Selected Washington DC media outlets have been reporting on the story of controversies over the Islamic Center in Washington DC, and women who seek to pray in the main hall, rather than in a segregated room. Muslim women have been protesting over their segregated prayer facilities since February 2010. Muslim women state that they have had to be segregated in a small room with a 7 foot high wall. WAMU radio quoted one Muslim woman as stating that the segregated prayer room made her feel “Boxed in, stifling, suffocating and totally a second class citizen.”
The Islamic Center, 2551 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington, D.C.
The protests seeking equal access to prayer facilities resulted in the Washington DC police being called to evict the Muslim women praying at the DC Islamic Center or threatening to arrest them, and reportedly similar police actions were taken on a related case in the DC Northern Virginia suburb of Falls Church. After Muslim women were evicted from the DC Islamic Center in February 2010, one report stated that the women prayed outside of the mosque, with one male onlooker commenting “build your own mosque.”
But now the practice of the DC police coming to evict or threaten arrest Muslim women as “trespassers” for praying in the main hall of the DC Islamic Center is coming to an end, according to the Washington Examiner. The Examiner reports that it has internal emails from the Washington DC metropolitan police providing guidance to police officers to no longer get involved in such disputes, stating that “We are not to get involved… Important that our officers not escort women out of there.”
WAMU-FM: “Fatima Thompson led a protest against women having to pray in an area other than the main prayer hall in a Northwest D.C. mosque.” (Photo: WAMU/Kavitha Cardoza)
One of the protesters for Muslim women’s equality in worship, Fatima Thompson, has previously been quoted as stating “Wooden barriers have to be taken down and women have to be allowed to join, to pray behind the men in the main praying area. That’s our request. We are against gender segregation, against the fact that women are put aside or in a totally different room at the mosque. The general issue we are pushing is gender segregation and the ramifications it fosters. It’s not healthy, and not reflective of our society here. It’s very reflective of very restrictive, ultra orthodox societies.”
The Islamic Center reportedly has no comment on the Washington DC police decision to no longer evict or threaten to arrest Muslim women praying in the main hall.
The Washington Examiner reports that the police department decision to no longer evict or threaten to arrest women for praying in the main mosque hall has “raised the hackles” of a representative of the libertarian Cato Institute, Ilya Shapiro. Ilya Shapiro was quoted in the Examiner as stating “The religious angle is beside the point. This isn’t a lunch counter or a restaurant or a hotel.. Basically this is a private institution, and that’s what this turns on — private property rights. If you don’t want a trespasser on your lawn … you do rely on the police, ultimately, to eject people you don’t want.”
Cato Institute: Libertarian Ilya Shapiro Defends DC Islamic Center “Right” to Call Police on Muslim Women for Praying in Mosque’s Main Hall
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Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) stands in support of our universal human rights for all people, of all genders, equally, and in support of all faiths. Muslim women deserve equality and dignity in their worship like all other individuals. This is not a liberal or conservative issue, but is an issue of human rights and human dignity.
We support such inclusion of all those who seek freedom of religion, freedom of worship, and freedom of conscience, as one of our most fundamental universal human rights.
Choose Love, Not Hate. Love Wins.
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List of Media Reports:
— Washington DC Examiner: D.C. police won’t intervene to remove women from mosques
— Washington DC Examiner: Muslim women protest separation at DC mosque
— WAMU: Muslim Women Protest Policies At Islamic Center Of Washington
— NBC Washington: Muslim Women Protest Policies At Islamic Center
— 7-foot-high wall separates women, men
— AFP: In US, Muslim women challenge mosque separation
— Blog: Washington DC Mosque – Muslim Women Demand End To Sex Segregation Again
— Blog: USA – Muslim Women Question Sex Segregation In Mosque Prayer Hall