The Women's Mosque of America: Authority and Community in US Islam by Tazeen M. Ali (review)

Reviewed by: The Women's Mosque of America: Authority and Community in US Islam by Tazeen M. Ali Ayesha Butt Tazeen M. Ali, The Women's Mosque of America: Authority and Community in US Islam ( New York: New York University Press, 2022) Tazeen Ali's book, The Women's Mosque of America, discusses a women-led mosque in Los Angeles and the women who created the mosque—a safe space for themselves outside of the otherwise Islamophobic and misogynistic world. Her ethnographic research showcases how American Muslim women navigate this cultural and political landscape and find their place within the US. Instead of attending a traditional mosque that is rooted in patriarchy, sometimes-misogyny, Arabic language expertise, and formal Islamic credentials, the Women's Mosque of America (WMA) attracts women who are interested in "women's right to lead prayer, engage English translations to interpret Qur'an, and center women's experiences and social justice issues in exegesis, as well as forge multiracial and intraracial and interfaith solidarity" (9). The ability of the WMA to cater to the changing needs of American Muslim women is both timely and overdue. The mosque offers solutions to the needs that American Muslim women have faced for decades now, such as the inability to lead prayer in a mixed-gender setting. WMA challenges orthodox conceptions of "Islam" and "religion" by offering women the platform to engage in Qur'anic exegesis and to use their experiences as a source of knowledge. Ali's analysis critiques common Muslim assumptions about religious authority and shows how End Page 256 the WMA "offers us an alternative to hegemonic models of authority that are rooted in maleness, Arabic language expertise, and formal Islamic credentials" (9). Without men, women take on all the following roles: khateebahs (female Friday sermon leader), board members, volunteers, and congregants. These women do not have traditional credentials from the "sacred East," but they have dynamic interactions with each other that are multi-dimensional, formal and informal. By having women play such key roles, the WMA offers an insight to the potential of what a functional and inclusive American Muslim mosque looks like in the American religious landscape, one that functions outside of what is traditionally accepted. In chapter one, Ali discusses Friday prayer at the WMA. She discusses the media praise as well as some of the criticism WMA faced from the Muslim community. Ali's focus is not just on authority but how the "WMA is invested in ritual leadership as only one avenue among many others" (28). Her discussion of the four schools of Islamic thought and their legal diversity among WMA's khateebahs and congregants is especially important as it is representative of the myriad of views that exist in North America. Within her discussion, she investigates whether women can lead prayer which is the first question anyone from the mainstream Muslim population would raise. In the second chapter, Ali argues that the WMA enables American Muslim women to cultivate interpretive authority. These women use both traditional and non-traditional methods to grapple with the application of Islam in their lives in the US. By allowing the khateebah to employ different methods, and by rotating khateebahs, the WMA provides opportunities for these women to be given authority similar to khateebahs of the past. WMA also provides a space, voice, and authority to non-Arab Muslims, such as Black Muslims, who otherwise are marginalized in racially diverse Muslim religious communities. All of this shows the trajectory of American Islam, which is different from narratives about traditional Islam, as it prioritizes personal agency in interpreting texts and thereby enables women's interpretive authority. It is also clear that the women of the WMA think of their community as doing something different—and better. Chapter three discusses how WMA khateebahs are more authoritative on issues of motherhood or gendered violence in comparison to men. Women's lived experiences are important criteria and sources for their authority. This diverges from the mainstream Sunni Islamic tradition in which men speak on women's issues. WMA validates women's experiences and makes it critical to incorporate personal experiences rather than formal religious credentials into the khutbah. This factor...