Cobus Coetzee
THERE is nothing “new” about the Open Mosque, says Sataar Parker, spokesman for Cape Town’s biggest mosque, Masjid Ul Quds in Athlone.
He was reacting yesterday to Open Mosque founder Taj Hargey’s statement that the new mosque in Lester Road, Wynberg, was the first in South Africa to be gender-equal, non-sectarian and inter-racial.
“There is nothing new about the so-called Open Mosque. We have been open for the past 25 years,” said Parker.
Hargey, a Cape Town-born Oxford academic, said the new mosque would invite women to lead prayers and welcome gay people and non-Muslims.
Parker said Masjid Ul Quds in Gatesville had women in leadership, was open to non-Muslims to attend and had invited people from other faiths to address its Friday sermons.
“We are also a non-aligned mosque and welcome everyone.”
Asked about gay people who attended the mosque, Parker said “we do not stop people at the door and ask them all these questions”.
“We welcome everyone to God’s house. Whatever people do is between them and their own conscience,” he said.
Parker said Hargey’s criticism of the Muslim Judicial Council was “rather unfortunate”.
“The description that Hargey used and the attributes he ascribed to the MJC was rather unfortunate.”
Hargey has faced severe criticism from local Muslims ahead of the Open Mosque’s first prayers to be led on Friday.
News of his plan has unleashed a storm on WhatsApp and other social media, with some messages calling the mosque a “gay temple” and others decrying its founder as a “heretic” and a “non-believer”.
He said the MJC was “unelected, non-transparent and self-styled” and had no authority over him or the mosque.
“I think the reason for the strong reaction to the mosque was because the clergy like the MJC do not want to be challenged on the theological monopoly they have,” he said.
Hargey said the mosque would welcome Sunni and Shia Muslims at the same service. Mosques aligned to the MJC do not allow Shiah to attend their prayers.
He has threatened to take legal action against anyone calling him a “heretic” and a “homosexual”.
The Open Mosque would follow the Qur’an and promote gender equality – this meant women would enter and take part in prayers and in running the mosque, Hargey said.
Earlier’ Riad Fataar, MJC deputy president, told the Voice of the Cape the council was investigating the establishment of the mosque.
The MJC could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Shafiq Morton, Cape Town-born and listed by Time magazine as one of the most influential Muslims in the world, told Cape Times the Open Mosque was “a contradiction in terms”.
“By their very nature mosques are meant to be havens for men and women alike,” he said.
“A worshipper goes to a mosque to worship God as a Muslim, not as a hyphenated identity, sexual or otherwise.”