The Mourchidat

[Blessed]

Islam's pioneering women priests

[JUSTICE]

its a good sign, nothing wrong with having woman as emams, they can perform all the duties of male emams except leading prayers.

[Pujah]

I would like to know what those duties entail? Does this mean that the women priest will give khudba on Fridays and Eid days and sit in front of men & women to discuss religious issues facing the umma?

[Blessed]

^NO!

 

"The Morshidat will be in charge of leading religious discussions, give lessons in Islam, give moral support to people in difficulty and guide the faithful towards a tolerant Islam," she added.

AlJazeera Article:

 

 

Morocco has just graduated its first team of women preachers to be deployed as a vanguard in its fight against any slide towards Islamic extremism.

 

The idea took off after the May, 2003 attacks in Casablanca

 

 

 

"This is a rare experiment in the Muslim world," proudly stated Muhammad Mahfudh, director of the centre attached to the Islamic affairs ministry that trained this first class of 50 women.

 

Ministry spokesman Hamid Rono said it was the "first (of its kind) in the Islamic world".

 

This pioneer group of Murshidat, or guides, who finished a 12-month course in early April, were trained to "accompany and orient" Muslim faithful, notably in prisons, hospitals and schools, said Mahfudh.

 

They will earn a salary of 5,000 dirhams ($560) a month.

 

Samira Marzouk, in her 30s like most of the others, exclaims how "proud" she is to be part of this first group.

 

She sees their mission as one to "fill in the gaps that prevent a solid framework for religion".

 

"We are going to teach a tolerant Islam by focussing on the underprivileged classes."

 

 

"The Morshidat will be in charge of leading religious discussions, give lessons in Islam, give moral support to people in difficulty and guide the faithful towards a tolerant Islam"

 

Samira Marzouk,

a pioneer Murshida, or guide

 

 

They will notably work with women and children in poor ghettoes seen as fertile ground for extremist recruiters.

 

The idea of the Murshidat, spearheaded by King Mohammed VI and the government, took off after Islamic extremist attacks in the Casablanca on May 16, 2003 claimed 45 lives and left dozens of others wounded.

 

The King who had already started reshaping religious structures to rein in any extremist drift in his North African country, which borders Algeria where violence between government forces and armed Islamic extremists has caused more than 150,000 deaths since 1992.

 

New urgency

 

But the synchronised suicide bomb attacks that struck Jewish and foreign targets gave new urgency to the initiative.

 

More than 2,000 people were arrested in vast police sweeps after the May bombings as the king pledged that the attacks would be the last to rock Morocco.

 

Investigators concluded that those behind the incident had indeed sought recruits in the teeming slums around Casablanca, the kingdom's biggest city.

 

Marzuk, with a diploma in Arab literature who said she knew the Quran by heart, was quick to specify she was "not going to take the place of an imam".

 

"The imamate in Islam is restricted solely to men who are apt at leading prayers, notably those on Friday," she said.

 

Tolerant Islam

 

"The Morshidat will be in charge of leading religious discussions, give lessons in Islam, give moral support to people in difficulty and guide the faithful towards a tolerant Islam," she added.

 

Another graduate, Laila Faris, a lively young woman who holds a degree in Islamic studies, said she saw the Murshidat's role as promoting "the true face of Islam".

 

"We will help attenuate any drift towards Islamic extremism," she said, stressing that "an overall approach is needed to dealing with radical Islam".

 

During the year-long course, the curriculum ranged from Islamic studies to psychology, sociology, computer skills, economy, law and business management.

 

 

"We will help attenuate any drift towards Islamic extremism... an overall approach is needed to dealing with radical Islam"

 

Laila Faris, another pioneering Murshida

 

 

Sports was the only subject dropped from the women preachers' training because the schedule was just too tight," regretted Mahfudh, who hopes to include it for the second batch of Murshidat trainees, whose applications are now being accepted.

 

For the Islamic affairs minister, Ahmed Taoufiq, the Murshidat will also "instruct women on their basis religious duties".

 

He said religious radicalism was not part of Morocco's culture "but you can never prevent evil one hundred percent".

 

Divided

 

Morocco's Islamic fundamentalists are divided over the initiative.

 

For one, Islamist deputy Mustafa Ramid with the Islamist Justice and Development party (PJD), the main opposition group with 43 seats in the 325-member parliament, the Murshidat is a "positive" development.

 

"I see nothing more to say about this initiative because in Islam, men and women are equal," he said, pointing to Egypt which has "eminent women scholars of Islam".

 

But the head of the youth group in Morocco's most radical Islamic fundamentalist association, Al-Adl Wal-Ihssane (Justice and Welfare), forecast it would have no effect on the ground.

 

"The power behind this initiative is the same as the one that commits acts contrary to Islam, notably degrading moral values," said Hasan Bennajih, whose group is part of an Islamist movement that preaches non-violence and is unrecognized by authorities, but still influential.

 

"This initiative, then, will only have a limited impact on the population," said Hasan Bennajih.

[UK_ROSE]

Rubish!! This only opens a door to the Fitnah. How is a woman sitting infront of 1000's men prevent terorrisem?? Please explain that to me?

 

The men would be looking at the mafatin and beauty of a woman rather than tha hadeeth and khutba she is preaching!!

 

May allah save us from all fitna,

[Modesty]

This is clearly a fight against Islam. They want women to lead friday prayers now to men! This is a clear wrong. Women can be imams but to other women.

[Valenteenah.]

*Sigh*

[Blessed]

^Xaa jira?

 

Modesty and Rose.

 

Please read the articles before you post.

[Taliban]

This must be good news for moderate, liberal and progressive Muslims.

[JUSTICE]

don't you people watch TV, don't you see women who preach.

There is this program on the Egyptian satellite channel where a woman emam ansewrs women quetions as in Fiqh-Al-Maraa, so what happenned in Morroco is not new its been going on for years.

[Jacpher]

"If you take the idea in the abstract, I must say that it's an excellent idea, because it gives an opportunity for women to participate in an area that has been monopolised by men," he said.

 

"But if you look a little deeper and analyse the motives, you will find out that it is part of a strategy adopted by the regime to control the religious field and not to leave that field open for their opponents - the Islamists. So they want to control that area and convey their official view of Islam."

Sums it all up.

 

I’ve seen a documentary about this last year on PBS’s Wide Angle Class of 2006 and I think it’s a good initiative for the government to keep taps on religious extremism. It does little for women and society but much more for the regime. It’s a government initiative that’s trying to avoid the real question of the causes of extremism & terrorism but wants to keep Islamists out of the religious discussion. I highly doubt if these remarkable murshidat women are independent to do their own research, lectures and ruling without any interference of Islamic Religious Minister of Morocco. I’d say it brings opportunity and advancement for women but gives more control to the king to deny religious freedom by using the morshadaat method.

[Blessed]

^You have a point there. The problem with these governments is that they fail to acknowledge their own role in creating angry, radical youths.

 

 

Justice

 

Their arguement is against female imaams....

 

 

Originally posted by Taliban:

This must be good news for moderate, liberal and progressive Muslims.

How about Muslims of the other variety, the traditional, conservative ......

 

I’m interested in different perspectives.

[hodman]

^^ well said I was also wondering what Taliban has to say

[sheherazade]

^

[Taliban]

Originally posted by Kimiya:

How about Muslims of the other variety, the traditional, conservative ......

 

I’m interested in different perspectives.

Well, according to the report, these women priests or Mourchidat are set to promote a more liberal brand of Islam. Priest in the sense of what applies to Western priests or priesthood, because the term or function of priest doesn't exist in Islam. A more liberal brand of Islam in the sense of a new sect or cult that satisfies the West, with the aim of pacifying radicals, extremists, iwm. This is nothing more than a local program funded by the West to combat Islamic radicalism, extremism, iwm. Has the program a chance of success? Let's just say to it; Good luck.