The Muslim academic who wants to launch a woman and gay-friendly mosque in South Africa is facing death threats.

The first gender-equal, non-sectarian, LGBTI welcoming and interracial religious venue will open its doors to the public this Friday, led by academic Taj Hargey.

He says he has received several death threats over the plans, claiming he is not a real Muslim for breaking tradition.

Hargey, on the other hand, says the religious practices observed by Muslims in South Africa were old civil customs and not holy law.

He said: ‘You go to churches and often see the sign "All welcome". This is the single mosque in the whole country that sadly has the words "All welcome" underneath it.

‘I decided that being Cape Town-born I had to do something. We had a political evolution in this country 20 years ago and what we need now is a religious revolution, especially in the Muslim community.’

The Open Mosque’s founder, an imam and professor of Islamic Studies and African history at Oxford University, has also said that openly LGBTI people will be welcome at the mosque – while stopping short of condoning same-sex activity.

‘I do not endorse homosexual living, but I do not condemn them as people,’ Dr Hargey said, according to the Cape Times.

‘We will … welcome gay people and discuss topical subjects like sexuality, politics and others.’

‘You enter the mosque, do I ask you the question who did you sleep with last night? No. It’s not my business who you slept with,’ added Hargey, as reported by The Telegraph.

‘Women will enter the same doors as men, women will take part in the service,’ the 60-year-old continued. ‘This is the first time you’ll see men and women praying together.

‘We wanted a mosque that reflects 21st century South Africans not some seventh century utopia that never existed.’