Gaza Is a 'Huge Murder': South African Foreign Minister Speaks to Mehdi Hasan

 

In an exclusive interview with Zeteo in Washington D.C., South Africa's Foreign Minister Dr. Naledi Pandor calls for Benjamin Netanyahu's arrest, denounces Western countries for supporting Israel, and addresses Elon Musk's criticisms of South Africa.

The imam who died fighting racism in South Africa

Two momentous events occurred in Cape Town in South Africa on 29 September 1969.

The first was a huge funeral march - some 40,000 people carried the coffin of Imam Abdullah Haron for about 10km (six miles) to his final resting place in Mowbray Muslim Cemetery.

And at night a rare and massive earthquake shook the earth.

For many who attended the funeral these two events are indelibly connected - they say the death of the pioneering 45-year-old South African imam was so painful and so shocking.

Imam Haron died in a police cell on 27 September, after 123 days of solitary confinement and daily interrogations about his involvement in the struggle against the racist system of apartheid, which ended in 1994 with the election of Nelson Mandela as South Africa's first black president.

Imam Haron was the first cleric of any faith to die in custody under the apartheid regime. His death signalled that even men of God were not safe from an increasingly repressive, white-supremacist state.

His death caused global outrage, and he became the first Muslim to be commemorated at the famous St Paul's Cathedral in London.

The security police said he died after falling down a flight of stairs.

They said the two broken ribs and 27 bruises on Imam Haron's body had nothing to do with them, despite their notoriety for using torture and beatings.

The imam's family say they do not accept "that lie", and are demanding a fresh inquest to mark 50 years of his death.

Backing the campaign is visual artist Haroon Gunn-Salie - who is named in honour of the imam and has made several art works memorialising his life and death.

Gunn-Salie's latest work, Crying for Justice, is an installation in the grounds of the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town - a symbolic burial ground of 118 unmarked graves, one for each of the people who he says died in detention during apartheid, including Imam Haron.

They were all held without trial - and the police said they fell down stairs, slipped in showers, or took it upon themselves to jump out of windows.

No-one has ever been held responsible for any of those deaths in detention,and it's a sore, open wound for the families.

When finished, viewed from the castle ramparts, the graves Gunn-Salie has dug will spell out the word: Justice?

"The artwork is as much as a cry to the heavens as a cry to the courts," says Gunn-Salie.

"It's a public statement asking, quite literally, to unbury the past, to dig up the files, to dig up the evidence, and bring closure to the families."

Sadly, his 93-year-old widow Galiema Haron died on Sunday, exactly 50 years after her husband's funeral, without achieving closure.

In a tribute to her, governing African National Congress MP Faiez Jacobs said: "Widowed by what appeared to have been a deliberate killing, she raised her children alone, always wondering how her beloved husband had died.

"If the apartheid rulers thought they could kill her spirit, they were wrong. She stood tall, defiant and principled."

Imam Haron was one of the youngest imams in South Africa - only 32 when he was appointed in 1955 to lead the congregation at the Stegmann Road Mosque in Cape Town.

He was a pioneer in Cape Town's mostly conservative mixed-race Muslim community.

Imam's Haron's widow, Galiema, was left to care for their children, including Fatiema
He introduced adult education classes, discussion groups where the topics were chosen by young people and encouraged women to take part. And he invited children to sit at the front of the mosque, rather the back, and to lead prayers.

He also invited people from outside the Muslim community - including trade unionists and liberal politicians - to come and talk to the young people about what was happening in South Africa.

"He didn't fit the pattern of the Muslim clergy which was quite ritualistic," says Aneez Salie, a journalist, former member of the ANC's armed wing and father of the artist Gunn-Salie.

"He was very progressive, away ahead of his time," Mr Salie, who at 13 attended the imam's funeral, told the BBC.

Fatiema Haron-Masoet - the youngest of Imam Haron's three children - was almost six when her father died.

"He had a gentle soul, he was very kind and loving and extremely emotionally accommodating," she told the BBC.

The imam's son Muhammed Haron, now a theology professor in Botswana, was 12 when his father died.

He remembers his father as a deeply spiritual man who had fasted twice a week since he was a teenager - and that wherever he went he wore a black kafiya, the traditional Arabic scarf, or fez.

"That is his identity - a theological man, a man from the Muslim tradition."

But he was also a "socialite" and "a man larger than life" - well-dressed, suave, with a sweet tooth, and a passion for rugby, cricket and the cinema.

The imam had his own projector - and Muhammed remembers groups of the imam's friends gathering at the family home where his father would screen films "often beyond midnight on a Friday and Saturday".

The imam was a huge fan of the fictional spy James Bond. Perhaps with a twinkle in his eye, he named his home Golden Eye - after the sprawling Jamaican estate of Ian Fleming, the creator of 007.

Golden Eye, a double-storey house, had a huge balcony - and the railings were designed as musical notes.

"Music was not totally approved of theologically by the conservatives," Muhammed says.

"But my father was theologically able to skirt around some of these issues that may have been considered taboo."

"He had a wider vision of things rather than a narrow notion," Muhammed explains.

What was apartheid?

• Introduced in 1948 by the Afrikaner-led National Party government
• Black people regarded as inferior
• No vote for black people in national election
• Races segregated in all aspects of life
• Prevented black people from owning land in much of South Africa
• Reserved most skilled jobs for white people
• Scrapped in 1994 with the election of Nelson Mandela as first black president

Imam Haron's willingness to forge alliances with people of other races, as well as with Christians and communists, made him a particular threat to an increasingly brutal regime desperate to divide and rule.

Former rugby player Yusuf "Jowa" Abrahams - one of the imam's students - remembers how the imam tried to raise consciousness in the Muslim community about the injustices of apartheid, especially for those most hit by apartheid's cruel and racist laws: black South Africans.

"He said to us we need to break down racial barriers and work towards the future," Mr Abrahams told the BBC.

The imam practised what he preached, regularly visiting black communities in townships such as Langa, Gugulethu and Nyanga, where he became fondly known as mfundisi, or priest.

As well as being an imam, Haron also worked as a salesperson for the confectionary company Wilson Rowntree. This job meant he could legally move in and out of the townships - even after the apartheid regime restricted people's movements and segregated South Africa along racial lines with laws like the Group Areas Act.

In a public meeting held at Cape Town's Drill Hall in May 1961, the imam condemned that law as "inhumane, barbaric and un-Islamic". Four years later, like millions of other South Africans, the imam and his family were forced out of their own home.

Most other imams were too scared to speak out - or they were indifferent, content to be left alone to worship in peace, believing that it was not their duty to stand up to a repressive government.

But Imam Haron believed otherwise, and he started taking part in clandestine anti-apartheid operations.

He deliberately kept the details of what exactly he was involved in a secret from his wife and his congregation - in order to protect them.

Mr Abrahams believes the imam "died with his secrets".

However, he is known to have developed close ties with the then banned ANC and Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), both of which were waging an armed struggle, and the Black Sash - a non-violent legal and welfare movement of volunteer white women.

In 1966 and at the end of 1968, the imam went on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. He also secretly travelled to Egypt to meet political exiles and the World Islamic Council.

And he went to London, where his oldest daughter Shamela was studying. There he also met Canon John Collins of St Paul's Cathedral, an Anglican priest who was raising money for the destitute families of political activists who had been killed, detained, or forced into exile.

The imam and the priest struck up a deep friendship and Abdullah Haron agreed to smuggle in and distribute money on his return to South Africa.

But by the time of his return to South Africa in 1969, the imam knew he was in danger. On 28 May 1969 he was picked up by the apartheid police and four months later he was dead.

At the imam's funeral, Victor Wessels, a teacher and Marxist, said: "He died not only for the Muslims. He died for his cause - the cause of the oppressed people."

A few days later, on 6 October 1969, Imam Haron was commemorated in St Paul's Cathedral. His friend, Canon Collins, spoke of him as a martyr, signalling the deep respect the imam commanded across religious and racial lines.

Link

My grandfather Nelson Mandela fought apartheid. I see the parallels with Israel

 My grandfather, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, would have turned 100 this year. The world is marking the centenary of his birth and celebrating his leadership in the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa. But while my country has long been free from racist minority rule, the world is not yet free of the crime of apartheid.

Like Madiba and Desmond Tutu before me, I see the eerie similarities between Israel’s racial laws and policies towards Palestinians, and the architecture of apartheid in South Africa. We South Africans know apartheid when we see it. In fact, many recognise that, in some respects, Israel’s regime of oppression is even worse.

Apartheid is defined in international law as an “institutionalised regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other”. It is about unequal racial power relations upheld by unjust laws that are intended to deny oppressed groups their rights.

 Even before Israel passed its “nation state law” (stipulating that only Jews have the right of self-determination in the country) it was easy to see, for anyone willing to look, that the country’s government was committing the crime of apartheid. Its segregation wall, discriminatory admissions committees, ID-card systems, roads built for settlers which are not accessible to Palestinians, and the bantustan-like fragmentation of the West Bank gave the game away.

The nation state law made that reality undeniable. Apartheid is the context for a litany of state crimes. Take most recently, for example, Israel’s decision to demolish the Palestinian Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar and evict its residents. The aim of this ethnic cleansing is to make way for illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land.

Yet despite seven decades of apartheid, ongoing theft of Palestinian land, military occupation and massacres of unarmed protesters in Gaza – rightly called the “Palestinian Sharpeville”, after the mass killing in Transvaal in 1960 – each new generation of Palestinians continues the liberation struggle.

Young Ahed Tamimi turned 17 in prison this year, illegally incarcerated for confronting occupying soldiers in her backyard. But just as my grandfather spent 27 years in prison only to become a global icon of freedom, Ahed has become a powerful symbol of Palestinians’ resolute determination to resist. She and her family represent the courageous spirit of Palestinians everywhere who stand defiant in the face of immense brutality. I salute their bravery.

Although Ahed is now free, thousands of Palestinians – including hundreds of children – still languish in apartheid Israel’s jails. In this Nelson Mandela centennial celebration year, we should recall his avowal that “our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinian people” and work relentlessly to demand that all Palestinians – whether living in exile, as citizens of Israel or in the occupied territories – are accorded their inalienable human rights.

For we South Africans also know that effective resistance to apartheid requires international solidarity. Just as allies around the world were vital in our struggle for freedom, the spirit of internationalism lives on in the non-violent boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement supporting the Palestinian liberation struggle.

Full article

Islam and Muslims in South Africa

Webpage: https://www.islamawareness.net/Africa/SouthAfrica/

Muslims have a rich heritage in South Africa.

S Mayson, describing the Islamic life in the 19th century Cape Town, in The Malays of Cape Town, writes: "In 1652 a few Malays of Batavia were brought by the Dutch into the Residency, and subsequent Settlement of the Cape of Good Hope... " It is possible that these "Malays of Batavia" were the first Muslims to come to this country.

1654 Arrival of first Asiatic at the Cape

Around 1654 the Dutch East India Company established the Cape as a half­way house for its ships travelling between Holland and the East Indies. It was also to serve as a penal settlement for convicts and political exiles from the East.

G M Theal, the historian, says in his book, History of South Africa before 1795, on the Dutch East India Company, "With her [the Haaselt] came the first of a class of persons afterwards numerous in South Africa and whose descendants form at the present day an important element in the population in Cape Town."

Four "Asiatics" had been sentenced by the High Court of Justice in Batavia to banishment and hard labour for life. Their crime: preaching insurrection in Batavia against Dutch rule. Three of them were sent in the Haaselt to Mauritius and one was brought to the Cape of Good Hope.

This political prisoner was probably among the the first recorded Muslim to land on South African soil, two years after the White settlement in the country2.

1658 Advent of the Mardyckers

The first recorded arrival of free Muslims known as Mardyckers is in 1658. Mardycka or Maredhika implies freedom. The Mardyckers were people from Amboyna [an Indonesian island] in the southern Moluccas and were brought to the Cape in order to defend the newly established settlement against the indigenous people, and also to provide labour in the same way that they had been employed at home, first by the Portuguese and later by the Dutch, in Amboyna. Jan Van Riebeeck had requested that the Mardyckers be sent to the Cape as a labour force. The Mardyckers were prohibited from openly practising their religion: Islam. This was in accordance with the Statute of India [drafted by Van Dieman in 1642] which stated in one of its placaats [statutes]: "No one shall trouble the Amboinese about their religion or annoy them; so long as they do not practise in public or venture to propagate it amongst Christians and heathens. Offenders to be punished with death, but should there be amongst them those who had been drawn to God to become Christians, they were not to be prevented from joining Christian churches. " The same Placaat was re-issued on August 23, 1657 by Governor John Maetsuycker probably in anticipation of the advent of the Mardyckers to the Cape of Good Hope. The Placaat governed the Cape as part of the Dutch Colonial Empire.

Read all about it here: https://www.islamawareness.net/Africa/SouthAfrica/southafrica_article1001.pdf

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http://www.702.co.za/articles/303933/as-ramadan-begins-take-time-to-find-out-the-history-of-islam-in-sa

As Ramadan begins, take time to find out the history of Islam in SA
17 May 2018 12:47 PM

With Thursday marking the first day of the holy month of Ramadan, Eusebius McKaiser speaks to a professor in Religious Studies at the University of Johannesburg, Farid Essack to discuss the history of Islam in South Africa.

Essack begins by explaining the number of times that Muslims go to pray and why they do so.

    They pray fives times a day. Because Muslims generally pray. There are five daily prayers, The Sunni Muslims pray at five different times and the Shia Muslims combine the evening prayers and the day prayers and both groups do the early morning prayers.
    — Prof Farid Essack, Professor of Religion Studies University of Johannesburg

The professor added that there are approximately about 860 000 Muslims in South Africa.

    We have been around for a long time actually. We first came shortly after 1652 to South Africa about a year after Van Riebeeck had first landed. They were brought as slaves because the local Khoi weren't very cooperative. So we come from Salon, Mauritius, Madagascar, and Mozambique.
    — Prof Farid Essack, Professor of Religion Studies University of Johannesburg

He said there are two major streams of Islam in South Africa.

    So the one arrived shortly after Van Riebeeck and they came from the east - labourers, political exiles. The Dutch were in occupation of the Cape and they were in occupation of Indonesia.
    — Prof Farid Essack, Professor of Religion Studies University of Johannesburg

He says the Dutch colonialists considered some of them to be troublemakers in Indonesia, and so sent off to a faraway place at the southern tip of Africa - the Cape Colony.

This stream is known as the Malay community. The other stream arrived as labourers on the eastern coast of Southern Africa, in the area now called KwaZulu Natal.

    They came from India in 1860 along with some Hindus. And the descendants of that crowd, they are now in Gauteng, in North West, Mpumalanga, the Northern Province and of cause largely in KwaZulu Natal.
    — Prof Farid Essack, Professor of Religion Studies University of Johannesburg

The professor adds that there is one other stream that arrived between 1873 and 1880 He says these were 500 slaves that were liberated and brought to Durban.

    They ended up in Durban and they were known as Zanzibaris, they were from Tanzania and Zanzibar. But they had white gowns and they had beards so culturally they didn't fit in with the local Zulu community at all. They did follow the similar cultural and religious practices of the Indian Muslims.
    — Prof Farid Essack, Professor of Religion Studies University of Johannesburg

So when apartheid came along, they were proclaimed Muslims.

    Until today, you have a community of black Africans living in the middle of an Indian township, Chatsworth, the Zanzibari Muslims.
    — Prof Farid Essack, Professor of Religion Studies University of Johannesburg

He also explained the difference between the words Islam and Muslim.

    The one is a social-religious community, these are Muslims. And Muslims follow the religion of Islam.
    — Prof Farid Essack, Professor of Religion Studies University of Johannesburg

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https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/mosque-stabbing-attack-south-africa-malmesbury-a8397996.html

Two stabbed to death in 'brutal' attack on mosque in South Africa during morning prayers
'Shocking and sad assault on what is probably the last day of Ramadan'
Adam Withnall
Thursday 14 June 2018 08:17

South African police say two worshippers have been stabbed to death in an attack on a mosque in Malmesbury, Western Cape.

The suspect, who was armed with a knife, was shot dead by police outside the mosque. Three others, including a police officer, were injured during the incident.

The Muslim Judicial Council said in a statement that it was “shocked to its core to learn of a brutal attack on the Malmesbury Masjied in Cape Town in the early hours of this morning”.

The two people killed were in I’tikaaf meaning they had been sleeping in the mosque for a period of days as an act of devotion. The attacker was not known to the mosque community, a spokeswoman for the Council said.

Western Cape police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Andrè Traut said the suspect, “believed to be in his thirties and armed with a knife, was still on the scene and charged at the police who tried to persuade him to hand himself over”.

“He ignored the calls and tried to attack police. He was shot and killed in the process,” Mr Traut said.

The attack comes a month after another assault on a mosque in Verulam, north of Durban. In that attack, three men stormed the place of worship, killing one and injuring others. They then fled the scene, and no arrests have yet been made.

Speaking to eNCA, Mishka Daries of the Muslim Judicial Council described the attack as “brutal”, saying it was a “shocking and sad assault on what is probably the last day of Ramadan”.

Asked if she feared a spike in such incidents, Ms Daries said she “understood these concerns within the Muslim community”.

“We are still trying to come to terms with the attack,” she said. “A mosque, a church, a synagogue, any house of worship – they are sacred places… you feel safe, you feel secure, you know that this is your time with God and that is your focus. Unfortunately it seems this isn’t the case.

“We would like to call for calm in the community,” she added, urging people not to “retaliate in any form” while the facts surrounding the attack remain unclear.

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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/05/outrage-deadly-south-africa-mosque-attack-180510200743838.html
Outrage after deadly South Africa mosque attack
Three assailants on the run after killing one worshipper during midday prayers and critically wounding two others.
by Azad Essa
12 May 2018

South African police are hunting for three attackers who cut the throat of an imam and stabbed and seriously injured two other people at a Shia mosque.

The attack on the mosque on Thursday in Verulam, a town 27km north of Durban, left the Muslim community outraged and demanding answers.

Major Bheki Langa, KwaZulu-Natal province's acting police commissioner, said in a statement the motive was still unclear. The assailants also set the mosque on fire before escaping in a getaway vehicle.

"Such criminality cannot be tolerated. A team of investigators has been dispatched to solve the case and bring perpetrators to book," Langa said.

Emergency rescue services initially said the imam of the mosque had died after the attackers slit his throat. But the Herald newspaper reported on Friday that the imam had survived the attack and was in a critical condition at a local hospital, together with the caretaker of the mosque who was also stabbed.

The man who died was a worshipper named Abbas Essop who had come to the imam's aid after he had heard screams from the mosque. The assailants had also reportedly slit Abbas' throat.
Swift condemnation

The incident drew immediate condemnation from the Muslim leadership across the country.

Faisal Suleman, chairperson of the South African Muslim Network, told Al Jazeera his organisation would not want to speculate on a motive given it was still not clear.

"We condemn this attack and we are urging the law enforcement to spare no effort in apprehending the perpetrators alive so that the reasons become known," Suleman said from Durban.

"South Africa has not had such attacks in the past, so we caution against speculation."

The Muslim Judicial Council denounced the bloodshed and said the core of Islamic teachings and principles are "respect for all human beings".

Islamic scholar Shaykh Rafeek Haseen told community radio station Voice of the Cape that Durban's Muslim community is in shock and urged people not to jump to conclusions.

"It may be a case of money laundering or a personal issue between the perpetrators and the victims. I do not think we should jump to conclusions that this attack is motivated by sectarianism," said Haseen.

The United Ulama Council of South Africa denounced "these grievous and vicious attacks".

"We condemn these unjustifiable acts of violence, which foster nothing but tension, mistrust, and insecurity within communities," said the group's Secretary-General Yusuf Patel.
Extremely rare

Muslims make up about 1.9 percent of South Africa's 55 million population, with most following the Sunni Muslim denomination. Attacks on mosques are extremely rare, but observers note anti-Shia rhetoric has been on the rise over the past few years, especially on social media.

Farid Sayed, editor of the Muslim Views newspaper based in Cape Town, said there have been attacks on mosques before, but usually from the "racist, white right-wing".

Sayed said many Muslims in South Africa deny the fact that there is intra-faith intolerance in the community.

"One can dismiss this as a once-off attack, it may not even be a sectarian attack. But I think it alerts us to the fact that we could actually be facing a situation where there could be violence [in the future].

"In the past, it was always verbal attacks, not physical. I have some [social media] posts that suggest that it 'was just a Shia mosque', in other words, they deserved to be attacked," Sayed said.

The country's parliament also released a statement condemning the violence.

"A mosque is a religious institution and South Africa's constitution guarantees and protects the right to religious practices," Francois Beukman, chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police, said in a statement released from parliament.

"This kind of attack on three innocent people is totally unjustified. We want our communities to live in harmony, practising their religions without fear."

Shaikh Yasir Qadhi on Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela has returned to his Creator. 

The Prophet (SAW) praised Mut`im b. Adi because he was a man who stood up for what was right, and helped the downtrodden Muslim community at a time when the Quraysh was guilty of the height of injustice. 

It is my opinion that if there was one man in our time who truly embodied that spirit of Mut`ims struggle, it was Nelson Mandela. Of the rewards that Allah gives a person in this life is respect and fame, and it is very likely that the genuine love all felt towards him was a result of his sincere efforts to help the weak and oppressed of his nation, and fight the unjust, tyrannical, inhumane and un-Islamic notion of white supremacy and Apartheid. 

Another benefit that we as Muslims can derive from Nelson Mandela's life is that truth shall always win in the end. For much of his life, Mandela was labelled a terrorist (even by the US and UK). Eventually, he won the Nobel prize and became his country's president. 'Terrorists' are relative, and when one is fighting for the truth, in a legitimate and Islamic manner, eventually his cause shall be victorious, even if the opposers of truth despise it. 

May Allah guide us all to truth, humility and sincere action.

Shaikh Yasir Qadhi

Neglected Muezzins of South Africa

Five times a day, Mulongo climbs the minaret of the Cape Town mosque to urge Muslims to come to their prayers.

But for the rest of the, he complains, he is expected to undertake several grueling tasks.

"The mosque trustees say it's my job to clean the toilets of the mosques, wash towels [and] clean the wudu (ablution) place," he told IlsamOnline.net.

Mulongo complains that besides the maltreatment, he is grossly underpaid that he can barely make a living.

"All I ask for is an increase."

He is one of many muezzins in South Africa who complain of being ill-treated by their mosques trustees.

Mustafa Kandulu, a Malawian-born who works at a mosque in Johannesburg, says he was given a very small and dusty room to live in.

"I sleep on a rusty steel bed while my room is too small and dusty," he told IOL.

Another disgruntled Muezzin in Cape Town, who preferred to remain anonymous, says his mosque’s trustees threaten to sack him whenever he asks for a raise.

"I get a mere R1, 200 ($150) and I have a family to feed," he fumes.

"My children at times get sick but I can't afford to take them to hospital."

Farouk Kamalie, chairperson of the Palm Tree Mosque, the second oldest in the entire Southern Africa region, admits some mosques mistreat their muezzins.

He insists that it is un-Islamic to treat people as "no bodies", especially muezzins.

Muslims make up to 1.5 percent of South Africa's 44-million population.

There are some 455 mosques nationwide and Cape Town reportedly has the oldest ten mosques.

Faisal Mohammed, a muezzin who works for the Auwal Mosque in Cape Town, contends that mistreatment is not the norm in mosques.

"Alhamdulillah, I can not complain," he told IOL.

The smartly dressed Tanzanian-born says that since he came to the mosque, he found good treatment and a fair salary.

"I haven’t experienced what my fellow muezzins say they are going through," he insisted.

"I feel at home here in the Masjid Auwal. I'm treated very well."

Sheikh Jumah, who has been a muezzin for the past 16 years, had a mixed experience.

"Sometime back I was mistreated by the trustees at a Durban mosque where I served," he recalls.

Now, Jumah serves in a mosque in Gatesville, a suburb in Cape Town.

"I have a house to live in with my family and I do my duties very well," notes the middle-aged Tanzanian national.

"Alhamdulillah, here at Gatesville mosque, I can't complain."

Cape Town Mosque Tourism

Cape Town is steadily becoming a center of Islamic tourism with thousands of Muslims reportedly flocking to South Africa’s coastal city which has a rich Islamic heritage, including the 10 oldest mosques in all Southern Africa.

"Whenever I and my family think of a holiday trip in the world, we have only one location in mind and that is Cape Town," Edris Muktar, a Malaysian tourist, told IslamOnline.net.

"It’s primarily because of its Islamic culture, rich history and friendliness of its inhabitants."

Sumaya Abdul, a tourist from Indonesia, says she always prefers Cape Town for vacations because of the historical attachment the city has with her Muslim home country.

"Some of my great grandfathers were brought to Cape Town as slaves by colonialists and they brought Islam to South Africa," she told IOL.

"When I’m here, I see the people as my blood connection. So visiting Cape Town is a priority for me."

Cape Town is a home to nearly half a million Muslims of diverse Asian origins.

Muslims make up to 1.5% of South Africa's 44-million population.

Islam was first introduced to the then Cape of Good hope in 1654 by political exiles and slaves working for the Dutch East India Company that operated between Cape Town, Holland and the then East Indies.

Sumaya recalls she was very impressed the first time she came to Cape Town with the so many shops and restaurants offering halal food.

"Nearly all the food in Cape Town is halal."

Muslims should only eat meat from livestock slaughtered by a sharp knife from their necks, and the name of Allah, the Arabic word for God, must be mentioned.

Sumaya says that one particular aspect of the city has captivated her more than anything else.

"There are many mosques on virtually every corner of the street, which is difficult to find in other tourism centers in the world."

Cape Town has reportedly 10 oldest mosques in Southern Africa.

There were no mosques in the city until the early 1800’s, when religious freedom was granted by the Dutch colony in 1803.

Of the spectacular Muslim sites that have amazed many tourists in Cape Town are the Auwal and the Palm Tree mosques, the two most ancient Muslim places of worship in the country.

"The Auwal & Palm Tree mosques draw a huge number of tourists because of their ancient history," Farouk Kamalie, chairperson of the Palm Tree Mosque, told IOL.

"Foreign and local Muslims visit our ancient mosques every year."

The same happens with the Auwal mosque, the first mosque in the entire Southern Africa region which was built in 1804.

"Thousands of people from different countries come to this mosque every month, taking pictures, recording videos and also interviewing us," says Abdurrahman, the mosques Tanzanian-origin muezzin (person who calls for prayers).

"I feel proud to be associated with Auwal Mosque."

Kamalie, the Palm Tree Mosque chairperson, insists that as remarkable as they are, mosques are only part of Cape Town’s rich Islamic heritage.

"[Tourists] request us for guides to take them to tombs of some of the first Muslim scholar who died here in Cape Town," he said.

"Cape Town has very rich Islamic history and Culture"

Muslims in South Africa Happy with ANC win

AS jubilant African National Congress (ANC) supporters danced in the streets after their success in last Wednesday’s general election, South Africa’s battered opposition parties pondered their future with a degree of misgiving.

The ANC’s victory was never in doubt, but most pundits expected widespread voter disgruntlement to result in a sharply reduced majority.

In the event, the share of the vote was down - from 69.7% in 2004 to 65.9%, just short of a two-thirds majority - but the lead was decisive.

“The analysts are eating humble pie tonight,” crowed a trade union leader as champagne corks popped at the ruling party’s victory bash. Jacob Zuma, the president elect, was equally ebullient, saying opposition attempts to “belittle” the ANC had failed dismally.

Many of South Africa's Muslim voters head to the polling stations on Wednesday, April 22, determined to vote for the ruling African National Congress Party (ANC), saying it has long worked to secure their rights and freedoms.

"I will vote for the party that fought for this country’s liberation," Zahid Asmal, head of news, research and development at Channel Islam International radio, told IslamOnline.net.

Asmal says the ANC, which has been ruling post-apartheid South Africa for the past 15 years, is a favorite for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

"Millions of people have benefited from [its] reconstruction and development program."

Mohammed Shahid Abdul, an International relations student at Witwaters Rand University in Johannesburg, agrees.

He believes that his favored ANC will win an overwhelming majority.

"The ANC is the only party with a relevant manifesto

Ebrahim Moosa, a Muslim, is still undecided on which party to pick.

"I’m caught in a dilemma of choosing between smaller parties who boast some wonderful credentials on paper but who have little chance of wining and the ruling party," the independent political analyst, told IOL.

Nonetheless, Moosa recognizes that the ANC is credited for reaching out Muslims, who make up some 1.5 percent of South Africa's 49 million population.

He says the ANC was keen to address Muslims’ concerns regarding foreign affairs issues, such as the Middle East conflict.

"The ANC has been leaning favorably towards justice for the Palestinians while the opposition has been known to support the Israeli occupation of Palestine."

Azar Vadi, who lives in the predominately-Muslim suburb of Lenasia south of
Johannesburg, agrees that the ANC has been aligning with Muslims and addressing major issues affecting them.

"Yes, I believe the ANC is in the best position to address the needs of the Muslim community," he told IOL.

"They have enshrined freedom of religion and allow religious practices that are sometimes even lacking in Muslim countries."

Asmal, of Channel Islam International radio, contends that the fundamental rights of Muslim citizens did not come under any threat under the ANC.

Prominent Muslims were notably represented in all forms of government over the past years.

In addition to two cabinet ministers, there are a number of Muslim MPs and councilors in the various provinces.

"The ruling ANC has proved that it protects the minority rights," says Asmal.

"It is the only party that can protect the interests of Muslims."