Dinin Özelleşmesi ve Parçalanması: Yeşil Vadi Konakları Camii Ve Sitesi Örneği The Fragmentation And Specification Of The Religion: Gated Community Of Yeşil Vadi Mansions And Mosque

Besides being the prayer places, mosques are the centres where the unity and solidarity of society is reinforced. The interest of the field sociology for the mosques stems from the mission that the mosques undertake for creating and increasing public awareness as the places where the solidarity of the society is created and strengthened. Because of the fact that Islamism puts an extra emphasis on worshipping together (in congregation), mosques have a social function as the places where salaat is performed all together. Performing friday, bairam, terawih and funeral prayers in congregation increase the emphasis on the social sense. Grand “magnificent mosques” which were built at the centres of the cities during the Anatolian Seljuk Sultanate and Ottoman Empire became important especially for the prayers performed in large congregations. Mosques are the symbol for the social sense of unity. In our day, the distortions on the Turkish social identity raised different aspects of applications and arguments about Islam and the role and lo- 327 cation of the mosques. In this study, we deliberated on the example of Yeşil Vadi Konakları Mosque and Site to show that mosques which actually undertake the important mission of enabling social unity and solidarity are reduced to the limited congregational notion, appealing only to a limited group as a result of the distortions on the social identity. This mosque and site reawakened the relationship between Islamism and capitalism. Yeşil Vadi Konakları Mosque and Site are located in the notion of gated community. Accordingly, the mosque of the site serves to a limited group. Architectural design of Yeşil Vadi Konakları Mosque, its location inside of a gated community and its function reflect the creation of “imaginary/invented customs” separating mosques from the concept of civilization and tradition and articulation of the interpretation of religion to the western tradition. This situation signifies that religion is being specialized/decreased and fragmentized by getting separated from its social, traditional, historical sense.