Islam in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives - Islamic Books ...

Peril and Possibility 3 0 5are prohibited from becoming imams. Some women see this as a sexist traditionthat should be challenged. Others, however, emphasize the importance ofalternate participation in the community. Ingrid Mattson, vice president of theIslamic Society of North America, has argued that although women do notqualify for the position of imam, there is no other position theoretically prohibitedto women in the Muslim community.For example, some Muslim women, including Mattson, stress the need forgender equality on mosque executive committees and boards, and women’sparticipation in these bodies continues to increase. Some women have serv e das chairperson or mosque president. In Toledo, Ohio, for example, ChereffeKadri helped lead the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo through difficult timesafter September 11, 2001. Some U.S. Muslim women also note that there arefew impediments to female leadership in Sufi Islam. Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons,an African American Sufi, argues that U.S. Muslims should look to traditionslike Sufism to see a less hierarchical model for gender relations in Islam.Laleh Bakhtiar, another American Sufi, also notes the central message ofgender equality in Sufism and notes the success of U.S. women as leaders inthe Naqshbandi order. Still others argue that women must help the communitymore squarely face issues like domestic abuse and equal opportunity inemployment and education.There is, however, no easy way to present a summary of Muslim women’slives in the United States. Like Muslims more generally, Muslim women in theUnited States lead a life full of peril and possibility. They live under the authorityof a government that, in practice, singles out Muslims for governments u rveillance while also promising to protect their human rights. Every day,Muslim women, like Muslim men, face suspicion from the general public. Justhaving a Muslim name or wearing a h i j a b immediately puts them at risk. Theymight be denied a seat on an airplane; they might face employment discrimination;and they might be the subject of stares, fear, and hostility. Muslimwomen of color, like men of color, may experience further discrimination becauseof their race. And as women, they know gender discrimination—thekind that comes from within the Muslim community as well as that whichcomes from without. At the same time, Muslim women often laud the ideals, ifnot always the practice, of the United States. The United States has a kind ofreligious freedom difficult to find elsewhere. It is a rich country that offerssome degree of economic opportunity to many. And some say that living insuch an ethnically and religiously diverse country gives them the chance toforge an Islam that is pluralistic, interracial, and socially just.Whether such an Islam emerges in the United States depends not only onthe actions of Muslims themselves but also on the larger contexts in which theyattempt such a venture. In the past, the shapes and contours of U.S. Islam haveoften reflected the influence of larger trends in U.S. race and ethnic relations,