the domino effect

what's that saying about how we should never doubt that the actions of a few can change the world? here's a note from the morocco times (Italy) about the repercussions of the woman-led jum3a prayers in march.

Naima Gouhai, 30, a Moroccan expatriate in Tuscany, Italy, seeks to be the first woman Imam in Italy, after American Amina Wadud had broken with Islamic tradition by leading the Friday prayer service in a New York chapel, where men and women sat together. This issue was raised last month by the Milan-based daily Corriere Della Sera.

According to the paper, Gouhai – nurse and mother of three children – applied for the Imamat at a local mosque in Tuscany two days after Wadud had led the Friday prayer in NY.

Amina Wadud, an associate professor of Islamic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, led the Islamic weekly service, where 50 men and women prayed behind her, after she had delivered the sermon, thus defying basic Islamic rules.

Naima Gouhai told the Corriere Della Sera that “it is not a problem for a woman to become Imam if she is more qualified than a man to lead prayers”.

Firas Jabrin, an Imam in Tuscany, also saw no problem in her being an Imam. He also said that she could come to the mosque where he is leading prayers. However, many of the 1500 Muslim in the area have refused to accept a woman Imam.

Abdelbari Zamzami, an Imam and a religious researcher, told Morocco Times that “a woman Imamat is not totally forbidden in Islam. That's why some prominent religious scholars enabled both men and woman to be Imams”.

“Throughout history Muslims did not need a woman Imam to lead prayers, because men were enough”, he said adding that “there is no Prophet's sayings forbidding women to be Imams”.

Zamzami said that what happened in America is not accepted, referring to Amina Wadud leading Friday prayers.

“A woman should be covered up while praying, but what we have seen in America is different. Women prayed with their hair uncovered, wearing Jeans, which contradicts with praying requirements,” said Zamzami.

Mustapha Rmid, a leader in the Justice and Development Party, said that “Throughout history, there was a consensus that a woman cannot lead men and women in prayer”. He added that this is not “an important issue to discuss”.

Al Mustapha Moatasim, leader of Al Badil Al Hadari Party, said that “there is nothing in the Koran that forbids women from being Imams and that some religious scholars allowed them to lead women in prayer, but not men”.

Dr Abdelhadi Boutaleb, member of the Academy of the Moroccan Kingdom and a researcher, favours men Imamat but said that a woman can lead prayers for women.

“Wadud masters Islamic teaching; she was reciting the Koran properly, and was wearing descent clothes, respecting Islamic prayer traditions. However, the women who were praying behind her were not covered up, which is against Islamic teachings,” said Boutaleb.

He added that “praying in the church is allowed, because Islam enables praying in churches and synagogues.”

Woman Imamat raised heated debate among Muslim communities around the world. Some claim that Islam bans women from leading women and men and that the congregation should only be made up solely of women. Others see no problem in a woman leading men and women.

Qatar-based Sheikh Yussef Al-Qaradawi, an influential Muslim cleric said that “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."

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.

now that's some progress.

amazing that some people (not mentioned in this article) have given up on the argument on the acceptability of an imaamat ("woman imaamat" is repititious - al-imaam is the word for a male prayer leader and imaamat for a female one, but i guess it was used for clarity) and have turned instead to condemning the prayer ms. wadud led because there was a female muezzin.

that is a stupid response clearly motivated by a legalistic mind: someone starting from a particular 'intellectual' position (i use the term lightly) and then finding niggling ways to win the argument. women can lead the prayer, but they can't call the people to the prayer? what kind of ridiculous argument is that?

the hijabistas are a separate issue. talk about cognitive dissonance.

as for al-qaradawi, he is a weird dude. he comes up with some modernist opinions and then he turns around and goes all medieval on our asses on other things. there's a great commentary by amine tais at MWU! about his position with commentary by a female scholar named leila babès (a professor of the sociology of religion):

A month after the historical woman-led prayer in New York, the reactions are still pouring from all over the Muslim world. In this article, I want to highlight the opinions of two North-African Muslim intellectuals residing in France. Leila Babès and Abdelwahhab Meddeb are regular commentators on the Morocco-based radio station Médi 1.

As a professor of the sociology of religion at the French Catholic University of Lille, Leila Babès has regularly contributed to the debates over Islam in the European scene. She is the author of Le Voile Démystifié (The Veil Demystified) and co-author of Loi d’Allah, Loi des Hommes (Law of Allah, Law of Men).

In one of her latest programs on Médi 1, she responded to Dr. Yusuf Al Qaradawi’s stance on Amina Wadud and the unprecented woman-led Friday prayer. Babès started by presenting Dr. Wadud to her audience as a scholar that has been struggling for Muslim women’s rights for years. The New York event was thus a natural transition from theory to practice. Babès maintains that equality between men and women is central to the Islamic message; however the interpretations of the male Muslim jurists in their patriarchal contexts compromised the original élan of the religion. This unfortunate state of affairs continues to this day as witnessed by the fatwa of Al-Jazeera’s fiqh expert Al-Qaradawi.

When asked about the woman-led prayer in New York, the highly influential Egyptian jurist responded that “being Imam in a mixed prayer is reserved for men only, it is inadequate for a woman to perform the movements (of Salat) in front of men. The Divine wisdom wanted the body of a woman to be different from that of a man. The body of a woman has certain characteristics that excite the libido of a man thus allowing for marriage in order to perpetuate the human species. It is normal that the wise Legislator aimed at protecting men from temptation by banning the causes of this excitation.”

In Babès’s opinion, when Al Qaradawi speaks of the “wise Legislator”, he clearly illustrates how the Divine will is automatically and erroneously equated with the deficient human interpretation. In other words, a group of human interpreters agreed upon something, made their opinion sacred and therefore closed the door to any subsequent interpretations or needed reforms. The famous Egyptian scholar added that “the four Islamic juristic schools, even the eight, affirmed that a woman could not lead men in any prescribed prayers even though some allowed a Quran-memorizing woman to lead prayers in her own family knowing that the men behind her are her mahrams… No Muslim jurist of any known school authorized women to deliver the Friday sermon and to lead men in prayer.” Babès shows her astonishment that Al-Qaradawi failed to mention the names of jurists who actually saw the practice as permissible. Famous early jurists like Al-Muthani (d. 878), student of Shafii and contributor to the establishment of the Shafii juristic school, Ibn Thawr (d. 854), mufti of Iraq, and At-Tabari (d. 922) historian, exegete and founder of a now defunct juristic school all allowed women to unconditionally lead men in prayer. In addition, the Hanbalis permitted that a woman leads men in taraweeh prayers.

Al-Qaradawi advises those women who want to lead prayer to do so in a group of women instead of committing this heinous innovation of leading men and creating fitnah. According to Babès, this is a hypocritical stance since the same Al-Qaradawi authorizes and even encourages suicide bombings committed by Muslim women in Israel. In other terms, a Muslim woman may legitimately kill herself and take innocent lives but may absolutely not lead men in prayer because of the libido. And as everybody knows, the libido is the cause of the destruction of the community!

Al-Qaradawi even leaves the impression that Amina Wadud might be an apostate when he calls upon her to return to her Lord and religion and to condemn this act of conspiracy against Islam. Babès views this statement as more than simple preaching; it is almost a call to murder. [emphasis mine -ed.]

isn't it classic, then. who doesn't fall down, east, west or center, when it comes to the bodies of women? control, control, control. the taliban, the ameritaliban (practitioners of hypochristianity), the so-called "middle of the road" guys, the so-called 'right to life' nutjobs: can't anyone just leave us the fuck alone? damn, take a look at your own selves for a while. you could maybe worry about your own libido instead of us as walking pornography.

there's more in that article on MWU!, and it's only part one of an ongoing series. i'm keeping tuned, fer sure!