San Francisco, USA - San Francisco's largest mosque -- a refuge for more than 400 Muslims -- has taken the revolutionary step of removing the 8-foot wall separating male and female worshipers.
No other Bay Area immigrant mosque has torn down such a barrier, several Muslim leaders said, and the move is rare in the United States.
But leaders at the Islamic Society of San Francisco, citing the opinions of scholars, say Islam provides no justification for the partitions that separate men and women in most immigrant mosques around the country.
Even with the wall gone, however, divisions remain.
Some men who worship at the mosque say the visible presence of women invites "temptation." And while many women see the wall's removal as liberation, others feel it shattered the privacy essential for prayer.
Several women still refuse to attend.
"There's this image of Muslim men putting women behind a wall, behind a veil," said Sevim Kalyoncu, 31, a mosque member who was surprised that not all women wanted the wall removed, as she did. "I realized that the women were choosing to pray behind a barrier. They wanted privacy from men."
The controversy offers a glimpse into the unusual position of Islam in America, where Muslims from many varied cultures compete for their traditions to be followed. American Muslims are so diverse that many say no place has as broad an array outside of Mecca during the hajj, the pilgrimage required of all able Muslims at least once in their lifetime.
Many mosques function as gathering places for a particular ethnic community. Some members say the familiar comfort of shared customs encourages religious observance.
The Islamic Society intentionally courts all ethnicities and uses English-language sermons to unify members; its board even fired its former imam in 2001 for what board members said were polarizing sermons.
Mosques like to foster a distinctly American Islam and, some believe, a truer Islam. Traditions long unquestioned in faraway lands are challenged in the United States by people who lack the same sentimental attachments.