Finding My Religion: Reconciling faith, feminism, and Islam

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 6/15/9 | David Ian Miller

[SmithL]

One woman's push for change at her hometown mosque

When journalist Asra Nomani returned to Morgantown, W. Va., she was hoping to find a calm, welcoming place to recover from turbulent life events. An unplanned pregnancy, a partner who was not willing to be the child's father, and the murder of her good friend and colleague, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, had left her reeling with confusion and pain. She left Pakistan, where she had been working as a correspondent for Salon.com, and sought to regain her balance in the peaceful university town in the Appalachian Mountains where she had grown up.

A Muslim born in Bombay, Nomani was naturally drawn to join the community of her local mosque. But, she says, the place of worship that her father had helped build was now heavily influenced by the attitudes of men she saw as extremists, men who discriminated against women and were intolerant toward non-believers. Believing that intolerance within a religion often leads to violence and must therefore be confronted, Nomani opted to fight for the rights of women within that mosque and, by extension, in Islam. Her story is explored in a new documentary, "The Mosque in Morgantown," which airs June 22 on KQED.

The documentary, unsurprisingly, has stirred up some raw feelings. In the forum section of the film's website, some members of the Morgantown mosque, along with other posters, say they believe Nomani's methods were overly confrontational and that she was primarily interested in promoting herself and her books. For its part, the mosque's website states that the "various issues such as gender roles, cultural divisions and interpretation of our beautiful religion" documented in the film have since been addressed, noting that "The Mosque In Morgantown was made in 2003-04."

[SmithL]

- Asra Nomani, director of the Pearl Project at Georgetown University, stands before her hometown mosque in Morgantown, W. Va. From the PBS documentary, "The Mosque in Morgantown."

[Tennessee Nana]

the attitudes of men she saw as extremists, men who discriminated against women and were intolerant toward non-believers.
_________________________________________

Dear Asra,

You silly...

That is REAL Islam in practice...

You should be happy you now have the REAL THING ...

Signed,

An infidel

[Boogieman]

Good, let the feminists go poison Islamic society for a change.

[Cronos]

There is a difference between feminists and women looking for equality. For example, do you think we should go back to 1908 when women weren't allowed to vote? or to the late 1800s when they couldn't go to college. That's basic equality. However, now they go too far and say "women are superior to men", becoming the same idiots their forebears fought against.

Ditto for Affirmative action -- can anyone say that blacks should remain as slaves? No, thats unconscionable. However, we do say that now everyone should be equal, so reverse discrimination must end.

[Boogieman]

Actually, though I know I’ll flamed for it, yes I do think we’d be better off if women didn’t have the vote. Far too many women vote with their emotions and not their reason.

[AuntB]

“Actually, though I know I’ll flamed for it, yes I do think we’d be better off if women didn’t have the vote. Far too many women vote with their emotions and not their reason.”

I tend to agree with you, until I look back at some of the idiots that men only elected. But if I could stop this feminization of our government & society, I would give up my vote to do it.