“Gender Jihad” launched

Islamic feminists from around the globe came together this weekend in an effort to mobilize and liberate Muslim women in a new “gender jihad,” reports the Guardian.

“The meeting, which drew women from as far apart as Malaysia, Mali, Egypt and Iran, set itself the task of squaring Islam with feminism. That meant not just combating 14 centuries of sexism in the Muslim world, participants said, but also dealing with the animosity to Islam of many western or secular feminists. They insisted that many of the fundamental concepts of equality embraced by feminism could also be found in the Qur’an.”

The “gender jihad” has been labeled as the recognition of and action against sexist and homophobic readings of Islamic texts, which has been greatly abused by predominantly male Muslim scholars over the past centuries.
Amina Wadud, an African-American theology professor, is playing a leading role in the movement. She created an uproar within the Muslim community not too long ago when she formed a mixed-sex congregation in New York. She has been dedicated to studying the Qur’an for the past two decades and decided to mobilize when she realized that “horrific things were being done in the name of religion.”
Progressives admit that the movement will be trying. Rachel Raza, a Pakistani Canadian who has also led mixed-sex prayers, says it plain and simple, “I already have a fatwa against me. I don’t want to be murdered on the street.”