ISLAMOPHOBIC & HATE CRIMES
TOWARDS SOUTH AFRICANS IN
SOUTH AFRICA
We would like to draw your attention
to the recent incident in Lotus River,
Cape Town. On Monday, 17th February
2014 a twenty year old Muslim cleric
was taunted regarding his Islamic
dress and referred to as “Al Qaeda”
before he was kidnapped and beaten.
In another incident, on August 6 2012,
Mohamed Fayaaz Kazi and his uncle
Anser Mahmood were attacked in
Magaliesberg by two men who
assaulted them after calling them
“Bin Laden” and making fun of their
beards and dress. Mohamed Fayaaz
Kazi, 27 years old, died after suffering
a haemorrhage.
In a more recent incident Fiona
Gangat, a South African citizen and
human rights activist living in
Sweden, was forcibly made to
remove her hijab or headscarf at OR
Tambo airport by a passport profiler.
She refused to do this in a public area
and was led to a bathroom instead of
an assigned room to allow her to
remove the scarf.
We have had many anecdotal reports
from several members of the Muslim
community, over the years, regarding
the language used when talking to
women regarding their “Muslim”
attire, bearded men and their attire.
Almost all have not laid charges or
made their plight public, as the
incidents have taken place at
shopping centres or whilst walking or
travelling on roads and of course, this
has now reached a point where
people are being assaulted and
murdered for being Muslim.
In Durban, on Friday, 17 January 2014,
during the Friday prayer at the May
Street mosque, prayers were
interrupted when eight Metro police
stormed in after a policeman and a
congregant argued over a parking
violation. This is unacceptable and is
indicative of the growing intolerance
towards Muslims.
These increasing incidents of
Islamophobia are a major source of
concern over and above the general
high crime rate within the country.
We believe that this requires the
urgent attention of the police force as
well as intelligence agencies who
need to focus on these hate crimes as
well as special task teams need to be
5mobilized to investigate these hate
crimes.
As you know, globally, this is quite
common and is on the rise in South
Africa.
We await your urgent response and
hope that you will bring to this to the
attention of the Regional Heads of
Police Services in the Western Cape
to give urgent priority to
apprehending the perpetrators of the
incident in the Cape.
Regards
Dr Faisal Suliman
Chairperson
Narrated Abu Huraira:
The Prophet ( )ﷺsaid, "Religion is
very easy and whoever overburdens
himself in his religion will not be able
to continue in that way. So you
should not be extremists, but try to
be near to perfection and receive
the good tidings that you will be
rewarded; and gain strength by
worshipping in the mornings, the
nights."
[Al-Bukhari]