Vol. 4 No. 2 Jumâdal Ûlâ 1421/August 2000

Recently, a group calling itself "The Black Concerned Muslims" submitted a memorandum to the office of the State President, bemoaning the state of affairs within the South African Ummah. More especially, they focused their attention at their "Indian" co-religionists. It comes as no surprise to many of us that this kind of racism should surface at the time it did. Perhaps he concept of the "Rainbow Nation" has already faded into the sunset for the authors of this memo, and it is in trying times like this that we witness the stirring of "fittin" [corrupting elements] within our ranks shouting slogans such as "one grenade, one Indian." This tirade against the "Indian Muslim" simply because of sheer fortitude and determination, he has developed the infrastructure for religion, education, and social welfare for the community that few would have deemed possible.

The past 300 years is as painful to the "Black" as it is to the "Brown." The yoke of apartheid weighed as heavily on all it was meant to subdue. For Muslims, whether Black, Brown, or Blue, it was a special vendetta by the NATS which took various forms to convert prime commercial property around Masâjid, for example in places like Ermelo, Lichtenburg, and Middleburg, to a wasteland. In some cases, public toilets were constructed directly across these Masâjid! Yes, Muslims were singled out then, and yes, the spurious attempt by the group of so-called "Black Muslims" against other "Black" Muslims, is but another attempt at creating discord and sowing the seeds of hate.

The ongoing attempt by hidden forces to tar every Muslim in the Cape as a potential terrorist, is no different from generalising every Muslim in the provinces as a rabid racist! Is it because that from this community of Afro-Indian Muslims, has resulted the largest number of anti-apartheid activists and martyrs per head of population? Is it because they have defied all odds to rise above the low water mark that others had in mine for them?

Certainly, there are and there will be bigots in every society, including Afro-Indian Muslims. There are people, Muslim in name, Muslim in dress, who cannot be truly Muslim if they are racists. For racism of any type is counter to the Muslim ethos. If other Muslims (irrespective of their tribe or colour) are NOT safe from your tongue or your hand (as explained by the Noble Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wasallam), then you fall outside the definition of 'Muslim'.

Certainly, there are people stuck in the mind-frame of derogatory terms. There are people who would not practice fair treatment of those under them, even if those underlings were lily white! There are people who would use wealth, or dress, or caste, or skin pigmentation as their benchmark. There are even those Afro-Indian Muslims who would be derogatory to someone purely on the basis on what car you drive or what labels you wear - or even which hospital you had your gall bladder removed!

Yes, these Afro-Indian Muslims are bigots and racists. Just like people in other communities, churches, temples, or synagogues who have similar bigots and racists within their midst! So racism is not the exclusive preserve of the Afro-Indian Muslim. If it were, then these same Afro-Indian Muslims would not have joined hands, hearts, and wallets with their darker compatriots. By specifying individual Muslims and their heinous practices, it does not by any stretch of the imagination, stereotype the entire community.

If a Muslim is to be a mirror to another Muslim, then we need to check our selves - warts and all. Introspection should be a constant endeavour by individuals and society alike. We are certainly not perfect in all of our practices; we are definitely far off from the ideal society. But if the Islamic ideal of ukhuwwah and ubuntu has to converge, it can only do so on the basis of shura [mutual consultation], ta'zim [respect], 'adl [justice], taqwah [piety], and amanah [honesty and trust].

It is the height of arrogance for any individual or so-called group, claiming to represent people, to wage a vendetta based on ethnicity. To further prescribe to the President of a Sovereign State such as ours as to what constitutes good conduct, is an additional affront. We caution the Muslim Ummah to be vigilant against such attempts, for as the Cape experience has shown, it is but another arrow in the global attack on Muslims. There are sinister motives in denigrating and alienating the Afro-Indian Muslim from the family of Islam in Africa. "The Star" carried articles for a few Saturdays giving credence to the face-claim of a handful of mischief-mongers, and did not publish Muslim responses to these allegations. It is not difficult to understand why.

We could dignify this argument by placing on record the sterling work done over the decades by these Afro-Indian Muslim in places where the sole beneficiaries were their brothers and sisters of darker colour.

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