WASHINGTON, 20 March 2005 — Police kept protestors away, as a woman broke Islamic tradition by leading Friday prayer in New York City yesterday.
Dr. Amina Wadud led the Muslim service after another woman, who wore no headscarf, sounded the call to prayer.
More than a hundred men and women knelt in adjacent rows, with no curtain to divide them. Some of the men at times looked nervous or unsure they should be there. Newspaper reporters, photographers and television cameras surrounded those attending.
Organizers told reporters three New York City mosques refused to host the event, which was to be held at a SoHo gallery until it received a bomb threat. Those who wanted to attend the service had to confirm in advance by e-mail and submit to a body search.
The event — sponsored by the Muslim Women’s Freedom Tour, a grass-roots organization, and MuslimWakeUp.com, — has sparked debate from Muslim leaders around the globe.
Sheikh Sayed Tantawi of Cairo’s Al-Azhar mosque, one of the world’s leading Islamic institutions, said Islam permits women to lead other women in prayer but not a congregation with men in it.
Qatar-based Sheikh Yussef Al-Qaradawi, a prominent member of the Muslim Brotherhood and an influential conservative Muslim cleric condemned Wadud, saying Islam bans women from doing so unless the congregation is made up solely of women.
All Islamic schools “agree that women do not lead men in (performing) religious duties,” Qaradawi said in a fatwa, or religious edict, published in the local press.
Prayer in Islam “features getting up, sitting down and kneeling...It is not befitting for a woman to make these movements in the presence of men when worshipping requires a peaceful mind and concentration on communicating with God,” said Qaradawi, an Egyptian-born scholar.
But Egypt’s Grand Mufti, Sheikh Ali Guma, declared that woman-led prayer of mixed-gender congregations is permissible, so long as the congregation agrees to it.
According to a report by the satellite news channel Al-Arabiyya, Sheikh Guma declared in an interview on Egyptian television that there is no consensus among religious scholars on the issue of female imamat of mixed gender congregations, pointing out that respected scholars like Imam Tabari and Imam Ibn Arabi found the practice permissible.
“The Mufti added that, in such issues where there are disagreements, then the situation rests with the specific people concerned. If (the congregation) accepts a woman as imam, then that’s their business, and there is nothing wrong with that since that is what they are accustomed to,” Al-Arabiyya reported.
“I thought it was intense and I thought her talk was enlightening, but I could feel some nervousness in the atmosphere. But that is to be expected due to the circumstances,” Abdul Alim Mubarak, 53, told reporters.
Mubarak, who is African-American, said he believes women should be leaders in every aspect of society, but, he said: “I still haven’t wrapped my brain around the premise that women should lead men in prayer. I am just not sure of that.”
Omar Haque, a Harvard University graduate student, believes the event made history.
“I think it’s a long time coming,” Haque, 25, an American of Pakistani descent, told journalists present.” It sent a message to the many Muslims who felt their message had been misrepresented.” He said he particularly liked the fact that Wadud, who is African-American, used “he” and “she” in the service to describe Allah.
About a dozen Muslims protested the event. They stood outside the church holding signs that read “Mix-gender prayer today. Hell fire tomorrow.”
Khabira Abdullah, 30, of New York City, however, believed Wadud’s action justified what many Muslim women silently believed should have happened long ago.
“I think it was powerful and amazing,” she told reporters. “I was born and raised a Muslim. The message has always been that women have a place in Islam, but it’s not in the leadership position. When people asked me why, I used whatever reason to answer, but I never believed it.”
But Kolay Tun, 40, a New Yorker and Burma native, said he decided to attend the service after receiving a note from his niece that read, “Allah is not prejudiced, are you?”
