Too good to be true?

A women-led masjid, Qal’bu Maryam Women’s Mosque, is welcoming the public for the first time this Friday at a multi-faith seminary located in the Holy Hill district of Berkeley in Northern California. Holy Hill is a small neighbourhood filled with theology schools of many faith traditions northeast of San Francisco, which arguably exists in its own liberal bubble — often detached from the xenophobic realities of middle American life.

And yet, the masjid’s founding indicates an almost idyllic scenario for isolated Muslims living in or near Berkeley who are tired of the old-fashioned patriarchal systems pushed by back-home cultural norms at some local masjids.

Across a number of Muslim communities in central California, to use an example, women are not permitted inside masjids at all. For the many Muslim women who were raised in countries such as Indonesia and Pakistan, this may come as no surprise. For many Muslim women living in America, this practice reeks of patriarchy.

But Qal’bu Maryam Women’s Mosque claims to offer a different scenario. On its website, it reads that everyone is welcome, including practitioners of all sects of Islam, as well as men, converts, and other groups.

This anticipated mix of Muslims is possibly unprecedented in California and maybe even the United States, at least at such an openly-publicised level. While more intimate prayer groups exist in larger cities like Chicago, Qal’bu Maryam Women’s Mosque may prove not to be very different. But then again, it might.

For instance, according to founder Rab’ia Keeble speaking to The Huffington Post, during khutbahs, people who identify as women will be asked to sit at the front of the room, unlike more traditional counterparts which either completely segregate men and women into different rooms during khutbahs, or enforce women to sit behind men. Undoubtedly, this practice will raise the eyebrows of some skeptics.

Furthermore, the type of education the Qal’bu Maryam masjid promises to provide worshippers is non-elitist and non-patriarchal. It stems from the practice of Musawah, a global movement established in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2009 which, above all, calls for equality and justice in the Muslim family.

Since Qal’bu Maryam Women’s Mosque is the second women-led mosque to be established in California, the first being in Southern California, it may give outsiders the impression that Islam is growing rapidly in the United States. However, this is not the case.

In 2016, the Pew Research Centre released a study that indicated Muslims comprised only one per cent of the United States population, or roughly 3.3 million people. According to projections, the American Muslim population is expected to grow to 8.1 million people by 2050, or to 2.1 per cent of the population.

A 1.1 per cent estimated growth rate over the next three decades isn’t particularly significant, as compared to Pew’s study which points towards Islam being the fastest growing global religion, but not the fastest in the US.

Notably, the same study dictated that people who switch from no faith or another religion to Islam in the US are in the same ballpark number as those who leave Islam. Despite this, the Trump administration have persuaded much of the public that Islam is too the fastest growing religious group in the United States. This simply isn’t so, but is perpetuated even by major newspapers and Muslim academics at American universities.

Regardless of this falsified trajectory, the Qal’bu Maryam Women’s Mosque is a welcome addition to the Holy Hill community. Its conception proves that love may in fact trump hate after all. Or, at least, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Above all else, the masjid points towards an inclusive model of practising one’s faith and existing peacefully with all sects of Islam. I look forward to attending even if its promises may sound too good to be true.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 14^th, 2017.

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