The way the Los Angeles Times reports on a new women's-only mosque, you'd think it was a story on secular feminism in the early 1970s.

Women in authority? Check. Breaking tradition? Check. Bonding with sisters? Check. Shaking loose from males to find themselves? Check.  

Women wait for the call to prayer, marking the launch of the nonprofit Women's Mosque of America in downtown L.A. Tradition separates male and female congregants at most mosques; the women's mosque forbids men from attending.  

Female-only mosques may exist in China, Chile and India, but Muslim leaders say this could be the first in the U.S.

You can almost picture the fist salute and hear "Right on, sister!"

Sure it sounds interesting: a mosque run by and for women, in a worship service usually dominated by males. (Although it's more daring in a more controlled society like China, as my review last September noted.)

But in telling the story of the new mosque, the Times plunders the western lexicon of social cliches story. Participants "foster bonds of sisterhood." Some call the experience "liberating." They also, of course, feel "empowered":

The call for female empowerment in the Muslim community has been growing for years — a response aimed at combating an often-misguided view of Islam, experts say.

"One of the major ways that Islam is 'othered'— one of the major stereotypes — is how they treat women," said Ruqayya Khan, chairwoman of Islamic studies at Claremont Graduate University. "But there is a rich history of women in Islam, and it's often kind of sidelined or buried."

So eager is the Times to herald this giant leap for womankind that it misses a fair number of basic journalistic elements. One is the rule: "Don’t raise questions that you don’t answer."