Paper short abstract:

Based on an ethnography of a project for the construction of a new square in Lisbon (the Moorish square), the objective of this paper is to address the relations between religion, heritage making and the articulations of different temporalities

Paper long abstract:

Based on an ethnography of a new urban project, the objective of this paper is to address the ways heritage regimes and lived religion produce distinct temporalities and futures.

In 2011, the Lisbon city hall announced the construction of a new square in downtown Lisbon. Its name - the Moorish square - evokes the heritagization of the Arab Islamic past of the city, a process connected with larger economic dynamics associated with tourism and urban renewal. Simultaneously, this new square will also include the relocation of an existing mosque, created in the early 2000s, and managed by the Islamic Community of Bangladesh (ICB), a Bangladeshi-Portuguese Islamic association. For the ICB, this relocation is also their recognition as key institutional actors within public Islam in Portugal and a major waqf (good deed) for all Muslims.

Thus, overall, this paper will show how a project for the construction of a new square in downtown Lisbon draws different, albeit articulated, futures: one centered on heritagization, secularities and urban renewal, and another, on religious temporalities.