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’s”Open Mosque”
in Cape Town.
Mr Hargey, a professor at the Muslim
Educational Centre of Oxford in the UK, told
the BBC’s Newsday programme it was time
for a “religious revolution”.
“We are opening the mosque for open-
minded people, not closed-minded
people.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,” he said
He says the mosque will help counter
growing Islamic radicalism. Mr Hargey, who
was born in Cape Town, said the mosque
would welcome people from all genders,
religions and sexual orientations.
s well as leading prayers, women would be
allowed to pray in the same room as men, he
said.
He contrasted this to the current Islamic
practice which sees “women at the back of
the street, back of the hall, out of sight, out
of mind”.
However, members of Cape Town’s large
Muslim community have taken to social
media to criticise the new mosque, with
some labelling him a “heretic” or “non-
believer”.
One group tried to block the opening of the
mosque.

The struggle for gender equality should be separated from homosexuality!