Cape mosque killer ‘didn’t know Islam’
Worshippers stunned by red-eyed attacker who left two dead
● The man who killed two people in a Western Cape mosque this week may have had an accomplice, according to witnesses.
The Somali — named by the Somali Community Board of South Africa as Noor Abdulle Araale — was with another man outside the Malmesbury mosque around 9pm on Wednesday, six hours before the attack.
Ghouwah Allie, whose husband, Mohamed, survived the attack early on Thursday, said she saw the men as she left the women’s section of the mosque after evening prayers. They sent a chill through her, she said.
Moments earlier, Araale had been looking around while others in the mosque were focused on their prayers, said Ghouwah, explaining that she had a “gut feeling” about him when he greeted other people.
Instead of responding with the obligatory “May the peace and blessings of God be upon you as well”, he used a shorter version of the phrase. “That indicates to me that this is a person who doesn’t know Islam,” she said.
Later that night, Araale killed 72-year-old Ismail Bassa and Somali Ziyaad Haseen Hedick with a large knife as the men were observing i’tikaaf (seclusion in the mosque). Araale was later shot dead by police. Bassa’s 24-year-old son, Faizal, and Ghouwah’s husband, the mosque’s moulana, were injured.
Ghouwah’s grandsons were next to Araale during the prayers, she said. The boys said he was looking around nervously and talking on his cellphone. He had a backpack and another bag with him.
He asked the children to point out the imam, and asked one of the boys what his address was. The boy, feeling uneasy, gave a false one.
Araale arrived at the mosque asking for shelter and claiming to be on his way to the coastal town of Vredenburg, 100km away. He did not speak English or Afrikaans, and refused food he was offered by the moulana.
Somali Community Board chairman Amir Sheikh said Araale was thought to have been treated for bipolar disorder, but had no history of violence.
Felt uncomfortable
Mohamed Allie, one of the men staying the night in the mosque with Araale, said the man made him feel uncomfortable. His eyes were red but he did not smell intoxicated.
When it was time to go to sleep, Mohamed said, he felt too uneasy to close his eyes. Araale kept waking up every 10 minutes or so and making strange noises.
At one point, he jumped up and asked Mohamed about a prayer. When Mohamed responded, Araale laughed in his face before leaving the area where they were sleeping.
Shortly afterwards, Mohamed said, the man returned looking enraged. He yelled at Mohamed to go to sleep, then started punching him.
“After this he lifted up his shirt and his coat. I thought he was going to pull out a gun, but he pulled out a long knife.”
Araale then started attacking the worshippers, killing Bassa and Hedick. Mohamed and another man, his student, survived.
Mohamed said his children sometimes slept with him at the mosque. “I thank God so much because they could have been there.”
Hit with iron bar
Araale showed unnatural strength during the attack, witnesses said.
Faizal Bassa, who with his brother Saud, ran to the mosque from their house next door, said he hit Araale over the head with an iron bar with all his might.
Araale barely reacted to the blow and instead turned around and began to stab Faizal, who got away by ducking under the man and running out of the door.
Araale was only stopped after he was shot by police in a nearby field. He had run there from the mosque, followed by Saud, who circled Araale in his car to prevent him from running away.
Araale did not respond to rubber bullets fired at him by the first police officers who arrived on the scene, and charged the car of other police officers, hitting it with his knife.
“I don’t think there is a human who could have stopped him with their bare hands,” Faizal said.
Ismail Bassa’s widow, Zainab, observed Eid with her sons on Friday after burying her husband on Thursday afternoon, but her youngest son said the attack had made him nervous to return to the mosque. “It attacks us all, any religion, when something like this happens,” he said.
The Muslim Judicial Council said Bassa and Hedick were regular worshippers at the mosque, and expressed its condolences to their families and to the Somali community.
“They [Somalis] have always been welcomed in the area and will continue to play a vital role in society,” said MJC president Sheikh Irafaan Abrahams.
“We will provide them with all the necessary support during this difficult time.”