Posted on 07/30/2004 9:00:19 PM PDT by CarrotAndStick
Indian Muslim Asra Nomani has found herself on the frontline of a battle for women's rights in Islam in the United States. She entered the local mosque through the front door and dared to pray alongside men, an act that has triggered heated discussions among America's Muslim community.
An all-male "tribunal" of the mosque in Morgantown, West Virginia, wants to banish Ms Nomani because they think she is a frequent trouble-maker.
In their campaign to silence her, she has been depicted as heretical, misguided and westernized, someone in need of reform.
They argue that women should only be allowed to enter a mosque through the back door, pray from the balcony and quietly go home.
In our mosque, only the men are allowed to use a microphone to address the faithful Asra Nomani
But a woman like Ms Nomani - articulate, deeply religious and independent-minded - simply does not fit their version of a true believer.
"I have demanded a public hearing but they denied it," Ms Nomani said.
"They pulled names out of a plastic bag to sit on the tribunal. It has been hell and it would have been easy to walk away.
"But I am finding support from many people who don't want to accept the status quo. And I find my answers in Islam."
Deeply religious
For Ms Nomani, who was born in Bombay (Mumbai) nothing would be more painful than being rejected as a Muslim by her local mosque.
She sees herself as a progressive modern woman who is also religious: there is no contradiction in her mind.
Ms Nomani comes from a deeply religious Muslim family, but one which she says tries to embody the spirit of Islam rather than the outward symbols such as wearing veils.
Her parents, originally from Hyderabad in India, moved to the US when she was four and today her extended family is spread all over the world.
Her father, a retired professor who helped build the mosque in Morgantown, supports her struggle to pray in the main hall and her larger quest to find her identity within Islam.
Nomani, a journalist who has written for The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, is today juggling life between finding a lawyer to help her in the dispute and looking after her 20-month-old son, Shibli.
Unwed mother
Support for her campaign outside her family within the Muslim community is muted: her demands for an open hearing with the mosque authorities have received little support.
She has however received backing in internet chat rooms and in articles that appear on liberal Muslim websites such as Muslimwakeup.com and altmuslim.com.
It is not just Ms Nomani's defiance of mosque prayer arrangements that raised local blood levels but also her status as a single unwed mother.
She says the Muslims in her area do not accept or understand her.
Members of the executive committee of the Morgantown mosque say Ms Nomani has challenged time-honoured Islamic traditions.
They say that men and women are separated because they have to kneel down to the floor and their shoulders can touch when they stand side by side.
Both men and women want privacy as a result, they say.
Some women in the mosque accuse Ms Nomani of being a "publicity hound," using her journalistic skills to write strong opinion pieces in support of her unfair views.
That she chooses to speak about her dispute has shaken the male-dominated world created by people she derisively refers to as "true believers."
She and six other Muslim women, all writers and academics, recently formed an organization to tackle what they say are interpretations of Islam which relegate women to a secondary role.
'Sexual provocation'
Ms Nomani argues that it is wrong that women are prevented from attending some mosques in the US, yet are allowed to pray together at Islam's holiest shrine in Mecca.
According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a growing number of US mosques are putting women behind a partition or in another room to pray.
A survey done by the group shows that segregated mosques rose from 52% in 1994 to 66% in 2000.
"In our mosque, only the men are allowed to use a microphone to address the faithful," Ms Nomani said. "When I asked why, a mosque leader said that a woman's voice is not to be heard in the mosque.
"What he meant was that a woman's voice - even raised in prayer - is an instrument of sexual provocation to men.
"Many women accept these rulings: their apathy makes these rules become the status quo."
Ms Nomani says that she is campaigning for a more inclusive Islam.
Part of that, she says, is created by underlying divisions between South Asian and Arab Muslims which came to the fore as she began questioning what she said were hate-filled sermons by Arab students who had taken over her mosque.
Ms Nomani argues that Morgantown is a microcosm of what is happening in mosques across the US.
Muslim women in California, Minnesota and Maryland are against the practice of "herding" women in small rooms like sheep where much of the time they cannot hear the preacher, she says.
Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/3926461.stm
Published: 2004/07/26 16:31:09 GMT
© BBC MMIV
Here is a prediction that is a lock:
The lack of an outcry from our radical feminists will be deafening.
Don't expect to see Gloria Allred on the tube espousing this woman's cause.
Don't expect to see Gloria Allred on the tube espousing this woman's cause.
We're shocked! Simply shocked! Who would think Islam was filled with hate? No one at this site. No siree.
And let's see how quickly the mainstream media will attack this blatant sexism in the religious world. And how quickly CAIR will chastise the leaders of the Morgantown mosque...
waiting
still waiting...
oh yeah, right - there's no catholic or protestant church to attack in the story so we'll only hear the crickets... :(
TERRORISM SOLUTION
Islam is NOT a religion – it is a CULT OF HATE.
Islam is an organization dominated by criminally minded thug-killer males who kill those who disagree with them or will not convert to their ideology. These men enslave and brutally abuse women and indoctrinate children with violent and hateful beliefs. They are intent on world domination by any means at their disposal, including bloody acts of terrorism and violent invasion. These demented men are under the delusion that they will receive 72 virgins as a reward for killing Jews and Christians.
Several steps are necessary to save America from the pending violence and tyranny of islam:
1) Congress to declare islam is NOT a religion, but instead a cult-of-hate functioning as an organized crime and terrorist association seeking to kill infidels (i.e.. Jews and Christians) and to impose islamic law on the world;
2) Congress to ban the practice of islam in the US, state legislatures to follow with similar state laws;
3) President to declare martial law (in response to certain-to-come terrorist attacks in US -- which was founded on Judeo/Christian principles) and suspend the constitution to enact these measures, in order to save this country;
4) Muslim schools shall be closed, because muslim schools teach children the violent tenants of islam (with no regard to reading, writing or computing) and such teaching amounts to child abuse,
5) Muslim parents, because of their beliefs, deemed unqualified to raise children (see TIME Magazine story, July 26, 2004, for further examples of muslim fathers/males who order their sons/brothers to kill sisters or mothers if they suspect their infidelity,) hence, child welfare agencies to remove children from muslim homes and place them in Jewish and Christian foster homes;
6) Adult muslims get 30 days to renounce islam and convert to a peaceful religion, or be immediately deported to a muslim country. If they renounce islam and stay, they shall enter a cult de-programming therapy program for 3-5 years. Those in this country illegally shall be deported immediately;
7) Immediately halt immigration from all islamic countries (except for persecuted Christians and Jews.) Deny immigration or entry to any muslim individual.
8) (removed by author so moderator doesn't ban me.)
This definition is not inconsistent with Islam being a "religion".
2) Congress to ban the practice of islam in the US, state legislatures to follow with similar state laws;
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.... Furthermore, every state constitution, including yours, guarantees the right to worship freely.
3) President to declare martial law (in response to certain-to-come terrorist attacks in US -- which was founded on Judeo/Christian principles) and suspend the constitution to enact these measures, in order to save this country;
Hey! Suddenly we can trust the government with unlimited authority! What a relief for those of us who lived through the Clinton years.
4) Muslim schools shall be closed, because muslim schools teach children the violent tenants of islam (with no regard to reading, writing or computing) and such teaching amounts to child abuse,
"Computing" aside (whatever that may mean), madrassas do indeed teach reading and writing.
6) Adult muslims get 30 days to renounce islam and convert to a peaceful religion, or be immediately deported to a muslim country. If they renounce islam and stay, they shall enter a cult de-programming therapy program for 3-5 years.
Odd that "forcible conversion" was one of the things you cited as wrongdoing by Muslims...
For the life of me, I just can't understand why any women who has read the Quran or Hadith would subscibe to such a belief. Guess it's that indoctrination thing.
In any Muslim country in the world she would already be dead.
I've heard dribble like yours before. Yawn.
Boy, you would have defended the Nazi's during WWII.
"At least they made the trains run on time!"
Can someone from the government please explain to me what justification there is for having people move here who do not wish to blend into our society?
If it's a sin for these people to become westernized, then send them the ---- home! Allah forbid that they sould be temped by our nation.
And I've heard hysterical ignorance like yours before, which is why it wasn't terribly difficult for me to put together a quick reply. Your willingness to abandon the Constitution and the ideals of limited government in order to crush Islam was entertaining, however. Another fair-weather conservative.
"Hysterical ignorance"
NOT, simply pragmatic.
"Fair-weather conservative"
NOT, Rock Solid Conservative.
The Constitution is not a suicide pact!
"Can someone from the government please explain to me what justification there is for having people move here who do not wish to blend into our society?"
We don't need the government to explain this to us, they work for us. We should demand an end to this immigration without assimilation (no matter what the group) immediately. Start deporting their A$$es.
I agree.
ever read the Old Testament?
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