The American Mosque 2011: Women and the …

1 TheAmericanMosque2011 ReportNumber3fromtheUSMosqueStudy2011 Wom enandthe Ameri canMosqueMarch201 3 Sar ahSay eed, , Board Member,Wome nin Islam , haal- Adawi ya,Founder andChair Emer ita ,Wo men in Islam, Bagby, Assoc iate Prof essor ofIslamic Studi es, Unive rsity ofKentuckyCo pyri ght 2013by Islamic Soci ety ofNorth Ame ri caCov erdesignby Davi Barker Graphi cdesignby Richard House alContent sIntro ducti nding en sPa rtic ipati onin Praye rs, Prog ra msandGov ernanceatthe iday Pr ayer Atte eofaCurtain orDivi en sPr ogramsandWom en s en sPa rtic ipati onin Gove lusi ons T heWo men- Friendly endatio uctionThi s is the third repor t from the US Mosque Survey 2011, a comprehensivestu dy of mo squesin America. The first two reports focusedon basicdemo-grap hic s and atti tu des of mosqu e le ad ers, whi le the se con d foc use d on mo squeactivities and administration . This thi rd repor t dealswithwomen'sparticipationinthe American mo e US Mos que Surv ey 2011consist ed of (1) a co un t of all mosq ue s in Americaand then (2) a telepho ne interviewwitha mosqueleader (Imam,Pr esidentor boardmember)from a largesamp le of mo mosquecountwas conductedfromFeb ruaryto Ju ly 2010and the mos que leaderinter viewswereconducted fromAugust 2010to November 2011.

2 A totalof 2,106 mosqueswere list, a rand om sam ple of 727mo squ es was hun dred twenty -fourinte rvie ws we re the n com pl et ed, whichmea ns that the ma rgin of err or for the surveyis within the range of +/- 5 e sp onsorsof the US Mosque Survey2011 includea coalitionof manyor ganizations:the Hartfor d In st itutefor ReligionRes earch(Hartford Seminary),Asso ciation of Statist icians of American ReligiousBod ies (ASARB), CouncilonAmeric an-I sl amicRel ati on s (CAI R) , Isl ami c Soc ie ty of Nort h Ame ri can (ISNA), Isl am icCircle of Nort h Amer ica (ICNA), and the InternationalIns tituteof IslamicThought(III T) . The Researc h Committeefor the Surveywas:Ih san Bagby(Ass ociate Pr of ess or of Islamic Studies, University of Kent ucky)David Ro oz en (Director , Hartford Institutefor ReligionRes earch)Ri chard Hous eal (Association of Statisticiansof AmericanReligiousBodies)Nihad Awad (Executive Direc tor, Councilon America-IslamicRelations)Zahid Bukhari(Pr esi dent , Is lami c Circleof NorthAmerica)In grid Matson (Pro fessor of Islam ic Studies, HartfordSeminary)Iqb al Un us (Director , Th e FairfaxInstitu te)SafaaZarzour (Secretary General,Islami c Societyof Nor th America)Ih san Bagbywas the Researcher for the e US Mos que Surv ey 2011is part of a larg er st ud y of all Am eri ca n cong rega -tio ns cal led Faith Co mm un it ies To day (FACT), whi ch is a proj ect of the Coo perativeCongregationalStudies Par tnershi p, a multi-faith coalitionof denominationsandfaith groups.

3 The FACT seriesof nationalsurveys includesmassivesurveysof allrel igious congr egation s in 2000and 2010. The str ategyof the FACT surveys is todevelop a common questionn aire and then havethe memberfaithgroupsconducttheir own studywiththeir resp ective congregations . The US Mos que Survey hasparticipatedin both st udiesin 2000and e US Mos que Survey 2011is actuallya duplication withsomemodificationand imp rov ement of anoth er mo sque sur vey, the US MosqueSurvey2000 whi chwas conducted with US MosqueSurvey2000 can be foundat:ht tp://cdn1- cair. netd na-s images/ the purposes of thi s study, a mo squeis definedas a Muslim organizationthat holds Jum ah Prayers (Friday Pr ayers),conductsotherIs lamicactivities,andcon tr ols th e spacein whichact ivit ie s are held . This def initionexcludes placeswh ereon ly Jum ah Prayers are heldlike a hospit al, and it excludesorganizationsthat dono t control the sp ace that they use, suchas a Muslimstudentorganization which2 TheAmericanMosque2011:Report Num ber 3uses a ro om on theiruniversitycampus.

4 In the 2000US MosqueSurvey, MuslimStudent Associationswere incl udedas mosquesbut in the 2011 Surveythesegro ups werenot inclu ded if theydid not cont rol a buildingor ite organizationsfunc tion like a Mosque but theydo not conductJum ahPra ye rs beca us e the y do not hav e a Resi dentSch olar to conduct the ser vi ces. TheseShi i te or ganizationswereincl udedin the that werenotinc luded in the Surveyincl ude Nationof Islam,Moori sh ScienceTe mp le, Isma ilior ganizations,and the sp ecia l th anksgoes to RiadAli of the web sit eMuslim Gui dewh o wa s inva lua blein th e mos qu e cou nt , Bahauddin Bade of ISNAwh o han dled all th e finan ci al matters,ZaheerUd din, Executive Director of the Centerfor AmericanMuslim Research andInfo rmation , who was an immense he lp in identifyingNewYor k mo squ e leaders,thenu mer ou s CAIR chapterswho hel ped in identifying Mosque leadersin theirarea,the Is lamic Shur a Cou nc il of Sout hernCaliforniawhohad the visionto providecrucial suppor t for the survey, and the manyinterviewers whoconductedthepho ne int en in Isl am, Inc.

5 Has beenins trumen tal in producingthis repor t. Forcop ies of this reportand moreinformation on Womenin Islam,Inc. go to theirweb site, cop ies of Rep ort Number1 and Report Number2 are availableon thewebsi tes of CAIR, IS NA, ICNAand the Hartford Institute for Reli , , http://hirr. ies can be obtainedfromCAIR and e: Per centages thr oughoutthis rep ort maynot totalto 100%due to :Re port Nu mber 3 Major Findings Mosq ues reported an average of 18% femaleattendanceat Fridayprayers. Thepercentageof femaleattend anc e has not changedoverthe past decade. Two thir ds (66%)of mos quessampleduse dividers to demarcate Women sprayer spaces during daily prayers. Thispercentagehas also not changedoverthe past decade. A largemaj or ity of the mo sq ues (71%) said theyhad Women sactivities orprograms; however, a smallpercent, only4%, said Women sactivitiesorprogramswere a top priority. About a thir d of the mo squesreportedtheyhad Women sgroups (32%),and3% sai d thes e were a top priority.

6 A largepercent of mo sques(87%) said that womenare allowedto serveonthe mo squ e board . Th is is a significant increasefrom2000 when69%ofmo squ es allowedwomento serve on the board. Over hal f of the mos ques(59%) had womenservingon their boardin the pastfive years. Th is is an inc reasefrom 2000 whenhalf of mos ques(50%) hadwomen on the boar d. Most mos ques(63%)sc ore fair or poor on a scale for a Women -friendlymo squ e. Only 14%of mo squ es sc ore excellent for beinga Women -friendlymo squ e. Shi ite mos quesdo muc h betterthanSunnimos ques in beingwomen-friendly. Mosq ues that follow a mo re flexibleinter pretationof Quranand Sunnahin thatthey look to the purposes of the Lawand to moderncircumstanc es tendto bemo re Women -friendly. African American mo squestend to be morewomen-friendly, in particular themo squ es that follow the leadership of ImamW. DeenMohammed. Mosq ues that are op en to involvementin Americansocietythroughactivitiessu ch as interfaith and community service tendto be morewomen-friendl y.

7 Wo men s involvement in govern ancemakesa differencein the use ofdividers mosq ues rep orting Women s participationat the boar d levelare lesslikely to use :Report Num ber 3 Women sParticipationin Prayers,Programs,and GovernanceattheMosqueIn the UnitedStates,manyor ganizational formshaveevolvedon a paralleltrack to mosques, inc luding prof ess ional,civic,socialservice,and Women sorgani-zat ions . All of thesesp aces,incl uding the mosqueaffordMuslimwomenopportuni -ties for publiceng e, this Report about mosques and Women sinv olvement is onl y a portionof the landscapeof Women sinclusionin Muslimcom mu nity institutions. It is import ant to notealso that Women sparticipationinthe mo sq ue is not necessarilyint er-relatedwith theirinvolv ementin othertyp es ofins titution s Repor t foc useson Muslim Women s participation in the mos que using fourke y in di cators of a Women -f rie ndly mo wereuse d in the guide Wom en FriendlyMosques and CommunityCenters:WorkingTogetherto ReclaimOur Heritage, publishedin 2005by Women In Islam,Inc.

8 And the Is lamicSocialServices four indic atorsare: phy sicalaccess,as mar ked by twoind icators, Mosque attendanc e at Fri day Prayersand the presenceof partitionsorse parate spacesfor Women ;programmatic access,inclu dingwhetherthe mosquecon ducts programs for females; and Women sinvolvementin no ted in Rep ort Number2, Activities, Administrationand Vit ality of theAmerican Mos que, menmakeup the maj orit y of participantsat Fri day prayers:77%of all attendeesare numberof womenwhoattendFriday Prayeronaverage is onl y sl ightl y hig her in 2011(18%)comparedto 2000(15%). Childrenmade up on average 7% of the Fridaycongregationin 2000and 6% in low rate of Fridayattendance by womenraises the questionas to why ther e are so fewwomenjoiningthe weeklycon greg accountingfor this differenceby gender,it iscr itica l to ackn owl edgethat attempts to kee p Musl imwomenout of the mos que date backto the time ofPr op het Muhammad(peacebe upon him).

9 In fact,attempts to exclude wom en fromworshipspacespro mp ted the Prophetto spec ifically issueacom man d to his fol lowersthat theysh ouldnot barwomenfromgoingto the Mosque . However, hedid no t makeit compulsoryfor womento attendFri day con gregationalprayer in the sameway ashe required it of the cent uriesafter thePr op het (peacebe upon him ), womenwere effec-tivelyexcluded fromthe mosq ue, and up to today5 TheAmericanMosque2011:Re port Nu mber 30%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%Fig ure 1. Av er age Fr iday Pr ayer Attend anceOver Time: Men, Wom en and Child ren20002011 MenWom enChi ldren78%77%15%18%7%6%6 TheAmericanMosque2011:Report Num ber 3few womenattendmos quesin the Muslimwor ld. Thus, the hi storicaland contem-porary absence of womenfrom the mos que can be explainedbothin terms of atr ad it ion of exclu siona ry pr ac ti ce , co mbined wi th Women s deci si on s to pra y at homeor elsew her e because of practical limit ationson thei r time,awarenessthat theyareno t required to attend on Fr iday or a feelingof beingunwelcomein the , con temp or ary realities markedby the greatervisi bilityof womenin thepublic square acro ss all nat ion al and cultural contextsindicatethe needfor greaterinclusi on of womenin wor ship spaces.

10 A continuedexclusion of Women fromthemos que when con trastedto thei r rapidinc lu si on in other inst ituti on al form s not onlydamagesthe socialand spiritual fabric of Muslimcommunitiesbut also reinforcesaperception that mo sq ue spaces are not keeping pacewithculturaland inst itutionalsh ifts . Yet ch an gi ng exi sti ng struc tu re s and int erpreta ti on s is ch all en gi ng, pa rticul arl ywhen these st ructures are traditional, because theyare moreresist ant to ause of the ins titutional traditionalis m, manywomen leaders haveocc asionallypreferred to st art off with new organizationalstru ctures as an avenueto publiceng agement,rather than integ rating themselvesinto existing organizationalformsand seekingchange from tendanceby MosqueCha racte rist icsEthn icity. Th e highest average of femaleattendeesat Friday Pr ayers occursinAfrican American mos ques: 23%of attendeesat African American mosquesonFrid ay are Women .