Angola denies purging mosques

Luanda government insists it is not cracking down on Islam

ANGOLA has been accused of “banning” Islam after shutting most of the country’s mosques amid reports of violence and intimidation against women who wear the veil.

The Islamic Community of Angola claimed that eight mosques had been destroyed in the past two years and anyone who practised Islam risked being found guilty of disobeying Angola’s penal code.

The Guardian newspaper in the UK reported on Friday that human rights activists had condemned the crackdown.

“From what I have heard, Angola is the first country in the world that has decided to ban Islam,” said Elias Isaac, country director of the Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa. “This is madness. The government is intolerant of any difference.”

But officials in the largely Catholic country said media reports of a “ban” on Islam were exaggerated and no places of worship were being targeted.

Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos, Africa’s second-longest-serving head of state at 34 years, has long been accused of corruption and human rights abuses.

Religious organisations are required to apply for legal recognition in Angola, which currently sanctions 83, all of them Christian.

Under Angolan law, a religious group needs more than 100 000 members and must be

Most Muslim women are afraid to wear the veil

present in 12 of the 18 provinces to gain legal status, giving it the right to build schools and places of worship.

There are only an estimated 90 000 Muslims among the population of about 18 million.

David Já, president of the Islamic Community of Angola, said: “We can say that Islam has been banned in Angola. You need 100 000 to be recognised as a religion, or officially you cannot pray.”

There are 78 mosques in the country and all have been closed — except those in the capital, Luanda — because they are technically unlicensed.

“The mosques in Luanda were supposed to be closed, but because of an international furore the government decided not to,” said Já.

He said the government began shutting mosques in 2010, including one that was burnt down in Huambo province “a day after authorities had warned us that we should have not built the mosque where we had and that it had to be built somewhere else. The government justified by saying that it was an invasion of Angolan culture and a threat to Christian values.”

Another mosque was destroyed in Luanda last month and copies of the Koran burnt.

Muslims have been instructed to dismantle the mosques themselves, he added.

Women who wear the traditional veil were also being targeted, Já said.

“As things stand, most Mus- lim women are afraid to wear the veil. A woman was assaulted in hospital in Luanda for wearing a veil, and another was beaten up and told to leave the country because she was wearing a veil.”

Rafael Marques de Morais, a political activist and leading investigative journalist in Angola, suggested the government was trying to find a convenient diversion from growing public hostility towards Chinese and Portuguese workers in Angola.

“The government needs to deflect attention. It is trying to find a scapegoat for economic pressures and saying Islam is not common to Angolan values and culture,” he said.

But the government denies any attempt to ban Islam.

“There is no war in Angola against Islam or any other religion,” said Manuel Fernando, director of religious affairs at the Culture Ministry.

“There is no official position that targets the destruction or closure of places of worship, whichever they are.” — Sunday Times Foreign Desk