The Null Device

First female imam

Salma Qureshi, a thirtysomething computer programmer and British Muslim, is studying to become Britain's first female imam:
"I'm quite religious but at the same time I'm quite a liberal person myself," she says.
She said that when she was younger, she could not "differentiate what was religion and what was culture," and that she thought Islam imposed "too many restrictions" on women. "It's only afterwards I realised that this is all cultural - religion doesn't really stop women doing anything," she added.
Good luck to her, I say. If she can provide a role model for an Islam that's in harmony, rather than at odds, with the values of liberal society, it should take some of the wind out of the sails of extremists (on all sides).

There are 1 comments on "First female imam":

Posted by: SidratulMuntaha http://i-epistemology.net/attachments/744_Ajiss2 Tue Oct 9 15:36:39 2012

There are so many cultural issues which have taken precedence over 'Islam' in it's truest form. For example segregation wasn't something that was introduced in Islam till after the death of the last Prophet (saw), in fact it was introduced by Umar ibn-Al Khattab, the second caliph and even then it is not known whether he introduced it as segregation or whether he had different entrances made for men and women entering a mosque because of other issues. My point is that if there is nothing in the Qur'an or sunnah to deny a woman from becoming an imam then why should anyone object to this, especially where the Muslim ummah is in dire need of appropriate leadership in this day and age. For further reading on the issue of segregation look at this link: http://i-epistemology.net/attachments/744_Ajiss21-2%20-%20Reda%20-%20Women%20in%20The%20Mosque.pdf

Allah knows best.