First Scandinavian women-led mosque opens in Denmark

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Monday 15 Feb 2016 - 14:16 Makkah mean time-6-5-1437 Image from Reuter. Copenhagen (IINA) - Scandinavia’s first female-led mosque has opened on Friday in Copenhagen, capital of Denmark, in a bid to furthern strengthen  debate and dialogue among women, its founder says, UAE's The National newspaper reported. Sherin Khankan, born in Denmark to a Syrian father and a Finnish mother, said that while all activities at the Mariam mosque except Friday prayers would be open to both men and women, and the imam would be female. “We have normalized patriarchal structures in our religious institutions. Not just in Islam, but also within Judaism, Christianity, and other religions. And we would like to challenge that,” she said. Khankan, who is a well-known commentator and author in Denmark, said there was “an Islamic tradition allowing women to be imams” and that most of the criticism was based on ignorance. Similar projects by Muslim women exist in several other countries, including the United States, Canada and Germany. Imam Waseem Hussein, chairman of one of Copenhagen’s biggest mosques, questioned whether there was a need for the project. “Should we also make a mosque only for men? Then there would certainly be an outcry among the Danish population,” he told Denmark’s Politiken newspaper. A Danish newspaper report wrongly claimed that the location of the mosque has been kept secret due to security concerns. “We haven’t received any threats whatsoever,” Khankan said, adding that she wanted to collaborate “with everyone” within the Muslim community, and that the project was not about judging or excluding anybody. The first Friday prayer has yet to be held as another 8 female imams, in addition to the two currently involved, have to be found. “It’s a big responsibility and we all work as volunteers,” she said. The long-standing political influence of the anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party (DPP), as well as the row over Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) cartoons that led to deadly protests in Muslim countries, have strained relations between Denmark’s largest religious minority and the majority population. Denmark’s largest purpose-built mosque, including the country’s first minaret, opened in 2014 in a gritty district of northwestern Copenhagen after receiving a 150 million kroner (Dh64.2m) endowment from Qatar. SM/IINA