Women's Mosque Of America History

Driving along the highway, all eyes are drawn as a magnet to the unique building with its golden dome and unusual architecture. The Islamic Center is located at the base of a residential street in a small neighborhood. The center houses an Islamic school, a community center, an international school and the Mosque, which is the place of worship for Muslims.

Once inside the prayer hall, the imam explained to me that in a mosque there

Historically, “Women and Gender in Islam” discusses the social, political, legal, and religious discourses and structures that have shaped the experience of Muslim women

The issue of women in Islam is highly controversial. As a Muslim American living in the United States many times I get judged about my religion. People think that because I am a Muslim woman in America I am being restricted from many things and can’t be like every other woman in America. Islam has many similarities with other religion and it does have its differences. Being raised as a Muslim woman in America has made me the strong and independent woman I am today. I am going to be talking about my own religion that I’m well knowledgeable of. What the media shows and how people talk badly about the religion is truly ruining the religion and its true beauty. Woman in Islam are not being oppressed for anything there’s true beauty behind this

The Alamo was originally built as a mission church in 1718 for San Antonio de Valero. These mission churches were used as schools for Indians, when not being used for church services. The mission when first built was just several huts and a small stone tower. However, in 1724 the tower was destroyed by a storm. It took approximately another twenty years for them to build a church building that was finished in 1744. The construction of this church was not very good and it collapsed in 1756. They then started to build another second church in 1758 to replace the one that had collapsed, however, it was never finished and this is how it looks

Probably my favorite book that we read in BIFL this semester was Ali-Karamali’s “The Muslim Next Door”. Before reading this book, I had no clue what Islam was or what sort of traditions Muslims practiced (I have done an extremely poor job of being informed with the events and people of the world). Reading about a totally different religion than my own gave me the opportunity to question the religious practices that I participate in. Hajj seemed like such a silly thing when we first started reading about the 5 pillars of Islam, but once we watched the National Geographic video, something clicked for me. I began to realize how incredible it must feel to be surrounded with people from all over the globe that gather together to do the same religious-based activity. Further, I began to recognize just how beneficial the Qur’an was for women of that age. Ali-Karamali states that, “if Islam so greatly raised the status of women fourteen centuries ago, when women’s rights were inconceivable and implementation of them was a Herculean task, then the message of Islam itself must be feminist” (123). Here I am, a privileged, intelligent, white female trying to raise the bar for women all over the world like I was the first one to think of that. It’s incredible to think that religious texts were trying to do this work at a time it was unheard of!

In recent years, America’s attention has been gripped by stories of women who have escaped from the Middle East. Each has a unique story, but they all have the same themes of oppression, abuse, and domination. Americans rushed onto the scene ready to “save” Middle Eastern women and many of the activists are now been highly praised for the influence they made in the region. Others, however, have come to question whether the Muslim women in the Middle East really needed the U.S. to rescue them from Islam. *Insert Thesis*

Muslims in America faced several difficulties as they tried to gain racial equality and religious freedom. When they entered America and began to form an Islam religion there was a vastly larger number of white Christians than there were Muslims, and as a result, one of the difficulties they faced was that they were outnumbered by other religions. Because of the Islam religion being outnumbered by other religions, there was much less knowledge on their religion than there was on Christianity, leading to them being a minority compared to white Christians. As a result of this, there were not as many organizations that helped to increase the number of Islam presence in America. One of the organizations that was developed to help the Islam religion in America was the creation of the Moorish Science Temple, which Noble Drew Ali founded because "African Americans were descended from the

Middle East. It is a mosque located in Jerusalem built between 691 and 692 by Umayyad caliph

Today, Islam is seen as a violent religion, the mention of Muslims anywhere strike fear into people. But yet there are more Muslim doctors, writers, engineers, scientist, thriving in first world countries than anyone else. Muslim people lack the ability to have their own identity due to the medias interpretation of them. It’s even more for Muslim women because they will forever be painted as Oppressed. In American Muslim Women by Jamillah Karim, the author gathers information about barriers Muslim women face living in Chicago and Atlanta, either through segregations, discrimination, and gender roles. The author mentions how people of the same ethnic background tend to stay together, instead of branching outside or their race, and how Muslim women are treated like underdogs when they interact with Muslim men in the mosque, at work, and etc. People that normally identify with the same race, religion, and ethnicity tend to stay together. This reading discussed “boundaries” that women face in the mosque and how they are bound to the back, while men are privileged with front row seats, closer to the Unman. The reason could be that these women that

There are many political, religious, and cultural factors that shape the lives of Islamic women many of them are completely different than factors in the lives of American women. Islam is one of the world’s fastest growing religions; however, Brooks argues that “Islam’s holiest texts have been misused to justify the repression of women, and how male pride and power have warped the original message of this once liberating faith.” The book also shows these factors have slowly been taking away women’s rights, rather than furthering them.

politicians continue to make baseless links between terrorism and Muslim women's dress” . Through these statements the audience becomes aware of hardships faced and is persuaded to support them, illustrated in “Anyone who is actually concerned about the role and status of Muslim women would do will to listen to Muslim women rather than assume they can speak on their behalf”. Through this statements Ruby Hamad’s article helps to increase the awareness of adversities faced by Muslim women, as creates a positive and supportive view of the Muslim

I entered the mosque tentative about keeping my arms covered and taking off my shoes. As the group came in, my heart was racing. I was surprised to see that not all of the girls had scarves covering their hair and most of them were dressed in “regular” western clothing. Words were exchanged between mother and child in Arabic,

Today, Islam is seen as a violent religion, the mention of Muslims anywhere strike fear into people. But yet there are more Muslim doctors, scholars, engineers, scientist, thriving in first world countries than anyone else. Muslim people lack the ability to have their own identity due to the media’s interpretation of them. It’s even more for Muslim woman because they will forever be painted as Oppressed. In American Muslim Women by Jamillah Karim, the author gathers information about barriers Muslim women face living in Chicago and Atlanta, either through segregations, discrimination, and gender roles. The author mentions how people of the same ethnic background tend to stay together, instead of branching outside or their race, and how Muslim women are treated like underdogs when they interact with Muslim men in the mosque, at work, and etc. People that normally identify with the same race, religion, and ethnicity tend to stay together. This reading discussed “boundaries” that women face in the mosque and how they are bound to the back, while men are privileged with front row seats, closer to the Unman. The reason could be that these women that feel oppressed

In today’s society women are given ample opportunity just as much as men. In some countries, such as middle-eastern nations that is not the case. Muslim women are often perceived to be submissive to Muslim men and unequal. Mohammed never taught for women to be treated as lower class citizens. Nonetheless, the blame is pointed towards the religion of Islam. The Islamic religion began as all monotheist religions representing a belief in one God and moral standards. In the following essay I will discuss and elaborate what Mohammed taught, how women lived in early Islamic society, and what it has become.