{"id":49431,"date":"2014-09-20T09:12:41","date_gmt":"2014-09-20T09:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=49431"},"modified":"2014-09-20T07:14:56","modified_gmt":"2014-09-20T07:14:56","slug":"cape-town-pro-gay-mosque-opens-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=49431","title":{"rendered":"Cape Town pro-gay mosque opens in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"story_continues_1\">A Muslim academic has opened a gay-friendly mosque in South Africa, despite receiving death threats and fierce criticism from parts of the local Muslim community.<\/p>\n<p>Women will also be allowed to lead prayers at Taj Hargey&#8217;s &#8220;Open Mosque&#8221; in Cape Town.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are opening the mosque for open-minded people, not closed-minded people,&#8221; Mr Hargey told the BBC.<\/p>\n<p>He says the mosque will help counter growing Islamic radicalism.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Hargey, a professor at the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford in the UK, told the BBC&#8217;s Newsday programme it was time for a &#8220;religious revolution&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In South Africa 20 years ago, there was a peaceful revolution changing from apartheid to democracy and we need to have a similar development in the area of religion,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Taj Hargey\" src=\"http:\/\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/77696000\/jpg\/_77696811_bbctajhargey7887.jpg\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" \/>Taj Hargey denies going against Muslim teaching<\/div>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A woman listens to the sermon during the opening of the Open Mosque, on September 19, 2014 in Wynberg, Cape Town.\" src=\"http:\/\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/77705000\/jpg\/_77705441_63b00ac5-193c-4b59-973e-117cebfb7dfe.jpg\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" \/>Women will be allowed to preach and pray alongside men<\/div>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A Muslim man (R) argues with people going to the opening of the Open Mosque, on September 19, 2014 in Wynberg, Cape Town.\" src=\"http:\/\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/77705000\/jpg\/_77705443_0d51e2a9-ba9d-4c83-81e2-c3f82c55aff3.jpg\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" \/>Some Muslim groups are opposed to the mosque<\/div>\n<p>Mr Hargey, who was born in Cape Town, said the mosque would welcome people from all genders, religions and sexual orientations.<\/p>\n<p>As well as leading prayers, women would be allowed to pray in the same room as men, he said.<\/p>\n<p>He contrasted this to the current Islamic practice which sees &#8220;women at the back of the street, back of the hall, out of sight, out of mind&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>However, members of Cape Town&#8217;s large Muslim community have taken to social media to criticise the new mosque, with some labelling him a &#8220;heretic&#8221; or &#8220;non-believer&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>One group tried to block the opening of the mosque.<\/p>\n<p>South Africa&#8217;s umbrella body for Islamic groups, the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC), says it is investigating the new mosque and has noted concerns raised in the community.<\/p>\n<p>In his sermon Mr Hargey condemned the increasing hatred in the world between Muslims and Christians and blamed it on &#8220;warped theology&#8221;, reports AFP news agency.<\/p>\n<p>When asked about his qualifications as a religious leader he said: &#8220;I have a PhD in Islamic studies from Oxford University, unlike my opponents who went to some donkey college in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He told the BBC that he wanted to revive &#8220;the original mosque of the Prophet Muhammad, where there were no barriers&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This idea of female invisibility is an innovation that came after Muhammad, unfortunately it has become entrenched,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Muslim academic has opened a gay-friendly mosque in South Africa, despite receiving death threats and fierce criticism from parts of the local Muslim community. Women will also be allowed to lead prayers at Taj Hargey&#8217;s &#8220;Open Mosque&#8221; in Cape Town. &#8220;We are opening the mosque for open-minded people, not closed-minded people,&#8221; Mr Hargey told [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":49432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38,14],"class_list":["post-49431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-palaver-newspaper","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}