This story about a Muslim woman leading Friday prayers has been in the news quite a bit this week. Danithew was kind enough to send me a link to a podcast she did.
I am glad she is doing this. I always like it when people do something instead of complaining. But this is going to have no real impact on Islam as a whole. Even if a more women decide to become imams and have (small) followings, it will mostly be noted by the media and people of other religions. I assure you that women are not going to start leading the Friday prayers in Saudi Arabic anytime soon.
(It is also interesting to note that the status of women in Islam varies dramatically from place to place. I've spent my time in more liberal Muslim countries. I've never been to Saudi Arabia. Kyrgyzstan is quite a bit more lax on these issues. It is also interesting to note that American Islam varies in its degrees of tolerance towards women. In fact, I first came in contact with the more restrictive Saudi style in northern Idaho, and it was then that I understood better the complaints about Islam's treatment of women.)
The same thing has happened in Judaism. There are women rabbis in the United States leading Reform congregations. However, if you were to convert to Judaism and join a Reform congregation, you wouldn't be able to immigrate to Israel, since you wouldn't be considered Jewish. If you were to join a more conservative congregation and go through the proper steps, then you would be considered Jewish. (Actually, this is also a political issue. Since Israel allows any Jew immigrate, the politicians don't want the rules for becoming Jewish to be too lax. However, Orthodox Jews in Israel are against making the conversions legitimate for religious reasons.)
I am also not going to criticize Islam for not allowing women to lead prayers. I do not believe that a woman's place is lessened because she cannot lead the Friday prayers, or because she cannot be a rabbi in a more conservative congregation, or because she cannot hold the Priesthood in the LDS Church (and I am not going to jump into the fray on this one!). But I also think that a woman should worship in a place where she is comfortable.
(If you drop by, Danithew, please correct any errors I have here. It's been a little while since I read about the divisions in Judaism, and I may be a little behind the times.)
4 comments:
I liked what this woman did because it shows courage. She's providing breathing room for other men and women who want to interpret Islam differently.
It's sad and scary that at least one person commented (in response to what she did) that if she were in a Islamic country, she would have been hanged until dead and hacked to pieces. It is also telling that one facility she planned to do this at was subjected to a bomb threat.
It seems to me that in the Islamic world, those who have the orthodox traditional view of things are much quicker to reach for a weapon or for the death threat when their views are controverted by others.
So, in my opinion, this woman is battling for freedom of speech in the Muslim world. She's risking her life to do so. I just hope she survives and isn't marked for death as a result. If she dies, she will be the real martyr or shaheed.
Danithew
It is scary that there are people who think the appropriate response to this is that she should be killed. Is she really risking her life though, since she is here in America? I don't think she would be killed in every Muslim country- some, possibly, but many, no.
But this really would be a scary thing to do. Whether it is life-threatening or not, she is going against strong traditions.
Personally, I think there are other more important changes that could be made in Islamic society, and they are cultural changes. Most of the problems we hear about in Islam are cultural, not religious, even though some Muslims say they have religious abcking to oppress women.
I think that very orthodox members of any religion are quick to reach for weapons. It's not exclusively a Muslim problem.
I know that I might seem naive about Islam and Muslims, but I do not believe that Islam is a violent or repressive religion. Certainly it has been interpreted by some to be so. But Islam does not teach violence- and this has to be true, since there are over a billion Muslims, and the world would be a much less peaceful place if Islam were inherently violent.
Thanks for stopping by, Danithew.
I hope Amira that you are right. I am not entirely convinced that people who offend Islamists are safe, even if they are in the United States.
As the one critic said, if this woman were in the Middle East or a Muslim country, she would probably no longer be among the living. Many are familiar with the story of the Egyptian writer Naghib Mahfouz and how he was stabbed for writing works that were critical of religion.
I am positive that in Europe, those who offend the Islamic traditions are in serious danger. Salman Rushdie was an early example of someone who had to get security to protect him from death threats. In Amsterdam, Theo Van Gogh was shot seven times had his head almost entirely removed by a Muslim vigilante because he made a controversial film that was critical of Islam. One of the main scholarly critics of Islam feels compelled to write under the pseudonym Ibn Warraq because otherwise he (or she?) would be in danger.
A year or two ago I had a conversation with two observant Muslim friends of mine here in Utah about their views on the topic of apostasy from Islam. I asked them if they really felt that apostasy from Islam should be punished by death (as prescribed in the hadith). They applied enthusiastically in the affirmative. These are two people who I like and feel are otherwise pretty normal nice people.
I am not really trying to create an argument on your blog about the nature of Islam. I'm just saying that not all is right in the world.
Danithew
You're right, Danithew. It is dangerous for a Muslim to criticize Islam, especially outside the US and probably Canada. Far more dangerous that for a member of any other religion, and that is a big problem.
I know you're not trying to argue, and I hope I didn't sound like I was trying to. I like to discuss this. Thanks.
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