Woman attacked for wanting to pray in mosque

MPAC highlight the disturbing story of a Muslim woman who was "physically attacked" for having the cheek of wanting to pray at a Blackburn mosque.

It was the same mosque that invited the female Condoleezza Rice for a visit earlier this year, and if I'm not mistaken, the same mosque that we saw MPACers being attacked on TV at the last General Election for distributing leaflets. Obviously, on top of the individual issue here, there is the wider one of female access to mosques.

Our mosques in this country are by and large gathering places for elderly males. What is the point of Islamic rules on hijab and keeping a modest gaze if our women aren't going to be allowed out of the house? Did women pray in the mosque of the Prophet, peace be upon him, or not?

In Glasgow, the sisters just did it for themselves. They couldn't get into any mosques, so they raised a million pounds and got their own lovely place in the southside - Al-Meezan House.

This shouldn't be necessary though. Sisters have as much right to a place of worship, to community facilities, as Muslim brothers. One sister who I used to work with a number of years ago at a youth project in Glasgow actually had the gall to walk into a mosque and start praying. I was with her, and have to admit, was panicked at her bravado. But there was no reaction. After all, not everyone is going to do a Blackburn and set upon her. There were bemused faces, sure, at this hijabed sister at the back of the prayer hall. But in the end, she got what she wanted.

Maybe it needs direct action like this from a mass of sisters to change the practice of our places of worship.

Comments

[Saracen]

Yep, this really needs to be addressed. I find the attitudes of certain sections of our community bemusing. They want to lock up their own women, yet feel overawed by those intelligent foreign women who go out and work and the like. It's appalling that a sister who's out on her daily business can't just pop into the mosque to pray on her way. Going out as a family we get caught out like that sometimes.

[Farouq Taj]

You need to understand the social demographics of these people. A significant proportion of these Muslims have a primitive culture. The role of a woman in their society is to cook the dinner, look after the kids and produce offpsring (preferably male).

They have severe psychological issues, live in dysfunctional families, raise children that are misfits in society.

I would suggest the women who experienced the assault do their utmost to leave such a godforsaken community and put their time and energy to better use. Let the savages rot in their ghettoes. They deserve little else.

[Osama]

Very interesting perspective Farouq.

[Utbah]

Farouq: I take a different stance on this issue. I think the time has come for the men to make way for our Muslim Sisters.

We must tackle this un-islamic thinking which is imprinted in some of our community elders.

Another thing you need to keep in mind is that like the bradrani system, this will be passed down to generation to generation.

[Muslim Apple]

I remember on many occassions coming for fajr only to find the sister's side locked so one of us sisters would either have to flag down a brother or just cross over through the brother's side to pray or unlock the door. I wouldn't say this was done out of malice and usually the brothers were more than happy to open the doors for us.

Brothers who try to push sisters out of the masjid or restrict them to a broom closet should themselves be pushed out, we don't "need to understand them".

[Hasan]

It is the basis of culture, it reminds me once where a Church opened their doors for a few Muslim women because the purpose built Mosque opposite does not have women facilities. Even to this day the members of the Church publically state what they did. It is about changing the hearts and minds of people, but it will be a very slow process, but hopefully we'll get there.

[Utbah]

I don't think it's going to be a slow process since MPACUK have started this.

Last time it was in Ilford now its in Blackburn.

Make Way For The Women Lads :)

[Osama]

Hasan, where was that? It would be good to have the name of the Church or at least location?

[Hassan Saleemi]

Scrap Pakistan's pro-rape 'hudood' laws, & liberate women from servitude to men!:

http://hassanandhabibah.blog.co.uk/2006/09/12/scrap_pakistan_s_pro_rape_hudood_laws_aa~1147541

[Hasan]

Somewhere in the East Midlands where many Muslims reside in.

[Osama]

Received the comment below from someone that prays at the mosque, putting the other side of the story.

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May Allah make us all sincere in our intentions/actions and protect us from the evils that surrround us.

I PRAY AT AL-HIDAYAH, ITS MY LOCAL MOSQUE.

I used to have a lot of respect for MPAC and saw good in many things they have tried to achieve. As time goes along i wonder more and more what their agenda really is: there seem to be more efforts in disuniting muslims, convincing people to turn against our mosque leaders...

How many muslims in the comments above have abused muslims of Blackburn or more so muslims of alHidayah.

Few points i picked up from others comments from above:

a) I'm not a scholar and so wont comment on whether or not women shjould be joining the congregation for salah, what i do know, even if it is better for women to join congregation, Masjid alHidayah is NOT big enough to cater for both sexes at the same time without the risk of the 2 sexes mingling - and before anyone critices the bro's to have one track minds, unfortunately, we live in a time of fitna.

b) Not everyone agreed to Condi visiting our mosque, the mosque did decide to scrap the plans as a result of no backing form the community - regardless of what reason was given to the media, unlike MPAC, atleast the community leaders saw the problem that their communities may just disunite through their actions.

c) In terms of women allowed into our mosque, we have talks very often specifically for women at our mosque. During Ramadhan its as frequent as every week. We have courses where they attend. This summer alHIdayah hosted a course on how to raise our children from an Islamic perspective, More women attended than men. Every year we have host a 'HAJJ PROGRAM' (like many other mosques have started doing now) - for men AND WOMEN!

d) Women travellers - although it has not been a common occurence, i know of one occassion when a malaysian family was in blackburn and got to our mosque as they had to pray their salah. The brother prayed upstairs, the sister was led downstairs to our basement/ladies hall.

e) none muslim visiting. Many forums discussed this when Condi was visiting, would they allow other non-muslims to visit. Ever since our new mosque was built (about 8 years ago), we have had MANY MANY visits from all kinds of groups. Mainly schools but churches and other groups like police have visited too to get an insight of a mosque. Obviously many of these visits would include women, schools ALWAYS have female teachers with teh children.

I'm sure a mosque could do more but come on brothers and sisters, be real, wouldnt you agree the mosque does make its effort? I'm sure many other mosques do their own little in their own little way. All the little bits together make bigger bit, insha'Allah a bigger GOOD. MPAC, please concentrate your efforts on uniting us all.

Out of hundreds of mosques around the UK that you could have travelled to make your point, you chose alhidayah, i hear you plan another trip... i'm not stupid, your problem is with Hafiz Ibrahim Master, one member of our mosque out of a community of over a thousand - please take your battle elsewhere and not our mosque!

Unfortunately, many muslims do fall for your propaganda.

YOUR VISIT ON THE 15th of SEPTEMBER:

i) the first time i quetioned what MPAC was playing at.

ii) the video camera was provoking.

iii) when distributing leaflets, you werent doing it peacefully, i saw the guy in the glasses, sorry bro i dont know your name, shouting out womens rights and looking like you were up for a fight - anyone with a short fuse would think you've come for a fight and might just give you one. Not everyone that comes for Jummah are practising muslims, you have to bear in mind that sadly we have many 'Friday prayers' only muslims

iv) it would have been nice if (and i know some were) all the sisters were dressed modestly - big shades and skirts sounds like dressed for a day out, not submitting oneself to Allah

v) maybe eggs were thrown, sounds like kids/students that might have come for Jummah, not 'men' from the mosque - get real, every community has their own share of clowns.

vi) i'm sure the readers get the gist of what i'm getting at, MPAC need to rethink what its trying to achieve... who funds you guys anyway?

Apologies if i have offended anyone above, i just thought i should give my view from this side of the fence, the alhidayah side... and before you ask, i'm no spokesman for the mosque!!!

wa salaam.

[Sohaib]

I appreciate the brother sharing his point of view. The MPAC penchant for exaggeration and mudslinging is sadly well known, even if they do have a point sometimes.

I have visited Blackburn only once, and as it so happened, I got kicked out of a mosque! (Not the same one - and that's another story...) But 2 things struck me:

1. When I asked the taxi driver for "the Mosque on such-and-such street", he asked which one, as there were 4 on the one road!

2. The one I went to was being newly built or refubished, but didn't seem to have a sisters' section. I may be wrong, but I certainly didn't get any evidence of one being there.

My view: this old mentality of providing for men only needs to stop. There are so many mosques (too many, I would say - since they exist more because of division than for provision), but how many have even a small space for our sisters?

People may quote the hadiths which indicate the preference for women to pray in their homes. But in my view, considering the nature of this society, it is even MORE important that Muslim women have access to a strong community facility for their spiritual and other needs.

The argument about fitnah just doesn't cut it, sorry. Fitnah is out there, and you can't avoid it by shutting out sisters, or shutting them in the home. Indeed, that will make the situation worse (and I can elaborate if you wish).

[NP]

MPAC came this Saturday again. Again there were cameras, again people were getting annoyed. The Imam announced straight after Zuhr that all musallees are to go straight home, don’t let the protestors annoy you. The guy in the glasses who’s name I still don’t know, the one that’s almost become the face of MPAC, was having a laugh whilst doing his shoes at the door about the imams announcement. I felt like asking him which bit he found funny, I was confused.

The sisters were given room to pray in the opposite building which used to be our ladies madressa through to July this year. We have a seperate trust set-up called Hidayatul Banaat – Guidance for women, from the main mosque, Masjid al Hidayah. Women are given further education into Islam, like further education – a course similar darul ulooms just without the boarding, sisters come after school/college/work. They moved out in July because we just bought a new building for them which cost £400,000. The plan is get more space and have something which can be used around the clock and maybe introduce more extra-curricular activities.

Anyway, they didn’t last long. For some of them the headscarf didn’t last long either. Oh yeah, ironically, 2:30 was the time when there was a talk for ladies in the main mosque building in the basement/ladies hall. Mosque guys had big grins on their faces and asked the sisters protesting to access the mosque to stop wasting their time standing around outside and go sit in. Some went in – were back out in 10 mins max.

Point is, they just wanted a fuss. The above proves that our mosque does far more than many other mosques when it comes to women. The question with the sister’s thing is: why travel all the way from wherever they came from for a cause that is probably more relevant to them in their neighbourhood. There is definitely a deeper objective as to why they target our mosque – it’s obviously something to do with Ibhy Master as no one else here with a high profile.

[Harith]

MPAC need to grow up. They trash uncle toms then become media darlings by slagging off our mosques. I can't believe these guys present themselves as the main lobbying voice of the Muslims in the UK with such an intemperate unprofessional style and a sloppy attitude towards the truth.

[Bilal Patel]

I agree with the comments that MPAC went about this totally the wrong way. I speak as someone who has helped them in their campaigns on more than one occassion, and I know Blackburn quite well as I have relatives there and grew up in neighbouring Preston. A few points:

1. There are many masjids who provide facilities for women (in varying degrees) but the programme did not discuss this.

2. MPAC is getting slated from people who agree with their aims, but totally disagree with their methods on this one.

3. There is a definite issue of MPAC's conduct, including Asghar shouting at the elder Muslim sister at the Lancashire Council of Mosques meeting.

4. Despite MPAC's repeated assertions about lack of facilities, in Blackburn we saw at least one place where women gather to pray. Their conduct was in striking contrast to MPAC's.

5. You do not encourage dialogue and discussion with someone by taking them by surprise with TV cameras in tow.

6. There is an issue about whether MPAC was taking any action until they were approached by C4.

7. Why target Blackburn? During the last election, MPAC had physical run-ins with the locals there. Was Blackburn targeted because the producers expected a similar response for more interesting TV?

I have had enough experience with the media in order to be cynical about this documentary. It wasn't all bad, but it caused more harm than good.

[Yasmin]

Good friend of mine who converted recently wanted to do her every prayer in our local mosque. Sisters' section sometimes full of brothers at prayer times. She got a guy to open the sisters' entrance for her from the inside, went in to the sisters' side, informed the brothers there that she was there to pray, and that was it. From that day on, sisters' section and wudu facilities are generally empty during prayer times - just in case a sister wants to come along and pray. Good on her I say. That's the way to get things done.