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Imams won’t let woman leader use mosque’s front entrance

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: Canadian imams who gathered in a Toronto mosque on Thursday to denounce London bombings and distance themselves from extremism, refused to allow the woman president of a progressive Muslim organisation to enter the mosque through the front door.

They insisted that Niaz Salimi, president of the Muslim Canadian Congress, enter through the side door reserved for women. According to Tarek Fatah, a Muslim writer, broadcaster and activist, the action demonstrated the “misogyny” that has become the “defining trait” of these leaders of the Islamic community.

Salimi said she was not allowed to enter the mosque which was the venue of the press conference held by the imams and had to use an entrance reserved for women. She said, “It may be too little and I hope it is not too late,” pointing out that conservative, even extremist, versions of Islam had been preached in Canadian mosques in recent years and many of the imams who signed the statement released at the press conference had “encouraged segregation, extremism, misogyny and homophobia on an unparalleled scale.” She said that to fight extremism, imams must not stop at the “mere condemnation of terrorism but demonstrate pluralism by turning mosques into community centres that are open to all members of the Muslim community, irrespective of their gender, ethnicity, sect, class, disability, or sexual orientation.” She noted that no women were invited to speak at the news conference.

A report in the Toronto Star quoted a Canadian Muslim as saying that the day a diversity of views is permitted in the mosque, will be the day Muslims will have arrived in the 21st century. “Mosques need to be democratic, transparent, gender-neutral and non-sectarian, but there is very little chance that imams or the people who ‘own’ these mosques will permit dialogue and vigorous debate. That is why I have described the Imam press conference as a ‘public relations manoeuvre.’”

Tarek Fatah agreed, arguing that the message sent on Tursday was largely a public relations manoeuvre to reassure Canada’s non-Muslim population that there was unequivocal condemnation of the London bombings. However, it won’t help detect or dissuade radical ideology within Canada’s mosques. That could better be done by creating an open debate at the mosque to freely discuss all issues facing Muslims, including the roots of terrorism and the policies of governments worldwide.

He said, “To indulge in a meaningful dialogue, you don’t need a press conference. You need to open your mosque to say let’s talk about it. In the democratic freedoms that we have in Canada, what do you think should be done about Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq? How many of you think it’s OK for the Iranian leadership to say they’re divinely ordained to run a country of 70 million people?”

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