October 19, 2008	Sunday	Shawwal 19, 1429

OXFORD, Oct 18: An American academic has become the first woman to lead British Muslims in mixed congregational prayers and deliver the Friday sermon, organisers said.

Amina Wadud, who converted to Islam more than 30 years ago, addressed a group of about 15 men and women at the Oxfordshire Masonic Centre in Oxford, central England.

“There is nothing in the Quran or the hadith that forbids me from doing this. The Holy Prophet (PBUH) did it himself during his time, when he assigned a woman to lead a mixed prayer,” Wadud told Saturday’s Guardian newspaper.

“This is not a movement, it is just a reality. It is part of the living tradition of Islam, Islam has not died. It is important British women take up the mantle and fulfil the possibility of prayer leadership.”

Wadud, 56, a professor from Virginia Commonwealth University, was the target of death threats when she led a similar service in New York in 2005, but only a handful of Muslim women protesters demonstrated on Friday.

The sermon marked the start of a two-day conference on Islam and feminism organised by the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford.—AFP