Distance and Coexistence: The Urban Transformation of Itaewon and the Seoul Central Mosque

Recently, intensifying resident opposition and the proliferation of exclusionary discourses surrounding mosque construction in one of major cities in South Korea have generated significant public controversy, contributing to the continued delay of such projects; yet, in contrast, there exists a single, historically established case—the Seoul Central Mosque (SCM), constructed in the 1970s in Itaewon, Seoul. By focusing on this specific and nationally situated case, the article examines how a Muslim community has formed around the mosque and how it has interacted with local residents over time. It then investigates how the SCM in Itaewon has both reflected and shaped the spatial politics of otherness in South Korea. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, the article traces Itaewon’s transformation from a U.S. military camp town into a multicultural district and shows that coexistence among heterogeneous groups has been maintained through spatial and temporal negotiation rather than integration. Building on Nancy’s notion of inoperative community and Valentine’s critique of the contact hypothesis, it argues that coexistence in Itaewon is sustained through the maintenance of distance that enables relations without forcing assimilation. The strong ideology of ethnic homogeneity in Korean society paradoxically brought together diverse marginal groups in Itaewon, where different groups have coexisted without asserting dominance. Finally, the persistence of the mosque amid urban redevelopment symbolizes how otherness endures within the city, revealing coexistence as a pragmatic negotiation of difference embedded in Seoul’s changing urban landscape.