By MICHAEL SCHENKLER

Being a woman isn’t easy.

Just ask Trib reporter Angela Montefinise.

Angela, our freshman reporter, received the assignment to cover the commencement of Ramadan at the Imam Al-Khoei Islamic Center. They had invited the press for a special inter-faith prayer service for the victims of the terrorist attacks and for world peace.

Wearing a heavy scarf and relegated to the back of the Imam Al-Khoei Islamic Center in Richmond Hill during prayer services, Trib reporter Angela Montefinise felt "out of place." Overcoming differences is one of the greatest challenges that faces us as eastern cultures and religions move into our modern world. photo: Angela Montefinise

The invitation read, "The Center extends a very cordial invitation to your press representative to the service." Queens being the culturally diverse home to many Muslims, Ramadan, being their most devout holiday and the Tribune, being Queens’ largest newspaper, we thought it more than appropriate that we cover it.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic year. The Qur’an ordains it as the holy month of fasting for all adult Muslims. Ramadan was designated for the fast to cultivate piety because it was the month during which Muhammad received the first of the Qur’an’s revelations.

I interviewed Angela to find out how a 20-something American woman reacted to experiencing Islam.

Angela arrived at her first visit ever inside the Mosque, on the service road of the Van Wyck Expressway at the designated time. She explained, "Everyone seemed extremely friendly and nice." Ali Mirza, the man who extended the invitation, greeted her and thanked her for coming. Ang was introduced to a number of men there, each shook her hand and treated her "like an equal," according to our trusty scribe.

She explains, "The Imam especially was friendly towards me, happy that I was taking an interest in his religion."

After exchanging greetings, Mirza led her to the "hall," or the ceremonial room where the event was going to take place. He politely asked Angela to take off her shoes, as is the way of a mosque. As she complied, he asked her to wear a scarf over her head. Angela described the scarf as "heavy, hot, and uncomfortable." She complained it also obscured her peripheral vision, making it difficult to observe the entire ceremony.

Perhaps Angela had been watching a bit too much of the tales of Afghani oppressed Muslim women on CNN, but she, in her description of her encounter, reacted not as the skilled observer I know, but with offense.

"More importantly," Angela said, "I believe it [wearing the scarf] symbolizes the Muslim religion’s clear belief in the inferiority of women, who are so ‘unpure’ that they can’t show their hair or faces to men. That was the worst part of all. Still, I wore the scarf, because it was the only way they’d let me sit in the hall with the men."

Angela was the only woman in the room. She explained that the Muslim women who wanted to participate in the ceremony were "shuffled into a large cubicle within the hall, so they couldn’t see the men and vice versa." From what she saw the women were covered from head to toe in cloth.

"They tip-toed in and out of the hall, frightened that they would disturb the men," Angela said.

She felt that she received unwelcome and strange looks from the men worshiping. She was extremely uncomfortable. However, her biggest complaint was that she was asked to stay in the back of the hall. She could take pictures . . . but from the back. The other reporter there – a male – was allowed to take photos anywhere he wanted. Angela griped, "He went to the front, to the side, and to the back. Meanwhile, when I got up to walk to a different spot in the back of the room, people looked at me strangely."

Finally, one of the PR guys asked if she wanted a photo shot at the front, and he went and took it. Angela complained, "I had to sit in the back and wait like a helpless nobody. It was truly a terrible feeling. I tried to get up and go to the front to take some shots, sure that no one would stop me, but they did. They were extremely polite and nice, but they did stop me." At the end of the ceremony, a member of the congregation thanked the Queens Tribune for sending a representative. They tried to be gracious, but Ang complained, "I truly felt out of place and singled out."

The most disturbing thing for her, however, was that there were children from the mosque school there — "little boys who are learning with every ceremony that a woman’s place is behind a cubicle or under a scarf." They looked at Angela just as strangely as any of the men did. She felt that she was on display and an object of resentment.

Angela concluded, "I know this is their religion, and I really have no right judging it, but as a woman, I found their practices degrading and archaic."

Angela vented but recognized that the Muslim women living in the United States are practicing their religion by choice.

Like any other religion, there are those that find the practices oppressive and leave the organized church or modify the way they practice it. The women who, according to Angela, "were shuffled into a large cubicle . . .covered from head to toe in cloth," chose to participate. Unlike the horrid pictures of Taliban oppressed Afghani women, no brutal regime forced them to follow their men or dress in such a manner.

Strange to Angela, a modern 20- something American, born and raised in New York?

You bet! Strange to most of us!

For regular readers of this column, you have already concluded that organized religion has never been high on this writer’s list of positive forces. However, we all must recognize that to many, religion offers comfort, solace, motivation and in many cases, a reason for living. Each person must tackle his own relationship with god (or is it God or G-d?) and find his or her own peace.

I find it no easier to come to grips with the restrictive practices of the Orthodox Jews than I do with the orthodoxy that Angela experienced. However, if they’re happy, I need not approve or judge — it’s all right with me.

The more I’ve read of the Qur’an, the more questions I have. I have found parts of the book (or electronic version) filled with negatives not positives — hate not love.

I had challenged the words I read and the classes of people Islam defines — Muslims, People of the Book, infidels. (Gee, I thought, how do Hindus and Buddhists react to the teachings of Mohammad? )

Then, on Bill Maher’s "Politically Incorrect," ABC-TV’s irreverent late night talk show — one of my favorite TV diversions — I heard Christian super-reverend Robert Schuller explain that one must read the Bible with great care.

The television evangelist’s words were creative and on target, but the hour was late and I can only recall the message, not the eloquence with which it was delivered. Schuller explained that he taught people to read the Bible by selecting the parts that were good for them. He likened his approach to his Bible to Muslim’s approach to the Qur’an . . . there are the good parts that you chose to follow.

Clearly, the debate shall continue as the teachings of Islam come under the scrutiny of the west.

Islam has been face to face with modernity in this country for years with no cause for concern. We have indeed peacefully coexisted with children of all gods or no gods. Isn’t that what our nation is all about?

The greater challenge, however, seems to be when western culture and modernity come face to face with the teachings of extremists in a land of poverty and ignorance which is still existing in a time and culture we left behind long before our nation was born.

Do we use our might and money to promote our ways?

Do we have a right to force them to change?

Angela, maybe they’re happy. Maybe for them, it’s right.

In Case You’re Keeping Score

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Not4Publication.com by Dom Nunziato

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Michael Schenkler can be reached at: MSchenkler@queenspress.com