A Grand Mosque Comes to Marseilles

The minaret of the new Grand Mosque in Marseilles won’t call the entire town to prayer five times daily, and it’s reduced in scale. Instead a strobe light — probably purple — will flash at the appointed hour for the 25% of Marseille’s residents who wish to face Mecca when it’s time.

Those whose religion doesn’t require them to kneel in prayer five times a day won’t have their conversations or private thoughts interrupted with a reminder that they aren’t Muslims.

Steven Erlanger writes cogently about the fears of Europeans as cities change visibly in symbols not associated with assimilation. Muslims argue they are the new “Blacks”.

A street in Marseilles France.Calling the response xenophobic inspires cultural guilt and steadies opposing views between Muslims and nonMuslims, but the accusations don’t address the very real psychological fears among Europeans.

I argue that the fears go into deeper issues of identity and bonafide fears of future subjugation to the will of Islam. Any thoughtful discussion of the measurable physiological impacts of historical changes is good. Understanding the moment in the larger context of history also helps with perspective. Anne