The Muslim Women Demanding a Gender-Neutral Allah


So many things are going on in the field of religion it makes one's head spin. I was amazed to learn of an entire small world of Muslim woman publishing, holding conferences and speaking about a genderless Allah. We are so used to hearing about parts of the Islamic world where girls are not allowed to go to schools. That's not the case everywhere or with everyone.

In the news recently has been rebellion among some Muslim women about required hair covering. From what I understand, the rebel behavior is so widespread religious authorities found it impossible to pound home their powers. We know widespread disregard for laws makes laws quite useless. Prohibition was like that. I think ultimately abortion will be the same.

Women in Islam make the same observation about language as do many in Christianity. That is, when the male gender is used constantly in literature it is easy for males to assume they should be in charge. While it is said the Christian God was quite gender neutral up to the Middle Ages, men took over and hold the upper hand to this day. 

Muslim women make the case Allah is so all encompassing gender is by-passed. Attributes assigned to Allah in the Koran are both what today are seen as "masculine" and "feminine." To attribute only one gender to Allah, then, it not accurate. This identical argument is made against referring to the Christian version of God as only masculine. One Muslim said, "Our language forces God to be misgendered." The real God is both male and female. 

Even with acknowledgement a god represents both genders it is clumsy to use he/she, it or back and forth. There is not an easy solution. In some parts of the world, it is even dangerous to ascribe "she" to Ahah. The small infractions are grounds for violence. 

I remember reading a quote from a Southern Baptist official. He said Southern Baptists can compromise with other denominations of some things. But, one they cannot budge on is women behind the pulpit. 

Conservative Christianity and conservative Islam share one thing: male domination.

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