News:
The first all-female mosque has opened its doors in America, with up to 150 women coming from across the country not to miss the historical prayer lead by a female imam at a multifaith center in Los Angeles.
Some women traveled to LA from as far as New Jersey, with a flight time of over 5 hours, to be a part of what many hail as a breakthrough. In traditional mosques, women pray separately from men, which as many complain, can distance them from the speaker. Some women also feel excluded for other reasons, such as male-only Quran studies. The women’s-only mosque is the brainchild of Hasna Maznavi, 29, who says she wants every woman to experience what it feels like to learn from a female religious authority in the mosque. According to the co-founder of the Women’s Mosque of America, the mosque in LA is neither Sunni nor Shi’ite and occupies the “middle ground” of politics.
“We just wanted to have a safe space where women could come and get inspired and hear from a female khatiba who delivers the khutbah or the sermon and that’s an opportunity that we don’t get in other mosques. The speaker is always a male imam and not only that, it’s very hard to access the imam because of the way the mosques are structured architecturally. Sometimes the men and women are completely cut off from one another. This mosque gives us a chance to connect with our leaders and also with one another in a way that we wouldn’t in another environment,” Maznavi told Reuters. She founded the Women’s Mosque of America with Sana Muttalib.
Jummah is currently scheduled to take place once a month, but the mosque’s founders hope the prayers will be held every Friday in the near future. (Source: Washington Post 31/01/15).
Comment:
From the homeland of conspiracy comes this measly attempt to justify the need for women to have a separate Masjid just because they cannot see the Khatib and are directed to a separate prayer area, it would be laughable if it didn’t stink so much of Islamic reformation. The founders and attendees may insist the objective is inclusivity and the seeking of ilm of women from women, but the reality is that it feeds into and completely supports the western narrative of Islam treating women as second class citizens, temptresses to be kept away from men and unworthy of an equal education. Given what we have already witnessed of reformation Masaajid run by government imams and the munafiqeen, around the world as the instances in Canada, South Africa and Oxford UK, we can guarantee that within the walls of this unprecedented endeavor the sermons will be calling for all manner of reform, beginning with women leading the Jumaa Salaah, the acceptance of homosexuality, the push for women to join regular congregations and take their places in the front rows to be equal to men, to abandon the Islamic dress code, join the US army, stand for liberalism and democracy; and its probable that all this will be justified through twisting Quranic verses under the illusion of ‘interpretation’, the favorite word of orientalist reformers past and present.
Alhamdulillah the vast majority of Muslims will able to see through this as the one off deformity that it is, but the drip effect of the never ending attacks upon Islamic practice that accompany such deluded projects, coupled with the constant push for Muslims to justify every aspect of Islam against the benchmark of liberal secularism and within the wider context of western support for the treacherous rulers and an all-out war against the Islamic Ummah, means holding onto one’s Islamic identity can become hard, inclining some towards ease and dunya instead of the natural disposition of the Mu’min (believer), which is to enjoin ma’ruf, forbid munkar and hold fast to walaa and baraa. The other sad reality is that the western celebrity scholars enable such projects to be lauded due to their own silence and their stance that we as minorities or even guests in the Christian secular nations should display ‘good manners’ by ignoring insults to our Deen; and now even towards our beloved Rasool صلى الله عليه وسلم. Of the sincere scholars who are withheld from speaking the Haq and defending our noble Deen and exposing the ploys of the enemies of Islam, most are imprisoned or under house arrest. Until Allah سبحانه وتعالى returns the true leadership to the Muslim Ummah, the duty to speak and rally our Ummah upon Haq and to see through the agendas forged within the shadows is ours. These are the times of Malaahim and the Sahaba were in awe of those who would accept the responsibility with Ihsaan. May Allah swt make us of those and return to us the rightly guided Khilafah Rashidah, as the right of our Rabb is that His سبحانه وتعالى Word does prevail.
بَلْ نَقْذِفُ بِالْحَقِّ عَلَى الْبَاطِلِ فَيَدْمَغُهُ فَإِذَا هُوَ زَاهِقٌ وَلَكُمُ الْوَيْلُ مِمَّا تَصِفُونَ
“Nay, We hurl the truth against falsehood, and it knocks out its brains, and behold, falsehood is bound to perish. Woe to you for the things you ascribe to Us.”
(Surah Al Anbiyyah: 18)
Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Maleeha Hassan – UK