http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=60658&d=19&m=3&y=2005
Saturday, 19, March, 2005 (08, Safar, 1426)
Woman Leads Friday Prayers in New York City
Barbara Ferguson, Arab News
WASHINGTON, 19 March 2005 - In a historic first in New York
City yesterday, a group of American Muslim activists broke with convention and
had a woman lead the Friday prayers, in order to "send women from the back to
the front of mosques."
According to the Progressive Muslim Union, which organized
the event, Dr. Amina Wadud, professor of Islamic Studies at Virginia
Commonwealth University, was the first woman to lead public, mixed-gender
Friday prayers. She also delivered Friday's sermon.
Dr. Wadud, the author of "Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the
Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective," believes Muslim women should be able
to lead in prayers.
The Muslim world and the American Muslim community generally
believe that women cannot lead mixed-gender prayers. It is only over the
centuries, they say, Muslim women have lost their place as intellectual and
spiritual leaders.
"I have no objection to this salah, even though I disagree
with it. It is a matter of opinion, it is not a fixed law that women cannot
lead the salah," Imam Mohamed Al-Hanooti, the grand mufti of Washington
metropolitan area, told Arab News.
"It is a very minor and irrelevant trend, and should be
treated as such."
"Things are changing, so this is not necessarily so unique,"
said Dr. Yvonne Haddad, professor of Islam and history at Washington's
Georgetown University.
"The National Muslim Student Association of America was
started by a very conservative movement, mostly male foreign students. But now
for the first time, it has a woman for its president, Hadia Mubarak, who is
American born," said Dr. Haddad.
"Muslim kids in America say they want to separate Islam from
culture and religion, and that they want to feel comfortable being American and
Muslim at the same time, so they've been pushing the envelope.
Their parents teach them that their religion is their
culture. But they want to make a distinction from the culture and the religion."
Imam Shaker El-Sayed, former general secretary of the Muslim
American Society said there is an established historic consensus among all
Muslim scholars that a woman may lead other women in prayer, but she should not
lead men in prayer.
"This is not because she is a woman," he said, "but because
of the awkwardness of the position we Muslims take when we prostrate in prayer.
These positions would make both women and men uncomfortable when a woman bows
down and prostrates in front of men."
"Women may lecture to men," said Imam El-Sayed, "but she may
not lead the prayers and consequently she cannot deliver the sermon, because
the sermon is traditionally offered by the imam who leads the prayers."
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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