skepticlawyer

For young and old:

A woman is to lead a congregation of men and women in an Islamic prayer service for the first time in the UK.

Muslim scholar Professor Amina Wadud is to give the sermon – or khutbah – at the start of a conference on Islam and feminism at Wolfson College in Oxford.

The move is controversial as the tradition is that imams – always men – hold mixed services. Some believe it is against Islam for a woman to do so.

But organisers heralded it as a ‘leap forward’ for ‘theological destiny’.

Wolfson also has the best Bonfire Night in Oxford (‘Hey, let’s burn a Catholic!’), mainly due to the fact that the college owns an island in the middle of the Cherwell. That’s where the crackers go, and it’s very lively indeed.

Good times.

UPDATE: And the sequel, complete with the Islamic version of Women Who Want to be Women.