

“Where is Europe today?” was not an attempt to map. It was a question that reiterated the voices of scholars who aimed to destabilize the binaries of ‘East’ vs. ‘West,’ ‘Civilized’ vs. ‘Savage,’ and European vs. ‘Other’; constructed over centuries of discursive practices and elaborate structures of domination.[5] “Where” as a spatial inquiry in containment and presence remains relevant in today’s polarized political climate, far-right resurgence, and xenophobic border policies across the globe. It is also important for discussions within national entities on regulating difference and its perceptible manifestations, for example, for this text’s purpose, in discussions and policies aimed at regulating Muslim presence and visibility in Austria.

***

“Ein stummes Minarett für Graz.”[7]

I first stumbled across the term “silent minaret” while reading about the Islamic Cultural Center in Graz for a university essay. The community and cultural complex was initiated by the association “Muslimische Gemeinschaft Steiermark–Kulturkreis der Muslime (Muslim Community of Styria—Muslim Cultural Circle).”[8] The association has since been renamed “Das Islamische Kulturzentrum Graz” (The Islamic Cultural Center in Graz).[9] The complex was designed by gsp architektur, whose proposal was chosen through an architectural competition in September 2011.[10] In addition to spaces for the association, a multi-purpose hall, a kindergarten, office and commercial spaces[11], the complex holds the first purpose-built mosque and, so far, the only minaret in Graz.[12]

At the time, I questioned the seemingly innocent pairing of ‘minaret’ and ‘silent’. I thought that it was necessary in the mosque’s description because it pointed to a contradiction, an out-of-the-ordinary situation. I had been used to sounds coming out of minarets and church bell towers, sounding together or alternating, and mixing with the multitude of sounds of Damascus’s urban noise. In Graz, I had also become very intimate with the sounds of church bells. They helped me grow more sensitive to time. They also reminded me: The Church is here. 

Sound is also representation. Was the minaret in Graz obligatorily silent?

*** 

Looking at media and architecture news coverage of the Islamic Cultural Center as it emerged, one can see that most accounts touch on its minaret’s silence. The minaret is described as “only symbolic”[13], without a “practical function”[14], an “inaccessible structure”[15], or as a “minaret without a muezzin.”[16] Mahdi Mekic, the spokesperson for the association “Muslim Community of Styria” in 2011, emphasized that the mosque’s minaret would only be symbolic and argued that “the original purpose of the minaret no longer exists today.”[17] This is because people nowadays set their alarms to be reminded to pray.[18] Another article, in which Mekic also gave reassurances of the future minaret’s silence, explained that this minaret’s function would be as a sign that is visible from all driving directions.[19]

Although no reference was made to an explicit ban prohibiting minarets from calling for prayer in Austria, this recurrent theme reflects the underlying anxiety about the scope of the minaret’s presence and its influence on its surroundings.[20] This anxiety is not limited to the media; it extends to building permits and processes. For example, in the case of the “Grazer Mosque,” an article mentions a request by the city of Graz that the minaret be inaccessible and that it should not be possible to use it to broadcast the call to prayer.[21] Furthermore, the spokesperson for the association also informed ORF in 2012 that restricting the minaret to its symbolic function ensured there would be no objections during the building permit hearing.[22] These and other statements made by the association’s representatives imply that the minaret’s silence was a self-evident initial compromise. The minaret’s height was also a “strategic compromise.”[23] At 22 meters, the minaret’s height is the height at which a building is considered a high-rise in Graz.[24]

***

The Graz Islamic Cultural Center in Graz is considered one of the successful examples of initiating and implementing a mosque in Austria.[25] Many factors are attributed to this success. Among them are the center’s contemporary architecture[26], the association’s emphasis on opening the mosque to the general public[27], the articulation of its wishes for the cultural center to be a place of “encounter” that should be reflected in the design solution[28], and its transparency with the authorities and the general public at different phases of the project.[29]

Public discussions, controversies, and conflicts around purpose-built mosques in Austria can be traced back to the 1980s.[30] Within these, minarets (and domes) have been the most contested.[31] It is seen as a threat, a symbol of power[32], a foreign presence[33], or as a necessary element required for proper representation.[34] Often, in the course of these conflicts, attempts are made to contest the minaret’s function, re-explain it, or redefine it. In my view, the silence of Graz’s minaret, often indicated as reassurance but never seriously approached, signals the fragility and limits to the perceptibility of Muslims’ presence in the country. 

A new conflict appears to be emerging around newly proposed plans for a mosque in Graz, Puntigam.[35] It’s important that Graz-based (emerging) architects, spatial practitioners, and researchers familiarize themselves with the decades-long conflicts and controversies in order to form an informed opinion and participate in the conversation. 

ENDNOTES:

[1] Jane Rendell, Site-Writing: The Architecture of Art Criticism, (IB Tauris, 2006). Performance; Said, Edward W., Orientalism, (Pantheon Books, 1978). 

[2] For an extensive study on the conflicts around mosques in Austria, see Ernst Fürlinger, Moscheenbaukonflikte in Österreich: Nationale Politik des religiösen Raums im globalen Zeitalter, (Vienna University Press, 2012). 

[3] This sentence, and the following paragraphs, are based on a text I wrote for the performance: The European Dream, script by Rose-Anne Gush and students at the Institute for Contemporary Art, Halle für Kunst Steiermark, Graz, June 02, 2021. 

[4] Michel Écochard, “1936 Development Plan for Damascus,” Archnet, accessed September 10, 2026, www.archnet.org/sites/10303.

[5] For example, See Edward W., Orientalism; Sylvia Wynter, “On How We Mistook the Map for the Territory, and Reimprisoned Ourselves in Our Unbearable Wrongness of Being, of Désêtre: Black Studies Toward the Human Project,” in Not Only the Master’s Tools: African-American Studies in Theory and Practice, eds. Lewis R. Gordon and Jane Anna Gordon (Paradigm Publishers, 2006), 107–69; Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, Potential History: Unlearning Imperialism, (Verso, 2019).

[6] On the recent resurgence of right wing currents and fascism, see Alberto Toscano, Late Fascism: Race, Capitalism and the Politics of Crisis, (Verso, 2023).

[7] “Ein ‘stummes Minarett’ für Graz" is the title of a 2012 Kleine Zeitung article. The article has now been removed from the newspaper's website.   

[8]  “Eine Moschee für die Steiermark,” Der Standard, September 22, 2011, www.derstandard.at/story/1316390285418/graz-eine-moschee-fuer-die-steiermark. 

[9] Islamisches Kulturzentrum Graz, “Islamisches Kulturzentrum Graz,” accessed September 10, 2026, islamgraz.org. 

[10] Petra Kickenweitz, “Poetik der Architektur,” Handwerk+Bau, November 03, 2014, accessed September 10, 2026, www.handwerkundbau.at/allgemein/poetik-der-architektur-4948. 

[11] gsp architektur, “Moscheebauten,” accessed September 10, 2026, www.gsp-architektur.at/moscheebauten. 

[12] “Eine Moschee für die Steiermark.”

[13] Colette M. Schmidt, “Muslime bauen erste steirische Moschee,” Der Standard, September 22, 2011, accessed September 10, 2026, www.derstandard.at/story/1316390284520/graz-muslime-bauen-erste-steirische-moschee. 

[14] “Muslime bauen in Graz erste steirische Moschee,” Die Presse, September 23, 2011, accessed September 10, 2026, www.diepresse.com/695410/muslime-bauen-in-graz-erste-steirische-moschee. 

[15] Schmidt, “Muslime bauen erste steirische Moschee.”

[16] “Eine Moschee für die Steiermark.”

[17] Schmidt, “Muslime bauen erste steirische Moschee.” 

[18] Ibid.

[19] “Eine Moschee für die Steiermark.”

[20] Fürlinger, Moscheenbaukonflikte in Österreich. 

[21] Kickenweitz, “Poetik der Architektur.” emphasis the author’s. 

[22] ORF Steiermark, “Grundstein für Islamisches Zentrum gelegt,” May 12, 2012, accessed accessed September 10, 2026, steiermark.orf.at/v2/news/stories/2532761. 

[23] Kickenweitz, “Poetik der Architektur.”

[24] Ibid.

[25] Fürlinger, Moscheenbaukonflikte, 130-32.

[26] Ibid. 

[27] Ibid, 166. 

[28] “Eine Moschee für die Steiermark,” Der Standard.

[29] Fürlinger, Moscheenbaukonflikte, 219.

[30] Fürlinger, Moscheenbaukonflikte, 196.

[31] Simone Hübener, “Jenseits von Kuppel und Minarett. Sakralbauten und Moscheekonflikte,” Bauwelt, no. 24 (2008): 3.

[32] Fürlinger, Moscheenbaukonflikte, 116-120.

[33] Ibid, 108.

[34] Hübener, “Jenseits von Kuppel und Minarett.”

[35] “Aufregung um geplante Großmoschee in Graz,” ORF Steiermark, October 07, 2025, accessed September 10, 2026, steiermark.orf.at/stories/3324780/.