sisters attacked for asking to pray in a blackburn masjid

[S_87]

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Sister ATTACKED for asking to pray at a Blackburn Masjid
Sunday, 17 September 2006
HOUNDED, ABUSED and then physically ATTACKED. Brothers and sisters this is the reaction I was faced with when, as a sister in Islam, I voiced my wish to pray in a masjid.

Some sisters and I were giving out leaflets which quoted the hadith of the prophet (pbuh) allowing sisters to pray in the mosque - Ibn Umar reported: The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said:

‘DO NOT DEPRIVE WOMEN OF THEIR SHARE OF THE MOSQUES.’

[Sahih Muslim, book 4, number 891]

At first some brothers quietly took the leaflets, but the atmosphere soon turned nasty when a large group of men emerged from the mosque...

...These men picked on the two sisters who weren’t Asian – a Somali sister and a white revert – and said to them “You’re not even Muslims!”. (How many non-Muslims do you find wearing hijab and niqab???). We were made to feel demeaned by brothers who had just completed their jumah prayers, and called every name under the sun. Our call for sisters to be allowed to pray in the mosque - as it was in the time of the prophet (pbuh) - was met with sarcastic abuse. One young man in Islamic clothes said, “Yeah right and we’ll bring our mothers and sisters in bikinis and watch them do a catwalk in the masjid.”

It was worse for the two brothers who were also giving out the leaflets – they were pushed and shoved by men trying to snatch the leaflets, and one brother was pinned against a car and punched. We retreated to the other side of the street and one elderly man came to us and explained that he agreed with us but that we should go for our own safety. And all we would have wanted was to pray Zuhr prayers AFTER the men had used the mosque for jumah… before I hear anyone say that brothers are priority for jumah.

But the uproar from Blackburn’s goons didn’t end there. We were followed by a car and hounded as they drove up and down the main road taunting and throwing eggs at the sisters. Even more shockingly I was standing by a group of children at the time and talking to a little girl who had wanted to talk to me because she liked my headscarf. The first egg hit someone’s doorstep and the second egg hit us – and the poor girl was covered in egg as much as I was.

The funny thing is, I didn’t feel the least bit humiliated for what had happened, or even upset with them. It was the masjid leaders that I was deeply devastated by. Instead of teaching them Islamic etiquette, the Qur’an and Sunnah, they were enabling the goons outside the masjid and ignoring the hadiths presented to them when all we asked was to pray Zuhr.

The irony is that this mosque, Masjid-e-Hidayah, led by Ibrahim Masters, had issued an invitation to Condoleeza Rice to visit the mosque when she was in town to see Blackburn MP Jack Straw in March this year. So a female American politician with the blood of hundreds of thousands of Muslims on her hands is welcome – but Muslim sisters can get lost.

Is this what some of our Ummah has come to? Is this what has become of some of our masjid leaders?

Sisters have a right not only to pray but also to be educated in masjids.How are we supposed to educate our children? Our children are the future of this Ummah!

The sister of ‘Amrah bint ‘Abd al-Rahman reported:

‘I LEARNED QAF. WA’L-QUR’AN AL MASJID…’FROM THE PROPHET (PBUH) HIMSELF ON FRIDAYS, WHEN HE USED TO RECITE IT FROM THE MINBAR EVERY FRIDAY’

(Sahih Muslim, 6/160.Kitab al-jumu’ah,Bab khutbah al hajah)

We haven’t plucked this out of thin air, these are hadiths. No Muslim can plead ignorance when shown the statements and deeds of our beloved prophet (pbuh).

The masjid is a house of God. It doesn’t belong to a particular person, it belongs to ALLAH (SWT). Therefore unless it was stated by our Lord or by our holy prophet (pbuh) that sisters are not allowed in masjids I should be able to continue this struggle for us being able to pray in any masjid whenever we wish to.

As for the goons of Blackburn, Friday the 15th September 2006 might have been your day to keep us out, but the day for the sisters to gain their Islamic rights will arrive insh’Allah. When you have Allah (Swt) on your side no man or even Imam can stop us from worshipping our beloved Lord in his own house, the masjid.

http://www.mpacuk.org/content/view/2695/34/



oooooooooh :rant: this is so rude! how dare they :grumbling

 

[Kamilah]

I think we need to look at this from both sides, its a bit silly the sisters hanging around the Masajids at Jumu'ah time when they know there will be men emerging from all directions, them hanging around in full view if the men, is bound to spark a reaction,if they had issues with praying they should have addressed it in a diginified way, nowadays, the sisters take on too much of this western "feminism" rubbish and try and justify it with islam,

its better for a muslimah to pray at home anyway,

in the haramain ( although we are in the most holiest and purest of places) us women.. we are told to move (if we hang about in the area's for men)

so in my opinion the sisters are in the wrong.

by the way, i wouldnt take much notice of mpac...they have a beef with blackburn and mosques ....if anyone watched the documentary they'll know what i mean.

also, I live near Blackburn, i go there all the time, and there are many masaajids, Masha'Allah most brothers are very respectful towards Muslimah's, and there are particular mosques that could have accommodated the sisters for Salaah,


even if they knocked on someone's door, ppl would happily invite them to pray Salaah, after all they are Musaafirs

 

[*LJ*]

Asalamu alaikum,

May Allah(swt) forgive them, I think thats disgraceful what those brothers did, I guess it shows the importance of knowledge and being taught the hadith...I'm guessing the brothers didn't know of this hadith or didn't realise its importance otherwise they wouldn't have reacted in such a way. InshaAllah those sisters will get their place in the masjid and the brothers will realise that the sisters are entitled to this.

Salam

 

[Durrah]

Absolutely disgusting. Wallahi, those brothers desvered to be SHOT! Sick people! I cant begin to describe how i feel and look, they attacked the two non asian sisters!!! I can imagine they wouldnt have touched any asian sister incase her dad/brother/uncle were at the masjid, but abuse other muslim sisters from another race and accuse them of not being muslim. Digusting racism!

I hope some brothers go down there and beat the life out of them punks!! Had that been me, i gurantee any brother who raised his hand (and voice in a threating manner) towards me, would proabably have gained serious injuries, knowing my dad/bros/uncles.

Sick! Thos sisters should report them to the police. Have them locked up.

Thanks for making us aware of this Amani. I'm going to write a long letter to the masjid and tell them exactly whet i think of them.

 

[Kamilah]

you cannot take one step forward and take two steps back....

you cannot commit haraam in order to attain halaal..

these sisters have done nothing but bring shame upon themselves, and embarassed us Muslims.

they provoked the men to behave irrationally, they can show all the hadith they can find, but it still doesnt change the fact that they shouldnt have been there in the first place

 

[Durrah]

Asalamu alaikum,

May Allah(swt) forgive them, I think thats disgraceful what those brothers did, I guess it shows the importance of knowledge and being taught the hadith...I'm guessing the brothers didn't know of this hadith or didn't realise its importance otherwise they wouldn't have reacted in such a way. InshaAllah those sisters will get their place in the masjid and the brothers will realise that the sisters are entitled to this.

Salam

Of course they knew sister. Lets not make excuses for them. These masjids up north dont let women come in and space in most cases is NOT an issue. Its not done because they dont know the hadith or what it means, its dont out of their own bigorty and twisted cultural mannerisms towards women They're nothing more then thugs in khameezes.

 

[Samee]

You know what amazes me? That you can go to Jumah, sit there, pray, then spend 5 minutesr making dua sincerely and asking Allah for forgiveness so many times, all humble...

And then less than 10 minutes later, you can go outside and punch people and scream and cause trouble and nullify all that you did in the mosque. What the heck is going on?

 

[Durrah]

you cannot take one step forward and take two steps back....

you cannot commit haraam in order to attain halaal..

these sisters have done nothing but bring shame upon themselves, and embarassed us Muslims.

they provoked the men to behave irrationally, they can show all the hadith they can find, but it still doesnt change the fact that they shouldnt have been there in the first place

They did NOTHING wrong. It is not haram for women to pray in the masjid and it certanly isnt haram to ask to pray in it neither.

God, your one of those types of women, always placing the blame amongst your sisters and condoing violence towards women. I dont know who i should be more worried about, brothers like the ones amani described, or sisters like yourself. You should be ashamed of yourself!

They in no way desvered to be beaten up, punched, verbally abused at or anything else. The only people that brought shame were those filthy 'brothers'. The fact that you excusing those guys and acting like they deserved it, makes you just as bad as them.

 

[- Qatada -]

:wasalamex


subhan Allaah.. the way i just read that - it made me shocked how we have so much fitnah from among our own people.. yet we complain about what the kuffar are doing to us.


Allaahu akbar, what the messenger of Allaah (peace be upon him) said is so true.. ignorance will prevail, and we argue against ourselves, yet we want victory against the kuffar.


i think it's to do with them men having ignorance, and also arrogance.. audhubillah.



Allaahu ta'aala a'lam.


:salamext:

 

[Kamilah]

They did NOTHING wrong. It is not haram for women to pray in the masjid and it certanly isnt haram to ask to pray in it neither.

God, your one of those types of women, always placing the blame amongst your sisters and condoing violence towards women. I dont know who i should be more worried about, brothers like the ones amani described, or sisters like yourself. You should be ashamed of yourself!

They in no way desvered to be beaten up, punched, verbally abused at or anything else. The only people that brought shame were those filthy 'brothers'. The fact that you excusing those guys and acting like they deserved it, makes you just as bad as them.

I dont think it's fair that you should judge me and categorize me...:? ffended:

the sisters were in the wrong for being there in the first place FULL STOP!

the men were equally stupid for being violent.

but the sisters were in the wrong, and they are embarassing us muslims even further by publicising it all


no one is denying themof their rights to go to the masjid, read my first post before insulting me

 

[AQSA]

Subhanallah,


Mashallah, i agree with what the sisters are doing 100%......however i think there could have been a better ways for them to have handled the situation and be heard with respect- minimizing the fitnah......for example, contacting the imam and committee of the mosque and make a suggestion for a sisters section, or maybe get a professional thrid party involved to correspond between them and the mosque.

Who knows maybe the sistere already tried this and as a last resort took up that method of distributing leaflets at the jum'ah prayer.

Or maybe it could be that the mosque its self is small, and space is limited. This is often why certain mosques have no sisters section. If there was sufficient space available for both brothers and sisters, why wouldnt they have a sisters section?.......im sure they wouldnt deprive them of it.

Having said all this, this does not give an excuse or justify what them certain brothers did. Disgusting.


And as for them who blame the sisters for "provoking" them, how can provoktive behaviour cause a person to physically attack somone especially a fellow sister?- (thats IF they were provoking them)


Thats just lack of control.... A'udibillah

Allahu Musta'an.

 

[Muezzin]

Subhanallah,


Mashallah, i agree with what the sisters are doing 100%......however i think there could have been a better ways for them to have handled the situation and be heard with respect- minimizing the fitnah......for example, contacting the imam and committee of the mosque and make a suggestion for a sisters section, or maybe get a professional thrid party involved to correspond between them and the mosque.

I agree. This... Blackburn lot don't really sound like the kind of guys you want to hand leaflets out to.

Having said all this, this does not give an excuse or justify what them certain brothers did. Disgusting.

All this pushing, shoving, and even a couple of punches - the sisters could actually press charges if they wanted to.

I don't think the sisters were in the wrong based on what has been presented here. All they're doing is giving out leaflets. Believe me, there's nothing more annoying than coming out of the mosque on a Friday and having a bunch of 'Tasty Rolls Bakery' leaflets shoved in your face, but that doesn't justify physically attacking the people handing them out - and it doesn't mean that they're in the wrong for standing there in the first place.

 

[zash2]

salaam
i think da Kalimah is rite about how da sisters shud have known the men wud b der at dat tyme so it woz wrong for dem 2 b der.. however is doz not give da brothers the opotunity 2 behave lyk dis wid the sisters.. dey cud have ezily sed 2 do this another tym n dat it is wrong 2 have dun it at datt tym insted of thrwoin eggz n creatin violence.. even the old man told dem quietly.. y cudnt one of the brotherd do the same..
i think both r at fault in dat they did not think of der behaviour b4 doin it

 

[zash2]

i also think that the brothers shud fel so much shame for how dey reacted with the sisters. hOW coud they even say "You’re not even Muslims!”. They just came out da musjid and learn bout Islam yet dey cum out of da musjid sayin this. Their own behaviour goz against Islam aswel as da sisters bein ther at dat time knwnin the brother wud b der. However i find dis very shameful after cumin from the musjid 2 pray 2 behave in such a way.. and such as coment of "
Yeah right and we’ll bring our mothers and sisters in bikinis and watch them do a catwalk in the masjid.” How shameful. no one even sugestd such a thing the sisrterz only wanted 2 ask if dey cud pray der..
i find dat very bad.. n givin Islam a bad name if ppl wer 2 react lyk dis

 

[Ghazi]

Seriously this is a disturbing story but I'm not suprised, this is what I hate when people act all pious yet commit major sins while preeching, subhanllah this is like when a revert comes to the masjid everyone's all nice to them through the process of the shahada when they take it not even salaams i've seen this, those brothers should be ashamed and how dare they lay their hands on those sisters, also by their definiton of a muslim that means I aint muslim aswell cause I aint of asain desent, sickness of the heart thats all I can say!

 

[Kamilah]

Seriously this is a disturbing story but I'm not suprised, this is what I hate when people act all pious yet commit major sins while preeching, subhanllah this is like when a revert comes to the masjid everyone's all nice to them through the process of the shahada when they take it not even salaams i've seen this, those brothers should be ashamed and how dare they lay their hands on those sisters, also by their definiton of a muslim that means I aint muslim aswell cause I aint of asain desent, sickness of the heart thats all I can say!

Brother, it was a friday, unfortunately, at this day and age....not all Muslims who attend the masjid on a friday are "pious" a lot of them go for the sake of going because they have to on a friday, doesnt mean to say they are knowledgable/pious/practicing etc... if this incident took place at Fajr time (for example) you could blame the devout/knowledgable "pious preechers" for treating the sisters that way,

from the article if we all LOOK properly, they did not punch the sisters they punched a brother/s.

you may all seem to think that i am defending/justifying the actions of the idiots, but im not, all im saying is the sisters should not have been loitering outside the masjid on a friday afternoon had they not, the idiots woulnt have had the chance to do what they did.

all this is going to do is generate bad press, its embarassing that they are making it out as though they are being denied there rights to pray...the non muslims already think we women are oppressed.

I know nearly all the Masjids in Blackburn, and there is a huge Masjid in the heart of Blackburn

http://www.tauheedulislam.com/


facilities for Muslims women/girls are excellent.

 

[Vaseline]

This is absolutely devastating. Here I am, compiling an essay on gender roles *cough*due tomorrow still have 1700 words to do*cough* and ironically, the sisters are not allowed to pray in the mosque, let alone, got eggs thrown at them.

The main reason why they distributed the leaflets during Jum'ah is because they know that at that time, obviously, there will be a large number of brothers praying therefore they will be able to present the hadiths to a larger group of brothers. This will allow the sisters and the two brothers who were with them to pass on information to a majority of the brothers and hope that many of the brothers would agree with the hadiths they presented to them. That was the whole point of distributing the leaflets during that time. Instead, they got a very rude response when the brothers should have compromised in a more peaceful way.

 

[Vaseline]

Brother, it was a friday, unfortunately, at this day and age....not all Muslims who attend the masjid on a friday are "pious" a lot of them go for the sake of going because they have to on a friday, doesnt mean to say they are knowledgable/pious/practicing etc...

They threw eggs at the Muslimahs. They should know better. And it's really common sense. Being "forced" to go to a Masjid for Jum'ah is really no excuse for their reaction.

all im saying is the sisters should not have been loitering outside the masjid on a friday afternoon had they not, the idiots woulnt have had the chance to do what they did.

loiter - 1. to linger aimlessly or as if aimless in or about a place

They were not lingering "aimlessly". They were trying to make a point and to a majority of the brothers which, unfortunately, ended up as a "disagreement" between both genders [with the exception of the two brothers who were with them].

 

[Skillganon]

I think the approach of sister was not the best approach.
Firstly I noticed,

1. That they knew about the mosque not catering for women.

2. Next they sought after the crowd for direct confrontation. With Leaftlet demanding women right.

Bad idea with brothers getting the wrong impression with so much so callled women rights going on (remember women leading the prayer scandal) and with the world political situation, so maybe these brothers in ignorance/ emotionally reacted in a negative way, but I must admit these s the worse behaviour I heard from these brothers.

I live in the east-end, and their are plenty of these brothers around who hang out in the street, and occasionaly if it can't be ovoided go to Jummah. I seen those behaviour before.

These sisters has only created more fitnah, instead of approaching the imman directly or indirectly by using a known scholar and discussing it with the imman, or making a request to the trustee of the mosque.

We must ovoid these kind of situation, and always find the best mean of approach.

 

[Dawud_uk]

I think we need to look at this from both sides, its a bit silly the sisters hanging around the Masajids at Jumu'ah time when they know there will be men emerging from all directions, them hanging around in full view if the men, is bound to spark a reaction,if they had issues with praying they should have addressed it in a diginified way, nowadays, the sisters take on too much of this western "feminism" rubbish and try and justify it with islam,

its better for a muslimah to pray at home anyway,

in the haramain ( although we are in the most holiest and purest of places) us women.. we are told to move (if we hang about in the area's for men)

so in my opinion the sisters are in the wrong.

by the way, i wouldnt take much notice of mpac...they have a beef with blackburn and mosques ....if anyone watched the documentary they'll know what i mean.

also, I live near Blackburn, i go there all the time, and there are many masaajids, Masha'Allah most brothers are very respectful towards Muslimah's, and there are particular mosques that could have accommodated the sisters for Salaah,


even if they knocked on someone's door, ppl would happily invite them to pray Salaah, after all they are Musaafirs

subhanallah!

how can you excuse the behaviour of these men?
even if they had turned up naked it would not have justified such a reaction.

i would advice they take more brothers with them next time just in case they kick off like this again so they can defend themselves.

such cowards are only brave when they think they can push people around without any retaliation