Wife of mosque terror victim tells of ordeal

“I AM strong and I accept what happened,” said the wife of Ismail Ahmad Bassa, 72, whose throat was slit in the horrifying attack at a mosque in Malmesbury early yesterday morning.

“I rushed to my children’s room and they got up and called the police. My sons tried to keep the attacker inside the mosque but he stabbed my one son in the eye and my other son tried to run him over but then the police arrived,” Zainab Bassa said.

She said one of the men managed to escape from the mosque during the attack in the early hours and knocked on her door at the family’s home, which is next to the mosque.

“I am still in shocked and don’t want to see anyone being slaughtered in the mosque; my husband was a very strong person.”

The incident happened on the last day of Ramadaan as Muslims prepared to break their fast. After stabbing several people inside the mosque complex, the assailant was shot dead by police.

Ismail’s youngest son Faizel Bassa said: “I am still coming to terms with everything. I was woken up and went to the mosque because I heard my father was still there. The guy attacked me and stabbed me in the eye.”

Imran Mukadam, a community activist from Elsies River and commentator on Muslim affairs, said it was his cousin who died in the attack. He labelled it an act of terror.

The assailant, believed to be a Somali, wasn’t known to the community and had apparently asked the men for a place to stay overnight.

The Bassa family buried Ismail in accordance with religious customs yesterday afternoon.

Politicians reacted with shock.

Ebrahim Rasool, founder of the World for All Foundation and ANC Western Cape elections head, said the senseless killings have hit Muslims. “I think there has been a rise in intolerance from Muslim leaders… We need leaders to stop making statements that fuel these attacks. This is terrible as we enter the days of Eid.”

DA Western Cape leader Bonginkosi Madikizela said: “We condemn this attack in the strongest terms and will continue to support the community of Malmesbury in their time of grief.”