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LEAD-IN BY HOST: In the West, Islam is often portrayed as a misogynistic and patriarchal religion. Over the last half century, however, new strains of so-called "progressive" thought have emerged which question why the application of Islam has diverged from the ideal theory of the religion, laid out in the Islamic holy text, the Qur'an. Shalini Tripathi has this interview with Amina Wadud, the first woman to write an interpretive reading of the Qur'an in the first part of a KPFT News series dealing with Islam and women. INTERVIEW: In a recent lecture at the Baker Institute, Amina Wadud, a professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University discussed her theory that although the Qur'an advocates equality between men and women, historically, Islam has been interpreted using paternalistic structures and implementation, which has led to the oppression of women in practice. I was curious to know how people respond to her work. Tripathi: How were you received as a convert, as progressive a progressive woman Muslim scholar, who also happened to be an African American? Wadud: "And a female" Tripathi: …And a female. How do people take you coming in and expressing these ideas about Islam? Wadud: "Well, interestingly enough, it is because my opinions are not mainstream that people disagree with me. Once they disagree with me they will use anything they can to justify their disagreement. The fact that being female upsets a lot of people because I'm talking about gender, and I'm not talking about permission to being equal from men, but that I'm already equal from God. It upsets a lot of people because I'm not talking about mainstream." Tripathi: Who do you find amongst your biggest supporters? Wadud: "Well I find it along gender lines, mostly among Muslim women, but also along age lines. Somewhere in the 20 to 30-year age [range] is the strongest support. I also find less of a gender divide in terms of support in the African American community. They are very proud to have an African American that has that much scholarship, and learning, training in Islam. Some women and men are both equally … but the men don't like the gender critiques, especially in the practical sense of it. But they, you know, I have a great deal of admiration from the African-American community for being a scholar of Islam, and being recognized worldwide for being a scholar of Islam. And my origins are also African-American like theirs, so I have a nice support across genders in the African-American community. And I have, you know, the strongest support from women all over the world, especially in the ages of 20 to 30." Dr. Wadud also discussed her experiences with American Muslims versus those from other countries. Tripathi:: You were saying that America tends to be more conservative, the Islamic community here. Did you mean that amongst immigrant communities? Wadud: "Immigrant Muslim communities, and the majority of African-American communities, which are about 44 percent of all Muslims in America. The only communities that I found as a collective that are not so conservative are the Susi [sic?] Muslim communities. But the immigrant Muslim communities that are not Susi and the African-America Muslim communities are pretty conservative." Tripathi: How so? What do you mean? Wadud: "They tend to have very rigid formulas of prayer and conversation. I guess they're conservative in terms of gender of gender, more so. There are variations of the ways in which men and women are divided, but there is a tendency to have more division in the mosque than in any other aspect of our lives as Americans, including American Muslims." Tripathi: In your travels to other Islamic countries, what are the most striking differences that you see amongst women? Wadud: "I think that the biggest difference I've experienced is that in general in Muslim countries people know more, including women, they know more about Islam and Islamic history and Islamic thought. So it's a lot easier for me to talk about my particular work in gender, than it is in America. The lay person here seems to have less general information." Shalini Tripathi, KPFT News, Houston. E-mail Shalini Tripathi at shalini_tripathi@att.net . This interview was broadcast on April 6, 2003.