Progressive Muslims Launch Gay-Friendly, Women-Led Mosques In Attempt To Reform American Islam

At first, the devout Muslims who gathered in a Washington, D.C., conference center seemed like they could have come from any mosque. There were women in headscarves and bearded men who quoted the Quran.

But something was different. While mingling over hors d'oeuvres, they discussed how to change Islam's future. A woman spoke about fighting terrorism; she had married outside the Islamic faith, which is forbidden for a Muslim woman. A Pakistani man mentioned his plans to meet friends for drinks, despite the faith's ban on alcohol.

In a corner of the room, an imam in a long gray tunic counseled a young Muslim with a vexing spiritual conflict: being gay and Muslim. The imam, also gay and in a relationship, could easily sympathize with the youth's difficulties.

On this brisk Monday night in late October, members of Muslims for Progressive Values, a nascent American reformist organization, had gathered from around the country to celebrate a milestone: In four years, the group had grown from a few friends to a thousand members and spawned a string of small mosques and spiritual groups that stretched from Atlanta to Los Angeles.

Today, as America's Muslim leaders debate controversial topics like political radicalism inside mosques and states' attempts to ban Shariah law, this growing network of alternative mosques and Islamic groups is quietly forging a new spiritual movement.

They're taking bold steps, reinterpreting Islamic norms and re-examining taboos. While far from accepted by mainstream clerics, these worshippers feel that the future of the religion lies not solely with tradition but with them. Women are leading congregations in prayer, gay imams are performing Islamic marriages, and men and women are praying side by side.

This is not the norm for most of the 2.6 million-strong American Islamic community, accustomed to centuries-old traditions of gender relations and houses of worship that tend to draw primarily from a single ethnic group.

"We can't move forward as a society, as a faith system, if we subscribe to these old draconian ways of practicing Islam," says Ani Zonneveld, who is the president of Muslims for Progressive Values. A 49-year-old singer-songwriter who lives in Los Angeles, she leads prayers for men and women together and tells gay Muslims, often shunned in other mosques, that their religion welcomes them.

This soft-spoken Malaysian-American who sports a crop cut with blond streaks is one of a small but burgeoning cadre of Islamic reformers in the United States, both within her group and outside it. Their causes range from fighting radicalization and educating young people to building interfaith bridges and protecting women's rights. Over the years, leaders in the Muslim community have addressed changing needs, from building new mosques to defending civil rights when unfamiliar spiritual practices resulted in discrimination. But this new movement is a radical departure.

"What's taking place in Islam in America right now is what happened before in other religions," says John Esposito, a professor of Islamic studies at Georgetown University.

A few denominations within Judaism and Christianity have openly welcomed gay people and women, Esposito points out. Some Reform, Reconstructionist and Conservative Jewish communities are led by gay and women rabbis. The Presbyterian Church, United Church of Christ, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church allow gay and women clergy. The United Methodist Church ordains women.

Mosques in America, however, usually are Sunni or Shiite; they differ in how they interpret Islamic law. Still other mosques combine Sunnis and Shiites under one roof. But as far as the open participation of gay people or leadership by women imams, most mosques are much the same: It doesn't happen. Some Sufi mosques, which follow mystical traditions, welcome gay Muslims, though their numbers are sparse in the United States.

Most Muslims rarely attend mosques outside of major holidays although the Quran commands men to pray in a group every week. In a Pew survey last year of 1,033 American Muslims, just under one-half said they attend a mosque once a week. Many said they worship on their own or seldom. A majority of Muslims surveyed think the religion is flexible, with only about a third saying there is but one true way to interpret it.

That kind of view is becoming common among Muslims, according to Esposito, as more people try to separate what's in the Quran from cultural traditions. "They say if we don't see anything clear in our scripture, then that trumps tradition. And people are applying that to women's issues and gay issues."

It's among this segment of believers that the progressives are trying to make their mark. With regular prayer meetings in several cities, salons on theology, a children's Islamic educational camp and a series of printed adaptations of Quranic scholarship on issues such as homosexuality, Muslims for Progressive Values aims to fashion a new version of the ancient faith, one that members assert is truer to Islam's origins.

There's a long road ahead. While the total number of mosques in America has climbed 74 percent over the past decade, to more than 2,100, Muslims for Progressive Values has a significant presence in only a dozen cities, including Atlanta, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The progressives' mosques are borrowed spaces: community centers, homes and churches. There's a mosque in Toronto and a prayer group in Ottawa. The group keeps a directory of unaffiliated like-minded worship centers in smaller cities.

But the progressive Muslims feel they have found momentum, Zonneveld says.

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Comments

[Kamal Gilkes]

05:20 AM on 06/02/2013

As mentioned in the article:

''At first, the devout Muslims who gathered in a Washington, D.C., conference center seemed like they could have come from any mosque. There were women in headscarves and bearded men who quoted the Quran.

But something was different. While mingling over hors d'oeuvres, they discussed how to change Islam's future. A woman spoke about fighting terrorism; she had married outside the Islamic faith, which is forbidden for a Muslim woman. A Pakistani man mentioned his plans to meet friends for drinks, despite the faith's ban on alcohol.

In a corner of the room, an imam in a long gray tunic counseled a young Muslim with a vexing spiritual conflict: being gay and Muslim. The imam, also gay and in a relationship, could easily sympathize with the youth's difficulties.''

How can they be devout muslims, if they support women marrying non muslim men, which is forbidden by the religion, drinking alcohol which is forbidden by the religion, and homosexuality which is forbidden by the religion?

I agree with Elizabeth's comments below, from what I have read.

[Jeremy Bursac]

12:22 AM on 05/27/2013

Oh boy, now with the pro woman and pro glbt inroads the fundamentalist christians are _really_ going to hate them....

[surferdude3522]

09:28 AM on 04/22/2013

Islam is next on the Gay dictators list.
if you do not conform you are homophobic,and will suffer persecution by way of master manipulation of words and the changing of your understanding and representation of Islam through mass media hype and continual protest.
we are GLBT and will not stop until we shove our ideology down everyone's throat.

[CBLoughry]

07:57 PM on 05/26/2013

Tell me, have you ever heard the word "irony?"

[surferdude3522]

01:48 AM on 05/27/2013

is Irony not the Gay Fundamentalist Motto. ?
dont categorize us or class us,!
yet if i dont agree we gay marriage ,im homophobic,Biast, a bigot bla bla bla
never have i seen such Vitriolic responses except from the Gay Fundamentalists should you Dare to disagree with them .!!!

[Ioan Lightoller]

08:53 PM on 05/26/2013

Yawnnnn...sounds more like the programme of fundamentalists of whatever stripe.

[surferdude3522]

01:42 AM on 05/27/2013

Not to forget the Gay fundamentalists shoving their programme into our lives !

[Jan Allen McDaniel]

11:19 AM on 04/10/2013

@ Abdul-Halim Vazquez:

I said:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Jan_Allen_McDaniel/progressive-muslims-launch-gay-friendly-women-led-mosques_n_1368460_243514746.html

Your answer:

16 hours ago ( 7:33 PM)
Prosecute violent terrorists at home. Fight against violent enemies in the battlefield. But acknowledge that the overwhelming majority of Muslims are neither criminals nor your enemy.
=======

Now I ask which of my quotes means what you say.

[Elisabeth Strout]

09:57 AM on 04/09/2013

The issue here is that this isn't Islam. This is some weird melange of Sufism, Shiism, homosexuality, and a whole truckload of practices that are specifically forbidden by the Qur'an and ahadith, so they're free and welcome to do as they wish, but there's no point in calling it Islam. It isn't. It isn't "reformed" Islam, it isn't "progressive" Islam. It's a whole other ballgame. Islam is peaceful submission to the morals and values and lifestyle ordained by the Creator in the Qur'an and sunnah, and this is a mockery of dozens, if not hundreds of those. So it's not Islam. Period.

And for those bellyaching about how the group is going to see fatwas issued calling for their killing, you can stop worrying - they don't even fall under the pale of Islam, so no proper Muslim is even going to take them seriously. Let alone the fact that homosexuality only carries the death penalty in places governed by shari'a morals [and No, neither Saudi nor Iran fall under that category - those are the most messed up, oppressive, hypocritical governments out there], and only if the acts are committed in public.

Further, I don't know where 90% of the commenters below got their ideas about Islam, but it certainly wasn't the Qur'an, let alone ahadith, so please, go educate yourself about Islam from reliable sources (like, umm, the Qur'an and ahadith), before spouting nonsense.

[Robert Cat]

02:26 PM on 04/10/2013

I get my ideas about Islam from being in Islamic countries, and seeing first hand what is going on.

I've read the Qu'ran. I haven't read anywhere in the Qu'ran where the "Kill the Infidel" passages, "Go ahead beat your wife," and "Men are superior to women" type passages, etc. are not meant to be open-ended. Where in the Qu'ran does it say these passages don't apply to today's situations?

You are inaccurate when you claim Iran is not governed by Sharia. It most certainly is.

I don't know where you are getting your crazy ideas about Islam, but you should educate yourself.

[Elisabeth Strout]

03:33 PM on 04/10/2013

I get my ideas about Islam from reading Islamic texts. There's no such thing as an "Islamic" country. There's such a thing as a country with a Muslim-majority population, i.e. lots of people who practice the real Islamic lifestyle imperfectly at best. If you want to educate yourself about *Islam*, not *Muslims*, go to the texts.

There is no passage in the Qur'an that condones in any manner whatsoever, wanton killing of non-Muslims, wanton beating of women, or general across-the-board inferiority of women. If there were, I wouldn't be a Muslim. Each of the passages generally misconstrued and wrangled completely out of context to mean so, have very specific purposes for very specific situations, at very specific times, which most sane human beings would agree make sense.

Iran does not implement sharia fully or perfectly, and is governed by Shiites who claim certain human beings had divine powers, a belief which puts them outside the pale of Islam.

I don't know where you are getting your crazy ideas about Islam, but "Islamic countries" is not a source, and you clearly have no more respect for women than your perception of the Islamic religion does, or you would have used a more polite tone.

[Jan Allen McDaniel]

09:12 AM on 04/11/2013

And for those bellyaching about how the group is going to see fatwas issued calling for their killing, you can stop worrying - they don't even fall under the pale of Islam, so no proper Muslim is even going to take them seriously.
=========

I notice that you omit sacred law from your list of things that define Islam. Is that intentional or accidental?

If it is accidental and you do think that sacred law defines what Muslims believe is right and wrong, how do you account for this Shafii law and others that condemn lesbian sex similarly:

"o12.0 THE PENALTY FOR FORNICATION OR SODOMY
[...]

o12.2 If the offender is someone with the capacity to remain chaste, then he or she is stoned to death (def: o12.6),"
[...]

http://www.shafiifiqh.com/maktabah/relianceoftraveller.pdf

[Galwag Jakob]

01:21 PM on 03/22/2013

This a something as a muslim first to read and from what i understand from my faith and example was the story of Sayidina lut(ra) it is not for a muslim to go on that road even given prayers,But for islam been a peaceful religion it gives choices and as we all believe in Allah and the day of judgement it is that every action of any one who says the shahada and performs the obligaotry prayers his affairs is with Allah(saw)The right of woman are respected and is to the woman to seek that knowledge.God is the creature of all some believers and others not with his power all things stand, and that some believe others dont and it is their right but when the hr comes which will come then we all account for our actions.You can change what the Quran or sunnah says about certains things,if you ague about a sunna that it was pass on the quran is all words of Allah and when one read it and lucky gets the miracle attach to it,It is free faith but dont commercilise it for we dont have that it accepted for gays,that is why the story of sayidina lut was said several times,and as the prophet mohammed(saw) said he is a warner not a manager on teh affairs of what u do so either u follow it or not but you are responsible for that action.Peace.

[Robert Cat]

02:31 PM on 04/10/2013

If the rights of women are so respected in Islam, how is that under Sharia Law women need several witnesses to claim rape, they only get half an inheritance, they don't get custody of their children, are viewed as only worth half a man, and can be Honor Killed?

Also, here are some typical Honor Killing laws. Tell me again, how "peaceful" Islam is, and how respectful of women.

Iran: Article 220 states: If a father “or his male ancestors kill their children, they will not be prosecuted for murder.”

Jordan: Article 340 “He who discovers his wife or one of his female relatives committing adultery with another, and he kills, wounds or injures one or both of them, is exempt from any penalty… he who discovers his wife, or one of his female ascendants or descendants or sisters with another in an unlawful bed and he kills, wounds or injures one or both of them, benefits from a reduction of penalty.”

Syria: “He who catches his wife, or one of his ascendants, descendants or sister committing adultery or illegitimate sex acts and he kills or injures one of both of will be exempt from penalty."

Pakistan: Families can escape punishment when a brother ‘confesses’ to having killed his sister. His father ‘forgives’ him, or accepts blood money. No money changes hands and the matter is closed. . . . "

[Galwag Jakob]

09:55 AM on 04/11/2013

thanks for ur comment ,to all what you said are laws of countries which the name sharia was attach to it so as in some western countrie havin laws that many arte still fighten to change.Sharia is a way of life like islam as a practice and only God can judge a person but gave us the source of makin our decisions and laws for here is what the Quran says simple of adultery and is sura An Nisa vers(15)Those who commit unlawful sexual intercourse of your women - bring against them four [witnesses] from among you. And if they testify, confine the guilty women to houses until death takes them or Allah ordains for them [another] way.(16)And the two who commit it among you, dishonor them both. But if they repent and correct themselves, leave them alone. Indeed, Allah is ever Accepting of repentance and Merciful. So please if you can understand every country has its own culture before Islam and how they treated situations like this,so islam change the way those people then treated woman and if you know the history of Arabs before the Quran was send to them you will understand so as was the Bible send when too cruel things was happenin in society as was the Thoura of the jews which are all faithfull books with guideiance.Today some countries in the western world have no similer law against what you just mention but all are havin different view on how they make their decisions.It

[Galwag Jakob]

10:13 AM on 04/11/2013

thanks for ur comment, a simple answere to ur questions.How was ur society and culture judgement to these kind of things before and still now?and Dont breng Islam to this for it is miunderstood and been wrongly used by the so called muslim countries which have also their culture and values before islam and still some of those things are been brought together and to the outside world is all Islam.Here is a vers on some of ur questions surat An Nisa vers(15)Those who commit unlawful sexual intercourse of your women - bring against them four [witnesses] from among you. And if they testify, confine the guilty women to houses until death takes them or Allah ordains for them [another] way.(16)And the two who commit it among you, dishonor them both. But if they repent and correct themselves, leave them alone. Indeed, Allah is ever Accepting of repentance and Merciful. The quran is a source of our guidiance and how to change those cruel decisions of judgement that was been made in the time before Islam as was in the western world inspirations was drown from the scriptures of the Bible the Thoura  and the zaboura of the prophets before in the makin of laws and decisions.
  Here is an example if a crime is commited in this modern day in europe like what you had in Norway and the same in America and Africa,middle east you will have different judgement why is that. To the countries you mention

[J O H N]

06:47 AM on 03/22/2013

It is an encouraging thing to see that there are progressive movements in the Muslim faith just as in Catholicism, the Protestant Church and Judiasm. Now that we all live together, Side by Side, it is crucial that we all can reconcile the most important tenets of our Beliefs Without Quashing the Civil Rights of our neighbors, OR Demonizing People who are not like us, Or Pre- Judging them. Along with this Liberalized, Civil & Respectful behavior towards others, Progressivism naturally follows.

[Galwag Jakob]

01:24 PM on 03/22/2013

yes so is faith as how it was send,And in islam it is that u learn to leave with that diffs of ur nieghbour.The Quran gave us all examples and that all is created with reason.So this they do who ever take that and readin well what the Quran said and the sunnah and understand it,his affairs is with our lord and as we all have the believe on the day of hour judgement then every soul anwseres to what he did.One love

[gatoraider]

09:09 PM on 03/20/2013

I am a bit surprised that Amina hasn't been attacked. She has barged into a couple of places where angels might fear to tread.

[simon Bar]

10:01 PM on 03/17/2013

Just leave it behind. Move toward thought, logic, reason, and mostly Humanism..

[reader1]

09:15 PM on 03/17/2013

I guess it was the same thinking that led to the demise of the Ottoman empire and Muslim Spain. Be afraid when you tamper with the reality of Islam, however, I do agree with women giving the Khutbah but not leading the prayer unless it's with other women. What would our prophet say of these developments? (pbuh)

[season555]

05:13 PM on 03/19/2013

You have said exactly what I was thinking, if we weren't friends I would friend you again. Islam is a not spring fashion that it will change in fall to please 'customers" either you follow it or you don't, you don't change it to suite you life style, like many other religions do.

But since I don't have to answer for anyone else on judgement day and the Quran there is no Compulsion in religion, They can practice Islam as they want to as long as they are not hurting others.

[Amber Horton]

07:24 PM on 03/20/2013

He would say that Islam is complete and in no need of change! Allah has told us that He has completed our religion. What in the world is our ummah coming to? Who needs enemies when we have people shredding Islam from the inside?! Astaghfirullah!

[reader1]

09:44 PM on 03/20/2013

You said it beautifully, this is not a passing phase, it's your life!

[season555]

02:50 PM on 03/21/2013

Have you heard the song My Ummah by Sami yusuf I think he is saying exactly that, I think he knows. How SAD, just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes. He loves us so much, called us all his beloved yet look where we are. Shame on us

[reader1]

06:08 PM on 03/21/2013

True, however, InshaAllah, we will make it through!  This is where our faith comes in, just think, Mama said there would be days like this!

[Oblongato]

07:53 PM on 03/17/2013

We are used to Muslims who oppose human rights: free speech, equal rights for women, equal rights for non-Muslims, freedom of religion, freedom to deny religion.

If a new Islam proves to be compatible with secular liberal democracy, more power to it. I don't think we need religion at all, actually. But a religion that embraces secular government is certainly preferable to one the poses a threat to it.

Let us see whether this Islam can stand against the Islam that condemns it.

[season555]

05:15 PM on 03/19/2013

" We are used to Muslims who oppose human rights: free speech, equal rights for women, equal rights for non-Muslims, freedom of religion, freedom to deny religion."

WOW you must know all 1.9 billion of us. As for the "NEW" Islam I did not realize we had to change our religion to please people like you?

[Oblongato]

05:57 PM on 03/19/2013

Virtually all Muslim majority countries have governments that explicitly grant special privilege to Islam.

I think religion and government are a poisonous mix that result in corruption and injustice. The state of virtually all Muslim-majority countries would seem to prove my point.

I don't personally know every Muslim, but I place some credence in the Pew surveys.

Here's one, but they are all very interesting.

http://www.pewglobal.org/files/2010/12/Pew-Global-Attitudes-Muslim-Report-FINAL-December-2-2010.pdf

Apparently, 95% of Indonesian Muslims (total Muslim population 204,847,000) think it is good that Islam plays a large role in politics. (page 3) That's over 194 million Muslims right there.

38% of Indonesian Muslims (nearly 78 million) support laws segregating the sexes in the workplace.

23% (over 47 million Muslims) have a favorable view of al Qaeda. (page 8)

Those Muslims, and millions of other like them, were the ones I was referring to in my post.

Is it any wonder why we wouldn't prefer the "NEW" Islam?

[Jan Allen McDaniel]

11:23 AM on 03/20/2013

You don't have to change your religion for anyone, and no one can make you.

But you will eventually have to choose between:

1. the Islam of al Qaeda, the Taliban, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Hizballah, Hizb ut Tahrir, of Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia and the OIC and

2. the reform version of Islam that is emerging, mostly in the West, in opposition to the above.

http://aifdemocracy.org/about/foundational-values/

Your choice.

[Galwag Jakob]

01:29 PM on 03/22/2013

this is people usin that freedom the other wayIslam is free to any body easy and simple,But all this is only Allah that grand that path to who he chooses and for islam being a peaceful religion it has no pressure or force to that you either thnak Allah which by sujud or not or be greatful or not,just like others pray in other ways and God answer their prayers.

[purplemax37]

06:42 PM on 03/17/2013

One has to pray that this endeavor begins to bring Islam up to some semblance of a religion that can co-exist with others without seeking totalitarian hegemony. Contrary to a relative handful of verses in the Koran, which can be understood as being generated in a circumstance of secular conflict, there is very little doctrinal impediment, certainly no more than is the case for Christians who are not literalists (ie., superficialist--not "fundamentalist"). But the current status of most of the umma and ulema suggests that the religion founded by Mohammed is in for mighty rough times as they resist reality, reason, the sciences, etc. Oh, wait a minute, are we talking about Christianity?

[doctorw2]

11:43 AM on 03/17/2013

These people would not be doing this in any muslim country because they would be killed.

[sweetpatriot]

09:02 PM on 03/17/2013

That is why it is America.

[simon Bar]

10:04 PM on 03/17/2013

agree, side note, how about old men?

[Robert Cat]

10:06 AM on 03/17/2013

Good for them for trying to reform Islam.

[Ahmed Ahmad]

01:27 AM on 03/17/2013

The Sunan Abu Dawud is also a reliable collection of hadith.

Book 38, Number 4447: Narrated Abdullah ibn Abbas:

The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: If you find anyone doing as Lot's people did, kill the one who does it, and the one to whom it is done.

Book 38, Number 4448: Narrated Abdullah ibn Abbas:

If a man who is not married is seized committing sodomy, he will be stoned to death.

[fetterless]

01:42 AM on 03/17/2013

You quote "Book 38, Number 4448: Narrated Abdullah ibn Abbas:

If a man who is not married is seized committing sodomy, he will be stoned to death.”

I know some Islm countries allow sodomy with a donkey as long as it's a female. Is bestiality behind the meaning of the quote (I know LGBT not OK in Islm)? Allowable only to non-married men?

[Ahmed Ahmad]

12:42 AM on 03/20/2013

Sorry, I have not yet checked into that.