Canadian-born Convert Heads Islamic Group

[August1991]

A Canadian-born convert who believes religious authority has been used to suppress women and that imams need female counterparts is the first female president of North America's largest and oldest Muslim organization.

Ingrid Mattson, 43, has been elected to lead the Islamic Society of North America, based in Plainfield, Ind.

The professor of Islamic studies and Christian-Muslim relations at Connecticut's Hartford Seminary says North American society has placed too much importance on the position of imam.

"It has become a problem," she said in a phone interview. "It has started to squeeze women out of their traditional role as spiritual leaders parallel to men."

In an online article, she urges women to be involved in Muslim leadership.

Toronto Star

Here is a link to the organization which she will lead.

Maybe hers is a laudable effort to modernize Islam, but I wonder about her credibility among Muslims - and why is she wearing a scarf? (I think about singing nuns in habits in the 1960s trying to be relevant.)

I suspect The Toronto Star is trying to reach out, and this professor seems to be trying to reach out too. But then I find this quote in a PBS interview about the Danish cartoons:

RAY SUAREZ: So, Professor, how do you explain in manner and degree the difference in this latest reaction with the cartoons that started out in the Danish newspaper?

INGRID MATTSON: Well, I think it's helpful to look at which Muslim populations reacted in an extreme manner and which Muslim populations did not. If you look at the Muslim population in the United States, generally they've engaged in -- engaged this issue through discussion, through writing because this is a Muslim population that feels comfortable in the society economically, socially; we don't feel oppressed. We feel that we have avenues through which we can express our opinion.

The reality in many of these countries is that is not the situation. And many of these Muslim populations have felt really the pressure of discriminatory political legislation in recent years, and also there's a sense, you know, to some degree that there is some hypocrisy on the people who are upholding the idea of free speech in Europe at the same time in recent years have severely limited the ability of many of these Muslim minority populations to express themselves in the ways that are meaningful to them. So I think it's really the political dynamic that can help us understand the different reactions to this situation.

Link

"We don't feel oppressed." Huh?

There were demos in London England. The original protests took place in Denmark. There were riots in Syria and Lebanon. Is she saying that Denmark and the UK have "discriminatory political legislation"? What about Syria and Lebanon?

"There is some hypocrisy on the people who are upholding the idea of free speech in Europe." What would the ACLU say? Did she say that with the intent to build bridges?

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I think that as a Muslim who wants to live in a western pluralist society, the onus is on her to explain how she can willingly live surrounded by images objectionable to her beliefs. She should explain this to her fellow Muslims rather than trying to explain to Westerners their supposed hypocrisy in defending free speech.

In simple terms, this woman doesn't get it and like too many Muslims in the world, she's clueless.

[M.Dancer]

I think that what Islam in general needs is a few swift kicks in the rump, propelling it towards the 21st century. A woman leading what most believe is a highly patriachial religion is a start.

That and the fact she has wonderfully sensual full lips.....gives her my vote