We must shun even micro acts of exclusion
It’s how commitment to freedom of worship and other freedoms
THE Ahlul Bait Mosque Complex is yet another addition to the places in South Africa where the name of God is celebrated abundantly and profusely, by many names and through many religions but always, in South Africa since 1994, freely and without fear.
This is a hard won right and therefore the Qur’an teaches that mischief will spread unless we defend temples, synagogues, monasteries and mosques – all places where the name of God is celebrated.
While different in circumstance, the opening of this mosque must recall how the Awwal (First) Mosque in Bo-Kaap was opened in the shadow of slavery, exile and subjugation, where the practice of Islam was banned.
This intolerance towards, and hatred of, Muslims made Tuan Guru (d 1807) declare Cape Town the “Dar-ul-La’nah”, the Accursed Abode, reflecting the anguish of a scholar and leader determined to defy the colonial intent to obliterate Islam as a religion and Muslims as a community.
Nelson Mandela, when inaugurated as the first democratic president of a free South Africa, declared, in the presence of then president of the Muslim Judicial Council, Sheikh Nazeem Mohammed: “Never, never, and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another…”.
He exhorted us to shun both the larger exclusions, like apartheid, and the daily smaller exclusions that human beings and communities are capable of. And so was born the commitment to freedom of worship, and all other freedoms.
Today, we do not inaugurate this mosque in the shadow of Islamophobia or apartheid, but we are aware of the numerous micro acts of exclusion that we visit upon each other – sometimes against people of other religions and sometimes against those who share our faith.
The era in which we live is a dangerous and fragile one. Muslims are caught in the pincer grip of external threat and internal fragmentation, externally defined by occupation, authoritarianism and civil wars, while our refugees are at the mercy of foreign powers and Islamophobia makes being Muslim a daily hazard.
Our internal condition is characterised by growing restlessness among Muslims yearning for a better life; by fearful rulers who show no mercy; by tentative scholars who say what is safe and prescribed, rather than what is true and just; and by extremists who are moved by anger and instinct rather than justice guided by knowledge.
In this maelstrom of conflict and fragmentation, Muslims retreat from the world and turn on each other.
We use the little might we have against those among us who may irritate us. In a world where we are largely disempowered, we use our little power to overpower other Muslims.
In a world where the West utilises the foundations of Muhammad al-Khawarizmi’s (d 850) algorithms to deploy the latest technologies and to pierce the secrets of the universe, we research which Shia insulted which companion, which Sufi prayed at which shrine, what the length of a preacher’s beard must be, or under what conditions a woman can drive a car.
We have become adept at the vocabulary of intellectual terror that we use against each other.
I am reminded of the way the Almohads, the so-called “true followers of the one true God”, entered Andalusia (Spain) at the height of the Islamic civilisation in Europe, to judge between the “true Muslims” and the “false ones”, rather than to extend the civilisation further.
They wanted “to sort out” the Muslims of Europe and declare them heretics, because they were too avant-garde in their knowledge.
They wanted to bring the Muslims of Europe back to their “true path”. The rest is history!
Today our legacy from Andalusia is all over the Western world, but our presence is despised!
From the great abode of free profession of faith, peace and security that South Africa is for people of all religious traditions, we are in danger of returning to the “Abode of the Accursed” simply because we cannot tolerate those who have a different perspective of our faith and we recklessly fling pronouncements of disbelief and heresy.
If today we allow pronouncements of disbelief so that almost 15% of the global Muslim community is excommunicated, then tomorrow, how many Muslims will we excommunicate for not wearing a veil or having the “real” size beard?
This is why I am here. If I cannot stand for a Shia mosque today, then tomorrow, will I be able to stand for a mosque that admits women?
If I can’t stand for a mosque that admits women, then, can I stand against the killing of Yemenis? If I can’t stand against the killing of Yemenis, then can I stand for the Palestinians?
The Qur’an tells us that humans were created with the capacity for intelligent speech. Threats, blackmail, labelling and hate are not intelligent speech!
I am a Sunni. I am not a Shia because I do not fathom all the details of their beliefs, nor subscribe to all their practices.
But these are matters governed by the Islamic ethic of disagreement, which can be a blessing if we distinguish between the mainstream and the extreme.
We are being tested whether 350 years of the evolution of Islam in South Africa will cause us to do to others what was done to us.
If we fail, we say to governments who want to ban and proscribe Islam and Muslims that what we do to each other as Muslims is the standard for what they too can do to all Muslims!