The imam who took on the 'Muslim McCarthyists'

While the talibans flog women in tribal areas, this man in London invites them to lead the prayers ~~t

Taj Hargey was in an ebullient mood as he drank a cup of steaming hot chocolate in a coffee shop opposite the High Court yesterday morning. "Today is a great day for British Islam," he declared triumphantly. "Liberal, progressive Muslims have finally won a battle against the extremists that dominate the Muslim establishment in Britain."

Dr Hargey, a clean-shaven imam from Oxford who describes himself as a "thorn in the side of the Muslim hierarchy", had just won a libel claim against a conservative Muslim newspaper that claimed he belonged to a sect which many in his faith believe is heretical. A South African anti-apartheid campaigner who has lived in Britain on and off for the past three decades, Dr Hargey has made many enemies because of his liberal brand of Islam which he preaches from a small assembly hall.

Unlike most British imams who insist on segregation during Friday prayers, Dr Hargey allows men and women to pray in the same room. He believes Muslims should not feel compelled to grow beards or wear a veil and last November his mosque became the first in Britain to allow a female Islamic scholar to lead Friday prayers.

One of his staunchest critics was the Muslim Weekly, a popular English language newspaper which takes a relatively orthodox line on social issues. Yesterday, after nearly three years of legal wrangling, it agreed to pay a "substantial" five-figure sum in damages to Dr Hargey over an article it published in May 2006 claiming that Dr Hargey was a member of the Ahmadiyya, a sect of Muslims who believe their 19th-century founder was the Mahdi – Islam's equivalent to the messiah. The paper also wrongly claimed he was forced to leave a post teaching Islamic studies in Cape Town because of his beliefs.