Embodied Cultural Mobility of Religiosity: The Growth of Shiite Culture in Beirut via Rural to Urban Migration

Abstract

Muslim immigrants’ adaptation to Western values has been a concern by different US governments. Their religious culture and the relationship of their country of origin with the United States have racialized them as a flux of un-assimilating underclass who are resistant to the Western culture. The studies that argue against such stereotypes, often portray Muslim immigrants as a minoritized community with little or no socio-cultural agency. However, cultural mobility has a reciprocal relationship with the urban spaces of the enclaves in which they settle. As most of the mass migrations of the Middle Eastern Muslims are internal due to the displacements caused by wars and unrests, this study focuses on the immigration process through which minority religious ethnic groups claim their identity right to the city and reproduce their culture. This research studied the process of spatial reproduction of rural Shiite culture in South Suburb Beirut practiced by minority Shiite immigrants from rural areas of South Lebanon. Applying a spatial relational approach via comparative archival analysis of urban pictures, the study concludes that the communal culture of rural Shiism collectively embodied by the immigrants made the spatialized reproduction of their culture impactful within and outside their South Beirut enclave.