A simple place of worship finds itself a charged symbol of the visibility of Islam in European society.

BOOK/The Mosque: Political, Architectural and Social Transformations Ergun Erkocu and Cihan Bugdaci, NAi Publishers, 2009, 35 euros

The modern mosque is an elusive entity. Freighted with public suspicion and even hostility, it transcends the domain of architecture and has become a charged symbol of the visibility of Islam in contemporary European society. A simple place of worship now finds itself at the heart of debates about Muslim integration within these societies. Such debates can quickly become polarised, but this book edited by two Dutch Muslim architects provides a thoughtful and nuanced contribution to a complex set of cultural, spiritual and architectural issues.

Part historical survey, part political analysis, part design primer and part photographic record, it delves intimately and unflinchingly into the nature of the mosque and how it could be made to relate more coherently and imaginatively to changing social, physical and religious contexts. Skewering pretensions and prejudices--why do we enjoy patronising mosques on holiday in places like Istanbul or Cairo, yet recoil when one is proposed on our doorstep?--it is also an antidote to unedifying European hysteria about historic fears of invasion. 'The threat that some people see in Dutch mosques is inversely proportional to their understanding of them,' notes architectural writer Ole Bouman.

The immediate context is the Netherlands, with its population of 800,000 Muslims who have access to around 500 mosques. Some of these Dutch mosques and the activities they host are recorded in photo essays by Dick Barendsen and Christian van der Kooy. What emerges is a sense of the ordinary and the beauty of the everyday; of unremarkable buildings distinguished by slightly self-conscious domes and minarets that have now become part of an evolving urban milieu. The architecture is largely unadventurous, but a section on proposed new mosques across Europe shows the potential for more inventive approaches.

In the current age of unease, what is clearly needed is a more profound understanding of Islam in the West, 'not as a monolithic structure, but rather as a dynamic process of transformation and change that is spatially shaped by heterogeneous Muslim communities', says architectural historian Azra Aksamija.

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+ A thoughtful historical survey

- The mosque architecture it covers is largely conservative