Moskee An Nour

Abstract

This article is a reconstruction of the debates and dilemmas surroundingthe homework assistance programme offered by a Moroccan mosque inGouda, mosque An Nour, in cooperation with a youth care foundation.This programme was very successful for the Moroccan-Dutch teenagers.The mosque can be characterized as a ‘socially engaged’ mosque in c ontrastto other mosques in which only religious activities are taken place. Thed evelopment of this ‘socially engaged’ mosques is typical for westernc ountries. At the same time, however, they challenge existing notionsof state-religion relationships and the position of religion in the publicsphere. Moreover the cooperation between this mosque and a youth workorganization brings about specific questions pertaining to the standardizedand bureaucratic modalities of youth work. We will describe the dilemma’sthese ‘socially engaged’ mosques bring about by making claims on behalfof the freedom of religion in a society with its own specific Christian-secularculture and youth work system.