Attack at Shia mosque sounds a warning for progressive Muslims in SA

● Post-apartheid South Africa has been a country where religious plurality is embraced. In recent troubled times, however, societies where intra-faith differences were once embraced have been thrown into conflict.

A catalyst for the conflict internationally has often been the religious differences between Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims, particularly in the Middle East, where Iran (Shia) and Saudi Arabia (Sunni) are involved in proxy battles to extend their spheres of influence. This sparks Shia versus Sunni battles in other parts of the world.

In South Africa, we felt largely safe from this sort of division and extremism. But recent events demand that we recalibrate our view. As Muslims around the world welcomed Ramadan this week, much focus in South Africa has been on the heinous attack at the Shia Imam Hussain Mosque in Verulam.

Such an act of wanton violence and barbarism is contrary to the teachings of Islam. Leading South African Muslim scholars such as Imam Rashied Omar have reminded us that religious extremism has no virtue in Islam.

And extremism is unequivocally condemned by the Prophet of Islam (peace be upon Him), who is reported, in a tradition, to have declared thrice:

“The extremists shall perish.”

Prominent Muslim South Africans like Ebrahim Rasool and others have for some time been warning about the possibility of violence emerging if intrafaith antagonism and the propagation of hatred continued. Historical conservatism in South Africa has also been less tolerant of Sufi and Barelvi expressions of Islam.

While anti-Sunni posturing has often occupied cyberspace, anti-Shia rhetoric has sometimes been articulated in the mosque, by those claiming that being critical of Shia beliefs does not equate to hatred or the promotion of violence against Shias.

This is thorny. Muslims the world over feel under threat. Conspiracy theories abound in attempts to undermine Muslims from within and without. So any attempt to rethink intra-faith perspectives is bound to elicit suspicion, if not outright resistance or even violent reaction.

But some honest and objective questioning is long overdue. In many Muslim societies today, practices that have nothing to do with Islam, or may even be contrary to the values of Islam, are being reproduced and re-enacted as if they were articles of faith. Embedded messages of hatred about the other has the potential to incite violence.

Extremism is a complex concoction of ignorance, identity and cultural crises, toxic forms of religious education and indeed the machinations of empire.

Any “progressive” school regarding intra-faith cohesion has to begin from premises that are recognisably Islamic. This “progressive” mode would remain in line with the teachings of the Qur’an and the following of the Prophet (peace be upon Him), recognising the progressive nature of these primary sources — unlike the frighteningly conservative interpretations that we have seen in some parts of the world, including South Africa.

Key to this understanding is the recognition that we live in a plural context and that harmonious coexistence, despite the complex diversity of this world, is possible.

Hate speech, intimidation and slander are so commonplace in the battle for ideas that they have become regarded as the norm in many cases.

The apparent ossification of self-critique within the Muslim world has damaged respect for differing views. The oppositional dialectics between the West and Islam have further entrenched the cultural, religious and ideological divide, making dialogue itself a hazardous venture.

But the attack on the Verulam mosque is a wake-up call. Muslims in South Africa, particularly the youth, need to strike a wholesome balance between their identities as Muslims and as South Africans, and thereby develop a South African cultural expression of Islam.

Our leaders need to do more to empower young people with a compassionate, affirming and inclusive understanding of Islam. Workshops and training programmes need to immunise young people against intolerance, hate, extremism and sectarianism.

The Cape Accord, a document signed by wide-ranging Muslim organisations, calls for communities to unite against hate speech and sectarianism, and promotes tolerance and social cohesion.

The progressive current, if it is to emerge at all, will have to burst the banks of conservative dogma. It needs to show that extremism and sectarian hate have no place in Islam.