Cough
Jun 6th, 2006, 06:19 PM
I found this article interesting, refreshing, and a positive reflection on elements of Islam.
Are men/women separated at all mosques in Canada? Do any of them conduct sermons in English?
I have edited the article for brevity. The whole article is here (http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/06/06/MNG5MJ94QA1.DTL)
S.F. mosque drops gender barrier -- worshipers are still adjusting
Tuesday, June 6, 2006
San Francisco's largest mosque -- a Tenderloin refuge for more than 400 Muslims -- has taken the revolutionary step of removing the 8-foot wall separating male and female worshipers.
No other Bay Area immigrant mosque has torn down such a barrier, several Muslim leaders said, and the move is rare in the United States. But leaders at the Islamic Society of San Francisco, citing the opinions of scholars, say Islam provides no justification for the partitions that separate men and women in most immigrant mosques around the country.
Even with the wall gone, however, divisions remain.
Some men who worship at the mosque say the visible presence of women invites "temptation." And while many women see the wall's removal as liberation, others feel it shattered the privacy essential for prayer. Several women still refuse to attend.
But the Islamic Society intentionally courts all ethnicities and uses English-language sermons to unify members; its board even fired its former imam in 2001 for what board members said were polarizing sermons. Mosques like to foster a distinctly American Islam and, some believe, a truer Islam. Traditions long unquestioned in faraway lands are challenged in the United States by people who lack the same sentimental attachments.
"I would argue that Islam is practiced in its purest form in the U.S.," said Nura Maznavi, 27, an attorney who has been worshiping at the Islamic Society of San Francisco mosque for a year.
Indeed, African American Muslims -- not to be confused with adherents of the Nation of Islam -- don't divide male and female worshipers.
Ingrid Mattson, a professor of Islamic Studies at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, said controversies like the debate over the wall can threaten the "unchanging" pillar that religion is for many people.
Men prayed in the front of the sanctuary. Women prayed in the back, as the Quran dictates, but also behind the wall. The women could not see the imam, who delivers the khutbah, the sermon, except on closed-circuit TV.
She said the wall also put women out of step with the synchronous prayer required in Islam "Sometimes we would stay face down with faces on the floor while the men had gotten up," Kalyoncu said, laughing gently at the memory.
"It was demeaning to women and disrespectful for them to be separated" by a wall, said Ghali, 47, a Lebanese immigrant who owns and runs a downtown copy shop. "It's more of a cultural tradition that has nothing to do with Islam." Mosque leaders sought the opinion of Khalid Siddiqi, an Islamic scholar and former imam at the Muslim Community Association in Santa Clara, which is considered a model multi-cultural mosque.
Siddiqi said partitions are a relatively modern innovation that didn't exist at the time of the prophet Muhammad, who in the seventh century recorded in the Quran the revelations Muslims believe he received from Allah, or God.
Siddiqi said women bluntly questioned male authority in mosques during the time of the prophet Muhammad.
But as Islam began to spread east -- the political capital of Islam moved from Damascus to Baghdad in 749 -- the influences of other cultures began to seep in,
Board members embraced the opinions of Siddiqi and other scholars, and the wall was removed six months ago.
Not everyone says that was a good thing.
"When there's a wall there, there are no distractions," said Shahzia Khan, 30, an American-born Muslim who was raised in Vallejo and lives in Fremont. "At this mosque, I do see men flipping their heads back and forth. It makes me wonder, 'Are they looking at me? Am I dressed provocatively?' "
Mohammad Safdar said a barrier would be better for men, too.
"If the wall is there, it's better in Islam because the women cannot attract attention," Safdar said. When Khaled Ghaleb, a mosque board member, joined the discussion, an argument ensued.
"There is no privacy here. You're not coming to a salon. You're coming to a mosque. Allah, who sent the message to the prophet, didn't tell him to build a wall. It's not Islam.
"A woman goes to Safeway. Why can't she come to a mosque and see the imam?" Ghaleb said. "We can't amend what the prophet did."
Are men/women separated at all mosques in Canada? Do any of them conduct sermons in English?
I have edited the article for brevity. The whole article is here (http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/06/06/MNG5MJ94QA1.DTL)
S.F. mosque drops gender barrier -- worshipers are still adjusting
Tuesday, June 6, 2006
San Francisco's largest mosque -- a Tenderloin refuge for more than 400 Muslims -- has taken the revolutionary step of removing the 8-foot wall separating male and female worshipers.
No other Bay Area immigrant mosque has torn down such a barrier, several Muslim leaders said, and the move is rare in the United States. But leaders at the Islamic Society of San Francisco, citing the opinions of scholars, say Islam provides no justification for the partitions that separate men and women in most immigrant mosques around the country.
Even with the wall gone, however, divisions remain.
Some men who worship at the mosque say the visible presence of women invites "temptation." And while many women see the wall's removal as liberation, others feel it shattered the privacy essential for prayer. Several women still refuse to attend.
But the Islamic Society intentionally courts all ethnicities and uses English-language sermons to unify members; its board even fired its former imam in 2001 for what board members said were polarizing sermons. Mosques like to foster a distinctly American Islam and, some believe, a truer Islam. Traditions long unquestioned in faraway lands are challenged in the United States by people who lack the same sentimental attachments.
"I would argue that Islam is practiced in its purest form in the U.S.," said Nura Maznavi, 27, an attorney who has been worshiping at the Islamic Society of San Francisco mosque for a year.
Indeed, African American Muslims -- not to be confused with adherents of the Nation of Islam -- don't divide male and female worshipers.
Ingrid Mattson, a professor of Islamic Studies at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, said controversies like the debate over the wall can threaten the "unchanging" pillar that religion is for many people.
Men prayed in the front of the sanctuary. Women prayed in the back, as the Quran dictates, but also behind the wall. The women could not see the imam, who delivers the khutbah, the sermon, except on closed-circuit TV.
She said the wall also put women out of step with the synchronous prayer required in Islam "Sometimes we would stay face down with faces on the floor while the men had gotten up," Kalyoncu said, laughing gently at the memory.
"It was demeaning to women and disrespectful for them to be separated" by a wall, said Ghali, 47, a Lebanese immigrant who owns and runs a downtown copy shop. "It's more of a cultural tradition that has nothing to do with Islam." Mosque leaders sought the opinion of Khalid Siddiqi, an Islamic scholar and former imam at the Muslim Community Association in Santa Clara, which is considered a model multi-cultural mosque.
Siddiqi said partitions are a relatively modern innovation that didn't exist at the time of the prophet Muhammad, who in the seventh century recorded in the Quran the revelations Muslims believe he received from Allah, or God.
Siddiqi said women bluntly questioned male authority in mosques during the time of the prophet Muhammad.
But as Islam began to spread east -- the political capital of Islam moved from Damascus to Baghdad in 749 -- the influences of other cultures began to seep in,
Board members embraced the opinions of Siddiqi and other scholars, and the wall was removed six months ago.
Not everyone says that was a good thing.
"When there's a wall there, there are no distractions," said Shahzia Khan, 30, an American-born Muslim who was raised in Vallejo and lives in Fremont. "At this mosque, I do see men flipping their heads back and forth. It makes me wonder, 'Are they looking at me? Am I dressed provocatively?' "
Mohammad Safdar said a barrier would be better for men, too.
"If the wall is there, it's better in Islam because the women cannot attract attention," Safdar said. When Khaled Ghaleb, a mosque board member, joined the discussion, an argument ensued.
"There is no privacy here. You're not coming to a salon. You're coming to a mosque. Allah, who sent the message to the prophet, didn't tell him to build a wall. It's not Islam.
"A woman goes to Safeway. Why can't she come to a mosque and see the imam?" Ghaleb said. "We can't amend what the prophet did."