DOHA - An influential hardline Muslim cleric has condemned a woman professor who led an Islamic prayer service in New York, saying Islam bans women from doing so unless the congregation is made up solely of women.
All Islamic schools "agree that women do not lead men in (performing) religious duties," Qatar-based Sheikh Yussef al-Qaradawi, a prominent member of the Muslim Brotherhood, said in a fatwa, or religious edict, published in the local press.
But women may lead prayers attended by women only, as the hadeeth, or Prophet Mohammed's sayings, indicate, the Egyptian-born scholar said.
"One wishes our sisters who are enthusiastic about women rights would revive the practice of women leading women in prayers, instead of coming up with the heresy of women leading men in prayers," he said.
Prayer in Islam "features getting up, sitting down and kneeling ... It is not befitting for a woman to make these movements in the presence of men when worshipping requires a peaceful mind and concentration on communicating with God," Qaradawi said.
Qaradawi is known for his support for Palestinian suicide bombers and has been banned from the United States since 1999.
Around 150 Muslims, the majority of them women, turned up in New York on Friday for the special prayers, where the role traditionally played by a male imam was taken by Amina Wadud, a professor of Islamic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Wadud led the service despite condemnation from Muslim religious leaders and death threats.
The service, claimed by organizers to be the first led by a woman, was held at Synod House at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan.
Three local mosques had refused to act as a venue and plans to hold the service in an art gallery were shelved following a bomb threat.
In her sermon, Wadud stressed the theme of the unity of God and creation in Islam and applied it to the concept of race and gender equality.
03/19/2005 15:15 GMT