Muslim cleric helps provide aid in war-torn Gaza
A life dedicated to Islam
MUSLIM cleric Sheikh Shamiel Panday, of Port Elizabeth, braved the war-torn Middle East twice this year in an attempt to show South Africa what he calls another apartheid.
During one of his first trips to the West Bank in the early ’90s, Panday witnessed a child bleed to death after he was shot in the eye by a member of the Israel Defense Force (IDF). Since then, he fears, nothing has changed.
But the gruesome encounter did not stop Panday, 50, the leader of the Eastern Cape’s biggest mosque, from returning to a land where his people are under siege.
With charity aid group Africa 1, he managed to distribute millions of rands worth of medical supplies, ambulances and school equipment to Gaza and Syria in just a matter of months.
Panday heads up the Taqwa Mosque in Gelvan Park.
“It was in the early ’90s after the signing of the Oslo agreement that I travelled to the West Bank to see if there was any progress on the ground, but nothing had changed for the Palestinians. They remained under occupation,” Panday said this week.
“On one of my visits I attended a march that resulted in the normal teargas and stone throwing scenario, but then a child was shot in the eye by the IDF. He was killed by this so-called rubber bullet which is actually a 50g iron ball covered in plastic.”
After this, Panday continued to travel to the Middle East on a regular basis to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam.
“We would return to educate the masses in South Africa about the apartheid in Israel, but on many occasions we were denied access,” he said.
In 2011, Africa 1 was estab- lished. Earlier this year, after being denied entry at six entry points around the border, the group eventually entered Gaza with food and medical supplies through Egypt.
Panday explained Muslims had been barred entry by the Israelis along the border and that this was why he supported the formation of the controversial tunnels through Gaza.
Although the sheikh does not speak openly about his trips, he said the situation there brought tears to his eyes.
“We have seen lots of destruction. Hospitals and mosques are being destroyed.”
Panday dedicated his life to his religion and has been a Palestinian awareness activist for the past 20 years.
After matriculating from St Thomas, in the northern areas, he left to pursue religious studies
On one of my visits I attended a march that resulted in the normal teargas and stone throwing scenario, but then a child was shot in the eye by the IDF
in Saudi Arabia in 1981.
He then returned to South Africa in 1984 and hosted religious classes for the Port Elizabeth community.
Panday blamed the Israelis for the ongoing conflict, noting that if all the deaths were taken into consideration, it meant that at least one Palestinian had been killed every day since 1948.
“They want us to go back to the same status quo as before World War 2. A two-state solution is not what we can agree upon. We want one country for Muslims, Chris- tians and Jews to live in as chosen people.”