Side Entrance

aabbiidd:

“The only real rest comes
when you’re alone with
God.” -Rumi

Jamie Masjid Ghausia.
Multan, Pakistan. (Instagram: aabbiidd)

(via sufiness)

muslimwomeninhistory:

a chapter titled “A Strategic Plan to Defeat Radical Islam,” written by Dr. Tawfik Hamid, a self-described former Islamic extremist and fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, contains a number of bizarre prescriptions for how to defeat terrorism, few of which appear to be supported by empirical evidence

Among Hamid’s claims are that support for militancy is primarily a product of sexual deprivation and that terrorism bears relation to religious dress. His ideas for combating terrorism thus include “addressing the factors underlying [sexual] deprivation” among young men, as well as “weakening the hijab phenomenon.” Hamid further claims that, along with fundamentalist ideology, the “hijab contribute[s] to the idea of passive terrorism” and represents an implicit refusal to “speak against or actively resist terrorism.”

Janazah bil Ghaib (funeral in absentia) for Muslims who passed away while enslaved in the Americas at ADAMS Center in Virginia. Photo by Hena Zuberi.

Aslam Abdullah

“Sometimes, it’s not the men who are the problem.” Ailin Abdullah, on the Khadija Centre in Stockholm, Sweden.

Sr. Um Siraj delivering the pre-khutba lecture to women congregants at the Orland Park Prayer Center in Illinois.

“One of the first stops after arriving in Miami today was a small, local mosque. Very tidy, well-maintained. Navigating the maze to find the sisters’ entrance was a challenge, though. And discovering the sisters’ section completely partitioned off? Disappointing to say the least.” - Zainab Chaudry on the Muslim Communities Association in Miami, Florida.

“i come to the masjid to pray so no i don’t want your politics, you leave that and your other prided cloaks and shoes outside. and no i don’t need fancy walls and impeccable interior designs to get my juices flowing, i can pray on the cement or on grass or in a damn fitting room at the mall with rihanna’s voice on the speaker above me and find more solace than i do in some of these masjids. the woman section of this main prayer hall was built to match the egos of its builders, taking away any reason why you’d want to pray in this space in the first place. if you’re a woman and want to see any of the architecture you’d have to break your neck and ultimately distract yourself from your prayer in the first place, it’s just not right. i don’t need coddling and cuteness, i don’t want you to win for me. i’m tired and i just want space. you get space but you never had to ask for it or were questioned for it, and that’s cool, i’m not mad at you for it. it’s not a competition for equality, just always a dirty race for space”

Poem and photo by Amarra Ghani, The Islamic Center, in Washington, DC

“I love visiting mosques in different countries. I especially loved the inclusiveness of the mosques in Senegal. Women’s spaces weren’t cramped or hidden in the basement as I witnessed in some mosques in the UK. Never mind that my friends and I were usually the only women under 40 in the mosques that we visited!” - Fatima Siwaju 

Masijid Sultan Abdel Majeed is a women-only mosque in Byblos, Lebanon. Photos by Hasnae El-Kadiri