Justice
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Mixed Islamic prayer? March 11, 2005
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/new ... -breaking2
The gallery that was to host an Islamic prayer service led by a woman next Friday has pulled out in the face of mounting threats, including one promising to "blow you up."
But organizers said they were determined to go ahead with plans to challenge the Islamic prohibition against women leading mixed-sex prayers. After scrambling to find a new venue, they said late Friday that they had decided to limit participants to an invitation-only list for security reasons, but to broadcast the event on the Internet and through the media.
"This is the way that extremists try to shut us up and stop women's progress," said Asra Nomani, an organizer and former Wall Street Journal reporter who has been an outspoken advocate for Muslim women's equality. "Basically we're undeterred, but we want to protect everyone's safety. If you can't protect women's rights in America, then where?"
The plans to hold the public mixed-sex service, led by Amina Wadud, an Islamic scholar who wrote "Qur'an and Women: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective," are a direct challenge to prohibitions against female imams leading men in prayer.
While women have led other women in prayer, and even mixed groups in private, the idea of a woman leading publicly scheduled Friday prayer services for both sexes is almost unprecedented.
Organizers seemed taken aback by mounting threats, especially against the backdrop of heavy coverage of their plans in the Arabic media. Earlier in the week, a prominent New York City imam, Talib Abdur-Rashid, called the event "a publicity stunt," and hundreds of on-line posts have condemned them as "anti-Islamic."
"The gallery called and told us that in addition to emailed threats, they've been having people walking in off the street and being aggressive," said Miki Terasawa of HarperCollins, publisher of Nomani's book, "Standing Alone in Mecca," which was to provide armed bodyguards.
"It became clear that this simply is not the kind of place where an event that has turned out to be a nerve-wracking, high security thing should be located," she said.
Subsequent notions to hold the event in Battery Park within view of the Statue of Liberty also were discarded on the advice of police.
"There was nothing specific they shared with us, but the overall picture is there's a lot of tension and anger out there and it made us uncomfortable," said Ahmed Nassef, editor of Muslimwakeup.com, the Web forum for progressive voices that is sponsoring the event.
Wadud, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth , said she was more anxious "about keeping my intentions pure" than about threats.
She said that for many years she had been silent about what she called the "pervasive existence of double standards." But as an African-American woman who had chosen to convert, she said she became convinced she had a responsiblity to act.
"If there really exists a threat to my life, if my intentions and my heart remains focused on love of Allah, then I couldn't die in a better state," she said. "Life and death are not mine to determine."
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/new ... -breaking2
The gallery that was to host an Islamic prayer service led by a woman next Friday has pulled out in the face of mounting threats, including one promising to "blow you up."
But organizers said they were determined to go ahead with plans to challenge the Islamic prohibition against women leading mixed-sex prayers. After scrambling to find a new venue, they said late Friday that they had decided to limit participants to an invitation-only list for security reasons, but to broadcast the event on the Internet and through the media.
"This is the way that extremists try to shut us up and stop women's progress," said Asra Nomani, an organizer and former Wall Street Journal reporter who has been an outspoken advocate for Muslim women's equality. "Basically we're undeterred, but we want to protect everyone's safety. If you can't protect women's rights in America, then where?"
The plans to hold the public mixed-sex service, led by Amina Wadud, an Islamic scholar who wrote "Qur'an and Women: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective," are a direct challenge to prohibitions against female imams leading men in prayer.
While women have led other women in prayer, and even mixed groups in private, the idea of a woman leading publicly scheduled Friday prayer services for both sexes is almost unprecedented.
Organizers seemed taken aback by mounting threats, especially against the backdrop of heavy coverage of their plans in the Arabic media. Earlier in the week, a prominent New York City imam, Talib Abdur-Rashid, called the event "a publicity stunt," and hundreds of on-line posts have condemned them as "anti-Islamic."
"The gallery called and told us that in addition to emailed threats, they've been having people walking in off the street and being aggressive," said Miki Terasawa of HarperCollins, publisher of Nomani's book, "Standing Alone in Mecca," which was to provide armed bodyguards.
"It became clear that this simply is not the kind of place where an event that has turned out to be a nerve-wracking, high security thing should be located," she said.
Subsequent notions to hold the event in Battery Park within view of the Statue of Liberty also were discarded on the advice of police.
"There was nothing specific they shared with us, but the overall picture is there's a lot of tension and anger out there and it made us uncomfortable," said Ahmed Nassef, editor of Muslimwakeup.com, the Web forum for progressive voices that is sponsoring the event.
Wadud, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth , said she was more anxious "about keeping my intentions pure" than about threats.
She said that for many years she had been silent about what she called the "pervasive existence of double standards." But as an African-American woman who had chosen to convert, she said she became convinced she had a responsiblity to act.
"If there really exists a threat to my life, if my intentions and my heart remains focused on love of Allah, then I couldn't die in a better state," she said. "Life and death are not mine to determine."