http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4B40D491-751D-4A1D-B4C6-AFB73437F7F2.htm
Woman leads controversial US prayer
Saturday 19 March 2005, 12:56 Makka Time, 9:56 GMT
Amina Wadud led a mixed-congregation for Friday prayer
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A woman has led a controversial mixed-gender Islamic prayer service, with
organisers of the event saying they are "ushering Islam into the 21st century".
Amina Wadud, a professor of Islamic studies at Virginia Commonwealth
University, said the service she was leading was "only one aspect of
emphasising the belief in the reality that women are equal" under Islam.
"We claim that we have primordial rights ... to acknowledge the reciprocal
rights of women and men to attain moral excellence (in Islam)," Wadud said,
addressing a congregation of 80 to 100 men and women attending the service at
Synod House at the Cathedral of St John the Divine, an Anglican church in
Manhattan.
The service drew protests and has stirred controversy internationally because
many Muslims say that only men are empowered to lead other men in prayer.
Nasir al-Husaini, Aljazeera's correspondent in New York reported around 90 male
and female non-Arab Muslims attended the prayers. Fewer than 10 people
protested outside the church, he said.
To break religious traditions, female worshippers lined up in the first rows,
saying they had broken what they have called "limitations imposed by extremists
against women in the mosques treating their spiritual rights unjustly".
Many of the women in attendance were modestly dressed and, in accordance with
Islamic tradition, covered their hair with the hijab, or headscarf. But others
shunned the scarf and wore form-fitting jeans or pants.
While women played a pivotal role in spreading Islam during the Prophet
Muhammad's time, Wadud said, they were marginalised by men who years later "sat
together in their privileged places" to collect the chapters that would become
the Quran.
"Women were not allowed to (have) input in the basic paradigms of what it means
to be a Muslim," she said, adding that while the Quran repeatedly puts men and
women on an equal footing, men quickly distorted its teachings to leave women
with no role other than to "please them as sexual partners".
Feminist hype
Dismissing criticism by some that the event was little more than feminist
rabble-rousing, Asra Nomani, an author and former Wall Street Journal reporter
who is the lead organiser of the prayer ceremony, said it was about drawing
attention to the inequality Muslim women worldwide face in all aspects of their
lives.
"Today, we are ushering Islam into the 21st century, reclaiming the voice
that the Prophet gave us 1400 years ago"
Asra Nomani, an Author
"We will no longer accept the back door or the shadows," Nomani said. "Today,
we are ushering Islam into the 21st century, reclaiming the voice that the
Prophet gave us 1400 years ago."
She introduced a 10-item list she dubbed An Islamic Bill of Rights for Women in
the Mosque, which included the right to enter through the front door and to be
prayer leaders.
For many critics, that message, its manner of delivery and its forum were seen
as an affront to mainstream Islam that had reached blasphemous levels.
It is an argument that has also arisen in Christianity and Judaism, where women
were until recently barred from being ordained.
Blasphemy
Particularly controversial was Wadud's periodic substitution of the Arabic word
for God, Allah, with the pronouns he, she and it, arguing that God's
omnipresence defied gender definition.
"This woman is tarnishing the whole Islamic faith," said Mohammed Nussrah, a
Brooklyn native whose family originally hails from Algeria. He screamed that
Wadud does not speak for pious, mainstream Muslims.
Wadud's actions have drawn
criticism from many Muslims
"All she is doing is twisting the interpretation of Islam to suit her needs.
This is blasphemy, pure and simple," said Nussrah, a member of a local Muslim
group named the Islamic Thinkers. "If this was an Islamic state, this woman
would be hanged."
It was not clear whether Wadud heard their comments or saw the placards they
were carrying, one of which read: "Mixed-Gender Prayers Today, Hellfire
Tomorrow."
Wadud, describing herself as "a lonely academic" more comfortable writing a
book than dealing with the limelight, made it clear she would not accept
interviews after the event.
Fierce opposition
Opposition was fierce before the day of the service.
The prayer had been scheduled at an art gallery in downtown Manhattan, but that
venue was dropped after a bomb threat was received, said Nomani. Three New York
mosques also refused to host the service.
"All she is doing is twisting the interpretation of Islam to suit her
needs. This is blasphemy, pure and simple"
Mohammed Nussrah, member of Muslim group Islamic Thinkers
Little was orthodox about this Friday prayer - the most important of the week
for Muslims.
The call to prayer (adhan) was led by an American Muslim of Egyptian descent,
Suehyla el-Attar, who spoke in accented Arabic and did not wear the traditional
headscarf.
El-Attar told Aljazeera she had learned the principles of the adhan from her
father who used to say the adhan when they lived in Egypt.
Many in attendance said they found the service inspiring.
"This is important. It's time for us to take our place in the mosques," said
Nadwa al-Dawari, who moved to the United States from Yemen. "But I didn't like
that she referred to God as 'he,' 'she' and 'it.' That's a bit much."
"It's about time," said her friend, Hana Ahary, a Yemeni-American born in the
Untied States. "When the Wahhabis or the Sunnis or the Shia men get together,
it's seen as normal. But when you have a bunch of women taking a stand, it's
like they see us as lesbians."
Multiple interpretations
Organisers said the service was an attempt to stretch traditional
interpretations of Islam to give greater voice to women while affording
American Muslims a voice that reflects the needs of the current generation.
"This is about unity, about multiple interpretations of faith in a community
where our mosques have failed us," said Ahmed Nassef, whose Muslim WakeUp!
group helped organise the service.
Most Muslims believe women are
not allowed to lead mixed prayer
That failure, argues Yvonne Haddad, a professor of Islamic studies at
Georgetown University, is largely a result of a political climate in which
Islam has become increasingly suspect.
But even as American Muslims search for new leaders after "the US government
has delegitimised the Muslim leadership in America," their efforts are unlikely
to win support abroad.
"People in America think they are going to be the vanguards of change," Haddad
said. "But for Arab Muslims in the Middle East, American Muslims continue to be
viewed on the margins of the faith."
Mixed congregation
The shaikh of Cairo's Al-Azhar mosque, the Islamic world's leading Sunni Muslim
institution, said Islam permits women to lead other women in prayer, but not a
congregation with men in it.
"A woman's body is private", Shaikh Sayyid Tantawi wrote in a column in the
Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram in which he was asked about Wadud's planned prayer.
"A woman's body is private, when she leads men in prayer, in this case,
it's not proper for them to look at the woman whose body is in front of them"
Shaikh Sayyid Tantawi,
Al-Azhar mosque, Cairo
"When she leads men in prayer, in this case, it is not proper for them to look
at the woman whose body is in front of them. Even if they see it in their daily
life, it should not be in situations of worship, where the main point is
humility and modesty."
But not everyone among Muslim scholars agreed.
"The Quran itself does not address the issue of who leads prayer," said Khaled
Abou Al Fadl, am Islamic jurist and professor of law at the University of
California, Los Angeles. "The Prophet said the most learned should lead."
Calling Wadud's action a "counter-jihad" on behalf of moderate
Muslims, Abou El Fadl said: "It is my sincere belief that she is not committing
a sin, but upholding the true teachings of the Prophet, peace be upon him."
He noted that women routinely lead mixed Muslim
congregations in China, but that such gatherings were rare in the West.
Organisers of the service said they had now achieved a "historic victory" and
were ready to "invade" every city and town in America.
Publicity
Critics say Nomani is using this event to publicise a book she has written
about women and Islam. And, even among some moderate US-based clerics, the
concern is that this service was driven by ulterior motives.
"When we said women should not be imams, it's not because they are less
worthy or unequal to men, but because they have different, equally important,
roles in society"
Imam Husham al-Husainy, Karbalaa Islamic Centre, Michigan
"When we said women should not be imams, it's not because they are less worthy
or unequal to men, but because they have different, equally important, roles in
society," said Imam Husham al-Husainy of the Karbalaa Islamic Center in
Dearborn, Michigan. The daughter of an early Islamic caliph, for example, is
credited with safeguarding the writings later collected into the Quran.
"We have plenty of examples of influential women such as the Prophet's wife,
Khadija. She and the others were holy women, too. But you don't see a female
pope, do you?" al-Husainy said.
"This is nothing more than an attempt to divide by outsiders."
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