The self-appointed ‘spokespersons’
EBRAHIM ESSA’S letter, “Rekindle religious cohesion” ( POST, October 25-29), refers.
I find it intriguing that he did not raise these issues in relation to the Sunday Tribune article, “Ramaphosa, Muslims to meet today” (October 15).
Despite the title, the opening paragraph refers to “the Indian community”.
How can a religious group, called the SA Muslim Network, speak for the entire Indian community?
Even more disturbing is that the heading for the same article published on IOL read: “Ramaphosa to meet Indian business in Durban”.
Indian and Muslim are not synonymous. The TV news on Morning Live (October 16) went a step further and said that the Muslim Network was raising “minority issues” with Ramaphosa.
Any informed or honest person will know that certain sections of the supposed Indian diaspora, as a result of their own carefully crafted exclusivist agendas, planned separatism, openly declared “otherness”, divinely mandated “nationhood” and frequently evoked progenitor, have demonstrated their select but worldwide brotherhood and transnational solidarity, purely on the basis of their belief system.
A documentary screened on SABC2 (November 20, 2011) showed members of this community unequivocally proclaiming their plan to identify strongly with fellow believers across the world.
They declared that they had “no association with India”, were determined to “assert their religious identity”, and were “influenced by” fellow believers elsewhere in their pursuit of “a more global … identity and a global experience”.
Bent on “renegotiating their identity”, they condemned “this obsession with their ethnicity” of some fellow believers.
Of course, they have their own political party based on religion and recently expressed a desire to have their own court.
So why do some among them assume they are entitled to become spokespersons for all Indians when it comes to politics or TV programmes?
Did this network have prior consultations with other minorities or Indians or did they just appropriate the Indian voice? KAMINI PRAKASH
Riet River