Doing Islam differently: Mosque fully includes women, gay people
At this mosque, women worship in the same room as the men. They lead prayers and give sermons.
They are not forced to watch the service on television in a different room.
At this mosque, gay people are welcomed.
And there’s no dress code. You can cover your head or not, as you see fit.
This mosque, based in Kitchener-Waterloo, does Islam differently.
“We reject a patriarchal system,” says Fran Pappert-Shannon of Waterloo, who co-founded the mosque two years ago, and co-ordinates its activities.
“We are egalitarian, without a patriarchal hierarchy. and we believe in the concepts of shared authority.”
All of this is very unusual for the religion, as it is often practised in North America.
And so, in order to write about the K-W El-Tawhid Juma Circle, I had to agree not to publish its location.
Some members of the congregation, who are gay and haven’t come out yet, were uneasy about having a journalist around, so I couldn’t observe the service.
A couple of members of the congregation agreed to speak with me by phone, but only if I didn’t reveal their identities.
Some members were understandably spooked by the threats recently received by National Geographic after it aired a documentary on a female imam who also advocates for progressive values in Islalm, Ani Zonneveld.
The organization removed the documentary for 24 hours, Zonneveld said on her Facebook page.
No wonder this small religious community feels so vulnerable.
But the rewards of full inclusion are rich.
One woman, a mother of young children, converted to Islam from Christianity and worships at the local mosque.
She seized the opportunity to lead the prayers and give the sermon, or Khutbah.
“It was a great experience,” this woman said. “I felt like my opinions and my views mattered.”
She and other congregants I interviewed said they feel fully included by Islam itself, but they don’t agree with restrictive interpretations of it by religious leaders.
Another woman said it’s important to her that all people feel safe when they worship. The affirmation of LGBTQ members that happens regularly in the K-W mosque matters deeply to her.
The atmosphere in this mosque, where perhaps a dozen worshippers meet weekly and sit in a circle, “it feels very intimate, it feels very safe,” she said.
As an operation, there are minimal expenses. The space in which they operate is donated. There are no paid staff. Pappert-Shannon brings refreshments and pays other miscellaneous costs.
It is one of a handful scattered across the country that were co-founded by Toronto immigration lawyer and human rights activist ElFarouk Khaki.
Similar mosques are in Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver.
Khaki also functions as the imam, or leader, of the K-W mosque.
“Unless the Qur’an says it’s prohibited, it is permitted,” said Khaki, who is gay.
“The Qur’an doesn’t tell us that women can’t be imams.”
He said homophobia has to be disentangled from a patriarchal way of thinking that is “deeply entrenched” in some parts of the culture, thanks to centuries of colonialism and poverty imposed on Muslim people.
Even though it’s being done under the radar, with great precautions taken about sharing information publicly, this group is doing incredibly important work as they reclaim their God.
How can you feel truly close to your Creator if you can’t even be in the same room where the prayers are being said? Or if you are constantly told God loves you less because of your sexuality?
“God perceives me without original sin,” Pappert-Shannon said. “He runs to me when I walk to him.”
And she repeated a saying she had been taught: “Allah is closer to us than our jugular veins.”
“I love that,” she said. “I love being a Muslim.”