Muslim Views, November 2014 by Muslim Views

Vol. 28 No. 11

SAFAR 1436 l NOVEMBER 2014

This poster is a collaborative work commissioned by the South African Faith Communities Environment Institute (Safcei) as part of an initiative to turn masajid into centres of environmental excellence and sustainability. It is designed to be used as a learning tool to help stimulate discussion and action around eco-theology, greening worship and the thoughtful use of Allah’s gifts. The aim is to encourage masjid committees and worshippers to become more aware of the way we manage energy, water, biodiversity, food security and waste. See page 8.

Masjid-al-Aqsa increasingly violated HE latest desecration of Masjid al-Aqsa is unprecedented since 1967. The occupation itself and the presence of troops in and around the precincts of the Haram is an ongoing gross violation of its sanctity. The latest incident occurs 47 years after Israeli police last invaded the Masjid al-Aqsa main compound. This time, Israeli police stomped through the masjid with their boots and fired stun grenades that set fire to the carpet in the masjid. Over the past year, Israel has taken key steps to entrench its occupation and advance a strategy of annexing part of the Haram for exclusive Jewish use. The Zionist project is devoid of religion but Judaism is a convenient tool for political gain. Hence, the latitude given by Israel to Jewish extremists who claim that Masjid al-Aqsa is built on the ruins of the ancient Jewish Temple Mount is a useful ploy to gain further control of strategic land for geo-political purposes. Jews demanding the right to pray in the Haram where the

Temple Mount is claimed to have been are met with resistance from Palestinians. The ban on non-Muslims entering the Haram was kept in place to prevent conflict and clashes with Muslims who are already under occupation and whose rights to land and justice are routinely eroded in the broader Zionist project. The present crisis came to a head on October 29 when USborn right wing extremist Yehuda Glick was shot by an unknown assailant at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem. This was the pretext Israel needed to invade the Haram and secure a basis for dividing it between Jews and Muslims, presumably as a non-negotiable proposition in the interests of ‘peace keeping’. However, the Haram has much more than geo-political significance. It is sacred to over two billion Muslims in the world. The collective outrage of the Muslim ummah is evident across the globe. It is equally evident that the vast majority of Muslim countries are silent in this latest Israeli

offensive. The governments of Iran, Turkey, Pakistan and Jordan have, albeit in varying degrees, condemned Israel for an act of ‘barbarity’ and ‘terror’. However, it is the silence of the leading Muslim countries, notably Saudi Arabia, which is home to the first and second most sacred Haramain, that is particularly telling at this time. The failure of these governments to lead protest action in defence of Masjid al-Aqsa, such as ending diplomatic ties with Israel, is indicative of the primacy of power over principle. The Saudi monarchy is clearly committed to preserving its political power above its obligation to defend the integrity of the third most holy site in Islam. As a client state of the United States, which is the most important and avowed ally of Israel, the Saudis opt for the disgrace of silence in the face of outrage as opposed to the prospect of relinquishing power should they choose to oppose Israeli aggression. Story MAHMOOD SANGLAY/ Photo SHAFIQ MORTON

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Muslim Views . November 2014

Crime is worsened by a weak public sector

OUTH Africa’s crime problem has for long been part of international news. This year has been particularly sensational for the media. Two stories, one of a convicted killer and another of an alleged killer currently on trial have made headlines. The reason for the protracted media interest, and therefore apparent public interest, is that the one is a sports celebrity and the other a wealthy British tourist who chose South Africa as the destination for the alleged murder of his new bride. More recently, the death of three South African sportspersons, one of them a victim of crime, has similarly sustained headlines. South Africa’s crime problem is compounded by the perverse nature of its media coverage. It is sensationalised by the focus on the rich and famous while the impact of crime on poor and marginalised communities, by comparison, is grossly under-reported. Routine and widespread incidents of serious crimes such as murder and robbery are treated as less newsworthy. Of slightly greater interest are crimes in which middle-class homes and businesses are the targets of criminals. Crimes that affect the vast majority of ordinary South Africans are not sensational and therefore do not get the kind of coverage that sells media products. However, the failure of media to report on this phenomenon does not detract from its public interest value. It remains high on the agenda

for local communities and the vast majority of our citizens. Although it certainly is newsworthy, it is no longer sensational to report that over 161 000 people have been murdered in South Africa since 2004 or that more than 43 people are murdered, on average, every day in South Africa. Similarly, the fact that 5 900 crimes are recorded by the SAPS every day or that 47% of all drug-related crime in the country occur in the Western Cape are not typically headline news. Since 2004, labour unrest, including violent protest, have become commonplace. In addition, public protest specifically targeted lack of housing, service delivery and local council corruption. This pattern of violent protest is still prevalent. It is almost two decades since local communities took to the streets to protest against a lack of public safety and security from the activities of drug lords and gangsters. The fact that these protests have not ceased is an indication that poor communities are still beleaguered by rampant crime and inadequate policing. Police services are not trusted or relied on for public safety and security. Middle and upper class neighbourhoods, though the prime targets of criminals, can afford private security; poor people cannot. In addition, policing in South Africa has acquired a reputation for brutality against legitimate public protest. There is mounting evidence that police continuously use excessive force despite denial by political leaders who blame violence on demonstrators. While much of the problem may be attributed to the deep class divisions in South African society and to corruption within the police services, the role of the degradation of the public service should also be factored in as a major cause of the problem. The government’s adoption of the Growth, Employment and Redistribution Strategy (GEAR) necessitated cuts in state expenditure and a reduction in the numbers of state employees, including those in education, health and policing sectors. This policy was imposed at a time when transformation of the public sector was expected to occur. The consequences and impact on crucial sectors of the public service is clearly evident.

Our editorial comment represents the composite viewpoint of the Editorial Team of Muslim Views, and is the institutional voice of the newspaper. Correspondence can be sent to editor@mviews.co.za

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From Vygekraal to London to Gaza: fasting for Palestine MAHMOOD SANGLAY

OVER ten years ago, on Monday, March 22, 2004, Shaikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, was assassinated in Gaza by Israel in his wheelchair after returning from pre-dawn prayers. A helicopter gunship launched three missiles at the 66-year-old leader, killing him as well as seven others, and wounding another 17 civilians. Shaikh Yassin’s struggle for the freedom of Palestine was remembered in prayers across the globe. The next day, Tuesday, March 23, 2004, the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) called, at short notice, for a mass funeral prayer in absentia of the deceased (Salaatul Ghaib) at the Vygekraal Stadium, in Cape Town, where over 500 Muslims joined in the prayer. After the prayers, the MJC announced a sustainable initiative to build solidarity with the Palestinians and spread awareness of their struggle for freedom. Hence ‘fasting till Palestine is liberated’ commenced on Thursday, March 25, 2004, and has been observed every Thursday thereafter. The fast of Thursday, March 27, 2014, therefore marked its tenth anniversary on the Gregorian calendar. On the Islamic calendar, the tenth anniversary fast was on Thursday, Safar 2, 1435 (corresponding to Thursday December 5, 2013). The purpose of the fast is to appeal to Allah to ease the burden of suffering of the Palestinians and to grant them victory in ‘our lifetime’. According to Yoonis Allie, of the Al Quds Foundation of South Africa, the practice has been sustained without fail ever since in the form of an iftar programme at a masjid for those participating in the fast. Allie says the iftar programme is offered at a different masjid every week on a rotational basis from Maghrib till Esha prayers. Iftar commences after Maghrib prayers and is followed by an introduction by Shaikh Ebrahim Gabriels to the programme to the local community contextualising the fast, its purpose and significance. Thereafter, Moulana Ihsaan Hendricks presents a talk and an update on the latest developments in Palestine. Usually, the update reflects the events over the past weeks or month. Once a month, a Palestinian, introduced as Abu Ahmad, presents a PowerPoint show in which these developments are explained as part of the educational initiative. Although the programme started on the Cape Flats, it has traversed the West Coast, the Boland and the South Peninsula

five times over the ten years. In addition, it has reached out to congregations in the Eastern Cape, Gauteng and Kimberley. The whole team usually travels to these destinations once a month to address the respective congregations. Over the past five years, the programme has also been adopted internationally in Malaysia, Lebanon, Jordan and the United Kingdom. Moulana Hendricks told Muslim Views that it was also officially adopted at a conference in Yemen a year after its launch in Vygekraal. However, the most remarkable development is that it has been adopted in Gaza, Palestine, as well. Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Shaikh Raed Salah, the leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, and Shaikh Kamal Khatib of Kafr Kanna have formally adopted the programme. The latter two leaders, who are banned from coming to within a 10km radius of Masjid Al Aqsa, have for the past five years made extraordinary efforts to gather congregations every Thursday, despite Israeli blockades and checkpoints. Shaikh Raed addresses his congregation after Maghrib and iftar on the rooftop of a Palestinian businessman’s building every Thursday. This location offers them a view of the Dome of the Rock, adjacent to Masjid Al Aqsa. It is noteworthy that since 2002 Israel has launched major attacks on Gaza. Following the assassination in 2002 of the head of the Hamas military wing, Salah Shehadeh (and killing 14 others, including women and children), Shaikh Yassin was assassinated in 2004. The following month, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, the co-founder of Hamas, was assassinated. In 2006, Israel launched a ground and air offensive in southern Gaza, three days after one of its soldiers, Gilad Shalit, was abducted. In 2008, Israel launched air and ground assaults on Gaza, killing more than 120 Palestinians. In December that year, 1 400 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli blitz of the Gaza Strip. In 2010, Israel attacked a convoy of ships with aid in breach of its naval blockade of the Gaza Strip, killing nine Turks. In March 2012, an Israeli strike on Gaza City killed the head of the Popular Resistance Committees and 25 Gazans. In November, the Hamas military commander Ahmed Jaabari was assassinated. July and August this year saw the worst attack on Gaza yet with an assault on a civilian population over seven weeks of Israeli bombardment and a ground invasion. More than 2 200 people were killed, the vast majority of them Gazan civilians, women and children.

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Muslim Views . November 2014

Global halaal industry outstrips oil trade MAHMOOD SANGLAY

THE 2014 CIA World Factbook records that the world’s mineral fuel export trade (including oil, coal, gas and refined products) accounts for $2,69 trillion (14,4%) of the total global export trade value of $18,71 trillion in 2013. In comparison, the world’s halaal industry is at present estimated at $2,3 trillion per annum. This is according to Wan Azahmuddin Josoh, deputy director of Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation. This effectively means that the value of the global halaal market probably exceeds the oil market alone, even if oil constitutes 85% of all mineral fuel trade in the world. The Saudi deputy chairman of the Council of Saudi Chambers, Farhad Al Rabiah, says $700 billion of the global halaal trade is located in Islamic markets. If more than half ($1,3 trillion) of the global halaal trade is outside of Islamic markets, but of interest to the Muslim consumer, one can expect a scramble for lion’s shares in the world halaal market by all and sundry among governments, multinational corporations and the salt-of-theearth variety capitalists. What complicates matters is that halaal is a religious requirement exclusively for the Muslim consumer, as prescribed by the laws of fiqh in Islam. Compounding it further, much further, is that the emerging global halaal market is largely unregulated and effectively operates in a standardisation vacuum.

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Considered in isolation, this may be a controversial and unfounded statement to make, given the proliferation of bodies like the World Halal Council (WHC), the Halal World Institute (HWI) and the Halal International Authority (HIA). But seen in the context of international standards and regulatory frameworks, it is a patent fact. Let’s stay with the oil industry as an example. The global oil market is a mature one, operating in an environment of international laws and regulations that cover aspects such as standardisation, contract risk management, international boundary and production agreements and the risk of international sanctions. The world halaal market has no such environment and is fraught with deep political and religious complexities. Yet, it offers highly unprecedented commercial opportunities for the standardisation of the industry by entities such the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO). However, just as ‘world’ and ‘international’ halaal bodies proliferate, so do halaal trade exhibitions. In 2014 alone, at least ten international halaal trade expos were held in Dubai, Sharjah, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Japan, Germany, Paris and Russia. This is an indication of the vibrance and astonishingly diverse reach of the industry. However, the commercial interests of halaal-related businesses and service providers in respect of sales and marketing are

The Malaysia International Halal Showcase (Mihas) CEO, Mohammed Shukri Abdullah, addressed a breakfast meeting with potential exhibitors at the Alhambra Restaurant, in Lansdowne, Cape Town, on October 17. He is flanked by his host, Nazreen Salie, left, and Arifa Parkar of AASHA Business Services. Photo MAHMOOD SANGLAY

not entirely independent of the commercial interests in halaal certification; nor is it independent of the ethics, theology and politics of halaal in the market place. Hence, some strategic positioning moves are afoot in recent years by the key Muslim stakeholders in the industry. A World Halal Summit is in the making, scheduled for April 1 to 4, 2015, in Kuala Lumpur, with the ambitious aim of ‘Redefining the Halal Ecosystem’. This event is designed to incorporate both the commercial and ideological aspects of the global halaal market place. The 12th Malaysia International Halal Showcase (Mihas) is the expo part of the event, driven

by clear commercial interests and providing opportunities for exhibitors and buyers of halaal products and services. The Conference and Forum part of the summit involves a series of seven conferences, including a multaqa (forum) for ulama. Malaysian entrepreneur, CEO and founder of Mihas, Mohammad Shukri Abdullah, who visited South Africa recently, says the ulama multaqa will be an opportunity for leading world ulama to confer, debate and resolve a range of issues, not necessarily related to the halaal industry. Presumably, it is also an opportunity to engage issues such as trade with Israel and the BDS

movement, a policy on issues like child labour, global food security, food wastage, health standards and environmental sustainability. Also important are the governance of halaal certification bodies, locally and internationally, the regulation of halaal certification and the need for greater accountability and transparency. Abdullah also attended the World Halal Council’s (WHC) twelfth AGM from October 17 to 19. The WHC represents all the major South African halaal authorities, namely the MJC Halaal Trust, SANHA, NIHT and ICSA. Shaikh Thafier Najjaar is vice president of ICSA and of the WHC. He told Muslim Views that the ‘most pertinent resolution’ of the WHC was the ‘finalisation’ of its standards. Shaikh Najjaar also confirmed that the WHC, and therefore its members in South Africa, heed the BDS call to support Palestine, and that its code of conduct addresses issues such as child labour, global food security, food wastage, health standards and environmental sustainability. In addition, he said that the WHC now has an ‘audit committee’ to ensure good governance, accountability and transparency.

Muslim Views . November 2014

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Muslim Views . November 2014

Naqshbandi Grand Shaikh unites disciples MAHMOOD SANGLAY

THE Naqshbandi Muhammadi Order of South Africa hosted Grand Shaikh Muhammad Adil, the Grand Shaikh of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order, from October 22 to 30. While the Grand Shaikh’s visit was primarily for the benefit of his disciples (mureeds) in the Western Cape, his last four days in South Africa were devoted to visits to the Eastern Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu Natal. Shaikh Muhammad Adil, 57, is the son and successor of the much-loved Shaikh Muhammad Nazim Al Haqqani who passed away on May 7 this year, aged 92. Shaikh Muhammad Adil is also fondly known as Shaikh Mehmed Effendi. Shaikh Muhammad Adil has been in South Africa before, in 2001, with his father. According to Gasan Omar, media liaison officer for the shaikh’s tour, Shaikh Nazim Al Haqqani’s paternal lineage has its roots in the person of Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani, founder of the Qadiriyya Order. His maternal lineage may be traced to Moulana Jalaluddin Rumi, founder of the Mevlevi Order. ‘He is Hassani-Hussaini, related to the Prophet (SAW) through the lineages of his grandfathers to the family of the Prophet (SAW), and Shaikh Muhammad Adil is his eldest son,’ says Omar. His programme consisted of daily pre-dawn spiritual exercises (adhkaar), visits to various tombs of well-known spiritual leaders in South Africa, including the tomb of Shaikh Yusuf, in Macassar, and

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Shaikh Muhammad Adil is pictured (top left) in a recitation of salutations to the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) with his mureeds at the official welcoming ceremony on October 22, and in prayer (above) at Azzavia Masjid, in Walmer Estate, on October 23. The early monochrome image (left) of Shaikh Nazim Al Haqqani shows him with his two sons Bahauddin Effendi (on the left of the picture and Muhammad Adil as children. Shaikh Bahauddin Effendi accompanied Shaikh Muhammad Adil on the visit to South Africa last month. Photos SHAFIQ MORTON and MAHMOOD SANGLAY; monochrome SUPPLIED

that of Khalid Shah Bawa, in Benoni. According to Omar, the shaikh frequently visited the poor and needy. Such visits included the mureeds in Blikkiesdorp, Delft and Kayamandi Primary School, in Stellenbosch. The shaikh announced the building of two

additional classrooms in the overcrowded school, which will also be used as a madrassah for Muslims. An important development emanating from the visit of Shaikh Muhammad Adil, is the reconciliation between the leader (khalifa) of Naqshbandi Muhammadi in South Africa, Shaikh

Yusuf da Costa, and other disciples of the local chapter. For over five years, relations between factions within the local order were tense, inter alia, due to discontent with the leadership of the order. According to Omar, all the members of the local order ‘are now united again’ after Shaikh

Muhammad Adil made resolute demands on his disciples to resolve their problems. Before Shaikh Muhammad Adil’s departure from South Africa all the mureeds congregated at Shaikh Yusuf da Costa’s home where the latter said ‘what happened in the past is in the past’. Omar told Muslim Views that Imam Hassen Walele, who was granted permission (ijaza) by Shaikh Nazim Al Haqqani to take the oath of allegiance (bay’ah) to the Naqshbandi Order, may continue to do so, with the blessings of Shaikh da Costa. Masjidul Jumuah in Phoenix, Milnerton, where Imam Walele leads the congregation, was not originally part of the programme of Shaikh Muhammad Adil. However, this was changed after his intervention, and Shaikh da Costa and his disciples attended the programme at this masjid. According to the Naqshbandi Muhammadi Order of South Africa, its history can be traced to two phases, the first being the period from 1694, with Shaikh Yusuf of Macassar to 1998. The end of this phase saw figures like Shaikh Abdul-Qadir, Master Ismail Chogle and AbdulHay Chogle whose khilafah showed ‘very little known evidence of the growth’ of the order. The second phase commenced with the establishment of the Haqqani Foundation in 1998 by Shaikh Hisham Kabbani, the American khalifah of Shaikh Nazim Al Haqqani. The latter facilitated the appointment of Shaikh Yusuf da Costa as the khalifah in Southern Africa.

Muslim Views . November 2014

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Muslim Views . November 2014

Protecting the environment is an ‘act of faith’ MAHMOOD SANGLAY

INTERNATIONAL Peace College South Africa (IPSA) and Muslims for Eco-Justice presented an inaugural Environmental Justice Seminar entitled Fiqh Al-Bi’ah fi al-Islam (Towards an Islamic Jurisprudence of the Environment) on November 1, at the IPSA campus. The keynote address for the event was delivered by Professor Mustafa Abu Sway of Al Quds University in Palestine. However, Prof Abu-Sway was prevented by the Israeli government from attending the event, hence his participation was by means of a live video link. Although his physical absence was partly mitigated by the digital alternative, the irony of the apartheid state’s impact on the Holy Land was not missed by the audience of 80 delegates. Abu Sway argues that our relationship with the environment should be regulated by shariah as ‘an act of faith’. He calls for jurisprudential intervention, as opposed to philosophical engagement, on the human relationship with the environment because of the need for behaviour change. Abu Sway provides ample Quranic and Hadith evidence supporting his call for legislating the protection of the environment. Relying on the work of classical scholars such as Imam AlGhazali he calls for hifdh al-bi’ah (protection of the environment) to be included as one of the higher objectives (maqasid) of the shariah, among traditional higher objectives such as the preserva-

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Dr Najma Mohamed addressed delegates at IPSA’s inaugural ecojustice seminar on November 1. She proposes the development of relevant curriculum materials, relevant training of religious leaders and madrassah teachers. Photo MAHMOOD SANGLAY

tion of human life (hifdh al-hayat) and religion (hifdh al-din). Imam Dr Abdul Rashied Omar of Claremont Main Road Masjid was introduced as the imam of the first masjid to be registered as an ‘eco-congregation’ which means, inter-alia, that the masjid conducts audits of its water consumption. Eco-congregations are faithbased communities committed to living in greater harmony and more sustainably on the earth in response to the wisdom of sacred texts and faith traditions. Imam Omar also provides extensive references from the

Quran and the Prophetic Traditions to show why Muslims should lead initiatives to sustain the ecological balance, protect the environment, conserve energy and pursue values consistent with eco-justice, including kindness to animals. He makes an interesting reference to a contemporary American scholar, Dr Khaled Abou El Fadl, who challenges the widespread Muslim prejudice against dogs by adopting stray dogs and caring for them. Imam Rashied endorses Abu Sway’s proposal of including hifdh al-bi’ah as a category under

the maqasid of the shariah. However, Imam Omar goes a step further and says hifdh al bi’ah should also be included in the curricula of the relevant institutions of learning. A second proposal of Imam Omar is the proliferation of ecocongregations beyond his own with a view to create greater awareness among Muslims, and to reduce the carbon footprint of masajid. Dr Najma Mohamed, Policy Advisor for the Green Fund at the Development Bank of South Africa, addressed the theme ‘Environmental Education in the Muslim World: Putting Islamic Ecological Ethics into Action.’ She emphasises moral and spiritual solutions found in faith communities. Islam, she argues, offers a compelling basis for the theory and practice of a civilisation founded on eco-justice. Mohamed identifies several publications for Muslim children that promote sound ecological values as well as a number of local and international faithbased initiatives by Muslims demonstrating such values in practice. In addition, she expounds on the eco-justice ethics of Islam and how environmental education can be used to increase knowledge and awareness, build values and attitudes of Muslims and participate in the resolution of environ-

mental problems in society. She identifies four major Muslim institutions, namely the masjid, the madrassah as an adult Muslim training institution, the madrassah as a local community learning centre for children and the Muslim school as part of a process of ‘greening the educational landscape of Islam’. As a way forward, Mohamed proposes the consolidation of theoretical work on Islam and environmental education, and showcasing practical environmental educational initiatives in the Muslim world. She also proposes the development of relevant curriculum materials, relevant training of religious leaders and madrassah teachers. Kate Davies, the eco-congregations programme coordinator at the South African Faith Communities Environment Institute (Safcei) called on Muslims to join their movement to build eco-congregations. Safcei is committed to this because all faith communities inherently care for people and the environment and because human survival depends on the sustainability of life on earth. She says that religious leaders are more trustworthy than political leaders, hence Safcei’s commitment to work with faith communities in South Africa. The presenters, in response to a question from Muslim Views, agreed that eco-justice projects must take into account the radical class disparities at local community level and that they should not be elitist and middle-class initiatives that ignore the realities of the poor masses.

Muslim Views . November 2014

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Muslim Views . November 2014

The political significance of Numsa’s expulsion from Cosatu DR DALE T McKINLEY

II is arguably the most important political development of South Africa’s post-1994 era. On Saturday, November 8, South Africa’s largest union, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) was expelled by the majority of the leadership belonging to South Africa’s largest union federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu). The political significance of Numsa’s expulsion derives from three key, inter-related areas of impact. On the ANC-led alliance Since 1994, the alliance between the African National Congress (ANC), South African Communist Party (SACP) and Cosatu has relied heavily on the maintenance of a politically accommodative union leadership. Despite numerous and politically-charged policy disagreements, wars of words over the functioning of the alliance and leadership power plays, the respective leaderships have always held the alliance to be politically sacrosanct. Even if Numsa’s earlier announcement of its withdrawal of electoral and political support for the ANC signalled serious trouble on this front, its expulsion confirms a definitive political rupture within the leadership ranks of Cosatu. In other words, papering over the regular cracks with another ‘alliance summit’, attempting to isolate individual union leaders via personalised innuendo and public attack and ‘disciplining’ troublesome unionists through

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suspensions and dismissals is no longer going to cut it. At the post-expulsion press conference on Sunday, November 9, Numsa General Secretary Irvin Jim put it bluntly: ‘Cosatu has become consumed by internal battles between two forces; those who continue to support the ANC and SACP with their neo-liberal agenda and those who despite their understanding of the ANC as a multi-class organisation, consciously and consistently fight for an independent, militant federation.’ Already riven by their own factional and power-mongering battles, the ANC and SACP leaderships now have even more reason to fear for the future not only of the alliance but of the longer-term political positioning of their own parties. When the ANC describes Numsa’s expulsion as ‘tragic’ and a ‘huge setback’ what they are really conveying are their own political insecurities and shock at the failure of their ‘unity building’ charades. Meanwhile, the SACP is so blinded by its own political arrogance and embeddedness within the factional bowels of ANC and state power that all it can muster is to express its ‘full confidence in Cosatu’s capacity to resolve whatever internal challenges it may face from time to time’. The constructed political consensus that has up until now succeeded in keeping the alliance limping along has been shattered. As a result, in the coming months and years we are likely to witness the further fracturing of what is left of the alliance. The Cosatu rump will increasingly play the role of labour

imbongi to the intensification of ANC/SACP-driven policies designed to intensify the commodification and general privatisation of state and society. On the labour movement The Cosatu ‘giant’ that has played such a pivotal role on South Africa’s political landscape over the last three decades has been mortally wounded by Numsa’s expulsion. Regardless of the bravado displayed by the ‘victorious’ Cosatu faction, the expulsion will only serve to widen the existing political, ideological and organisational divisions between themselves and rank-and-file union members. Numsa has stated that it intends to hold nationwide meetings to ‘lobby’ both its and Cosatu’s members to reject its expulsion while those unions who have generally supported Numsa and opposed its expulsion have indicated that they will continue with their legal battle to force the Cosatu leadership to hold a Special National Congress. However, it is extremely improbable that these actions will, even if successful, be able to bridge the deepening chasms that now engulf Cosatu. Whatever the longer-term organisational outcomes within Cosatu from the ongoing fallout of Numsa’s expulsion, the political realities of what has happened cannot be reversed. Just as it is impossible to turn the clock back to a time before neo-liberal capitalism radically restructured the working class to meet its own needs, attempts (however well intentioned) to ‘return Cosatu and its affiliates to … a united, militant, revolution-

ary, socialist, independent, worker controlled, democratic movement’ are illusory. Some of the horses have bolted from the (political) stable. The key challenge for the labour movement is not to try and return them but to run with them onto a new terrain of political independence and relevance. On other progressive/left forces Almost a year ago, Numsa decided to ‘lead in the establishment of a new United Front that will coordinate struggles in the workplace and in communities’ with the stated task being ‘to fight for the implementation of the Freedom Charter and be an organisational weapon against neo-liberal policies such as the National Development Plan’. Since then, a number of political discussion forums, meetings and educational and practical activities focused on building this ‘Front’ have taken place, with Numsa recently announcing that it will be formally launched next month. Despite lingering questions about the ‘Front’s’ ideological orientation and organisational character as well as the extent of political buy-in from Numsa’s own rank-and-file members, its expulsion from Cosatu now provides Numsa the political opportunity to more fully de-link the ‘Front’ from its Charterist and Alliance framings. Not only will this allow the maximum political space to harmonise the widely divergent political and organisational cultures and practices of South Africa’s progressive/ left forces, it can go a long way in bringing together largely disconnected labour and

community struggles. It would be a politically strategic mistake for Numsa and its existing ‘Front’ allies to interpret the union’s expulsion as a green light to move rapidly towards the establishment of a socialist political party to contest elections. Doing so would undermine the very basis for political unity amongst still ideologically and tactically disparate forces. What Numsa’s expulsion does give a green light to, however, is fully embracing the patient but systematic building of a new political movement through unity in active struggle. It is this kind of movement that can stand as a solid foundation upon which a sustained political alternative to the ANC/SACP party machine can potentially flourish. Just last month, Cosatu General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi told a gathering of Cosatu shop stewards that Numsa’s expulsion would (as part of a larger, ongoing dismemberment of the union federation) lead to a ‘nightmare’ scenario. While certain elements of Vavi’s scenario might well turn out to be a ‘nightmare’ for some, there is a decidedly different kind of interpretation possible for others when it comes to Numsa’s expulsion. As the union’s Irvin Jim put it yesterday, it can mark ‘the start of a new revolution’. Now that’s politically significant. This article by Dr McKinley, an independent writer, researcher and lecturer as well as political activist, was first published on the The South African Civil Society Information Service website: sacsis.org.za

Muslim Views . November 2014

Why I support the #Boycott Woolworths campaign in South Africa REV EDWIN ARRISON

I FEEL that I owe people an explanation about why I have decided to boycott Woolworths. This is a personal decision and is not something I can enforce on any other person but I need to explain my decision; others can and must make their own decisions. If I have not convinced others through my arguments then the responsibility lies with me and not with the other person. One thing that I hope all humanity wishes for and works for, is to have an as-non-violentas-possible resolution to the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. I do not think wishing for it is enough, and neither do I believe that non-violence is something

only to be talked about: no, it is something ordinary citizens must do. If there is no non-violent action then I believe we are simply complicit in the violence happening. As a South African, I am the beneficiary of a sustained boycott campaign against Apartheid South Africa by ordinary citizens across the globe. The freedom I enjoy today is partly because women and men across the world refused to buy Apartheid South Africa’s goods, even if their governments allowed those goods to be imported into their countries. Sometimes, groups of people protested with placards in front of stores and embassies; at other times, a lone individual did that, and for all of them I am extremely grateful.

I also know that boycotts and sanctions do have a positive effect even if it is experienced as negative.

Today, Israel practices Apartheid 2.0 Supporters of Israel will vehemently try and argue and deny this but the experience of Palestinians in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, and of many observers, is that Israel practises a very sophisticated form of apartheid. Besides these daily experiences and observations, there are research documents to prove that Israel practices Apartheid 2.0 – one done by South Africa’s own Human Science Research Council (HSRC) and by the work of the Russell Tribunal. This information is widely available on the internet. Israel also continued to

support Apartheid South Africa even after the USA decided to implement sanctions against South Africa. There are also thousands of newspaper articles and videos that describe this. Supporters of Israel will want to argue that this happens in other countries as well but in their case (and one of the key reasons why I feel so strongly about this) it is being done on the basis of some selected Biblical texts, the same Bible that I read every day. And I definitely do not agree that the current state of Israel complies with the basic tenets of the Biblical text, which are love, equality and justice. My own view is that Israel makes life as difficult as possible for ordinary Palestinian people in order to force them out and get them to emigrate so that Israel

can win a ‘demographic war’ – in other words, for Israelis to be in the majority. This strategy has worked well with tens of thousands of Palestinian Christians who are economically strong: most of them have emigrated and now live in different parts of the world. The ones who remain are being steadfast but I know how difficult it is for them there. I therefore find the ‘Christian’ support for Israel completely weird and unacceptable: here is a country that has, through big and small actions, driven out Christians from the Holy Land and yet other Christians find reasons, most of it completely illogical, to support them. CONTINUED ON PAGE 13

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Muslim Views . November 2014

#Boycott Woolworths: another view PROF STEVEN FRIEDMAN

BOYCOTTS, divestment and sanctions are the most effective weapon Palestinians have ever had. Which makes it a tragedy that some attitudes and strategies in the BDS movement do so much harm to the Palestinian cause. An example is the Woolworth’s boycott. Even before campaigners threw away much of its moral power by placing a pig’s head in a Cape Town store, it seemed likely to do far more to damage than help the fight for Palestinian rights. The Woolworth’s campaign is probably unwinnable. Boycotting an entire store is a much greater risk than simply boycotting Israeli goods because, if stores remove the products, they risk alienating customers who want to buy them. If Woolworths agrees to the boycott demands, it may well face a boycott from supporters of the Israeli state. And so it may be no better off if it agrees to drop Israeli products and it might as well refuse. This is a huge problem because the Israeli state and its backers are used to winning – the impression that they always win is a core element in their strategy: in the 1920s, the right-wing Zionist Ze’ev Jabotinsky wrote that Palestinians would never accept Israeli domination unless they were forced to realise that resistance was futile because they could never win. And so, even small victories weaken them – a losing boycott plays into their hands. Boycotts must also rely on

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In this country, the problem has just become much worse because the barons have decided to place boycott activity in the hands not of volunteers but ANC structures. This drives away those who do not support the ANC, and leaves the campaign open to the charge of hypocrisy because the ANC whose supporters place pig’s heads in stores is in charge of a government which does little to support Palestinian demands. mobilising as many people as possible – the fight against apartheid showed that the major powers’ governments only place pressure on human rights abusers if their citizens force them, and so boycotts rely on citizen power. People must be persuaded that the boycott is moral and reasonable, and boycotting must be as easy as possible for boycotters. The Woolworth’s boycott ignores all these requirements. We have not been told why we should boycott Woolworths. The boycott organisers don’t say that it does more to support the Israeli state than its competitors – on the contrary, it admits that Dischem, for example, is more vocal in its support for Israel (Pick n Pay’s owners, incidentally, have been avidly supporting Israel for years). So why choose Woolworths? The organisers will only say that strategy means that a target had to be chosen. They won’t say why they chose this target.

We are, therefore, meant to take their decision on trust. But why should we give the worst offenders a free pass just because a group of organisers decide we should –without telling us why? This may work for the very committed but not for the thousands who sympathise with the Palestinian cause but will only boycott if they are given good reasons. And so the boycott is deprived of many supporters. Boycotting an entire store also makes life difficult for many of the boycotters because Woolworths stocks some lines which they cannot get anywhere else. The sacrifice they are asked to make is too great and so they don’t stop shopping there – they just do it when no-one is watching. The attitudes of the Woolworths boycott organisers are not an isolated example – they are the norm among BDS leaders. It is no accident that we are not told why Woolworths was chosen – those

who run the BDS movement believe they have the sole right to decide and that we should simply follow. BDS has missed many opportunities because it is dominated by barons who make sure that anyone with a different view on what should be done is ignored and relegated to the margins. Disagree on strategy and the barons won’t debate you – they will simply freeze you out. And so many good ideas are ignored because the BDS leadership is threatened by independent thinkers. If you don’t like this treatment, there is not much you can do: BDS organisations don’t seem to recruit members or hold congresses where strategy could be debated. So, if you want to join the movement to challenge strategy, it is not clear how you would go about it. In this country, the problem has just become much worse

because the barons have decided to place boycott activity in the hands not of volunteers but ANC structures. This drives away those who do not support the ANC, and leaves the campaign open to the charge of hypocrisy because the ANC whose supporters place pig’s heads in stores is in charge of a government which does little to support Palestinian demands. It also drains the boycott of its life’s blood – people who support the cause rather than a party – and makes it even harder to challenge strategy if you don’t belong to the ANC. BDS deserves better. We do no favour to the Palestinian cause by following those who lead us down blind allies by claiming the sole right to decide what we do and why. Professor Steven Friedman is Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Rhodes University/ University of Johannesburg.

Muslim Views . November 2014 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

Right now, Israel is trying to make Jerusalem a Jewish-only city through various actions. It is time we all wake up to what Israel is doing and how it continues to steal more and more land. Coming from a country that practised apartheid in all sorts of ways (and using the Bible to justify it), I cannot condone the same situation happening in another part of the world and be quiet about it. President Mandela had a very deep intuition when he said that ‘South Africans will not be free until the people of Palestine are free’. He was completely right, and people such as Archbishop Tutu and many others support the struggle of the Palestinian people despite the worst kind of criticisms they face.

Woolworths chooses to trade with the Apartheid Israel described above It must be said that Woolworths is not the only company that trades with Apartheid Israel,

It is time we all wake up to what Israel is doing and how it continues to steal more and more land and that the South African government enables this trade to happen. For that reason, 200 000 people marched to Parliament on August 9 to call on our government to stop this but they have still not done so. But we will not leave it there. We will continue to expose our government’s double standards. That is a discussion for another article. Woolworths has now been approached (through letters that I and others have written to their CEO) to stop trade with Israel and they have deliberately chosen to ignore these calls. Having made this clear and deliberate choice against stopping trade with Israel, it places Woolworths in a category where they are now deliberately culpable in the continued oppression of the Palestinian people. Woolworths claims to be ethical, if not the most ethical company. Those who make claims about

their high ethical standards must be challenged to live by it. This is part of the reason why I support the #Boycott Woolworths campaign.

The need to focus on one retailer (from a strategic and practical point of view) Sometimes people speak about other companies who also have ties with Israel, and this is true. If others feel they should boycott a few companies, they should go ahead and do that. But to be effective as a campaign, I strongly believe in the need to focus on one target and deal with that. You will simply dilute your energy, resources and capacities if you try to do too many things at the same time. At another time, when more people have joined and there are more resources, the campaign can be broadened to the other retailers who also have links with

Israel but I strongly believe in the need to focus on one – it is the only way that the campaign will succeed. These are some of my most important reasons why I boycott Woolworths. People are free to challenge me but I hope that at the very least you will try to understand why I feel so strongly about this. The moment Woolworths stops its trade with Israel, I will probably support it again. But not while it trades with a country that practises Apartheid 2.0 daily, and that on the basis of a few selected Biblical texts.

If you wish to join the boycott, here are some ways to participate

l The simplest way is obviously to just stop buying at Woolworths, and do nothing more than that, and that will be enough for some people. l Clients can write to Wool-

worths to ask them to take them off their address lists. l Clients can close their accounts if they feel this is what they are able to do. l Use social media to mention that you support the #Boycott Woolworths campaign. l Write letters to the editors of newspapers if they misrepresent the campaign. l People can demonstrate in front of Woolworths stores from time to time. l People can demonstrate inside Woolworths stores by, for example, filling up trollies and refusing to pay until that particular branch manager of Woolworths gives an undertaking to not stock Israeli goods. l People can write to the PIC, which has almost 20% shares in Woolworths. Rev Edwin Arrison, is the chairperson of the National Coalition for Palestine (NC4P)

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Muslim Views . November 2014

Lindiwe Sisulu and the New Denialism RICHARD PITHOUSE

IN 2005, early in her first term as Minister of Housing, Lindiwe Sisulu announced that the state had resolved to ‘eradicate slums’ by 2014. This was a time when the technocratic ideal had more credibility than it does now and officials and politicians often spoke, with genuine conviction, as if it were an established fact that this aspiration would translate into reality. It was not unusual for people trying to engage the state around questions of urban land and housing to be rebuffed as troublemakers, either ignorant or malicious, on the grounds that it was an established fact that there would be no more shacks by 2014. As we head towards the end of 2014, there are considerably more people living in shacks than there were in 2005, in 1994 or at any point in our history. The gulf between the state’s aspirations to shape society and what actually happens in society has also been starkly illustrated at the more local level. Sisulu’s flagship housing project, the N2 Gateway project in Cape Town, resulted in acute conflict and remains in various kinds of crisis to this day. One of the lessons to be learnt from the denialism around the nature and scale of the urban crisis that characterised Thabo Mbeki’s Presidency is that although the state is certainly a powerful actor, it has often been profoundly wrong about its capacity to understand and to shape social reality. But Sisulu’s first term as the

Minister of Housing is not only remembered for her failure to grasp either the scale of the demand for urban land and housing or the limits of the state’s response. There was also a marked authoritarianism to her approach. She did not oppose the escalating and consistently unlawful violence with which municipalities across the country were attempting to contain the physical manifestation of the urban crisis via land occupations. Sisulu also offered her full support to the failed attempt, first proposed in the Polokwane Resolutions, and then taken forward in the KwaZulu-Natal parliament in the form of the Slums Act in 2007, to roll back some of the limited rights that had been conceded in the early years of democracy to people occupying land without the consent of the state or private land owners. At the same time, she also earned some notoriety for her unilateral, and clearly unlawful, declaration in 2007 that residents of the Joe Slovo settlement in Cape Town would be permanently removed from the (entirely mythical) ‘housing list’ for opposing forced removal. She was also silent in the face of the violence marshalled through party structures against shack dwellers who had had the temerity to organise around issues of urban land and housing independently of the ANC in both Durban and on the East Rand, in 2009 and 2010. Her second term as Minister, in a portfolio now termed Human Settlements, has been marked by a

similar silence in response to the even more brazen forms of repression, including assassination, now visited on people organised outside of the ANC in shack settlements in Durban. But there have been some important shifts in her position. One is that, like her predecessor Tokyo Sexwale, she no longer speaks as if the ‘eradication of slums’ is imminent. In this regard, the state has developed a more realistic understanding of the situation it confronts. Another shift is Sisulu’s opposition to unlawful evictions in Cape Town. This is, given her on-going silence in response to violent and unlawful evictions elsewhere in the country, clearly an expedient rather than a principled position. But in a context where land occupations are routinely misrepresented through the lens of criminality or political conspiracy, her framing of her opposition to eviction in Cape Town in the language of justice may open some space in elite publics to politicise the contestation over urban land, something that is relentlessly expelled from the terrain of the political by a variety of elite actors. But it is Sisulu’s recent declaration that the state intends to do away with the provision of free housing and that people under 40 will no longer be eligible for public housing that has been particularly controversial. Both aspects of this comment position her in direct contradiction to the law and the policies to which the government is, at least in principle, committed. This is nothing new. When it comes to its response to the urban

land occupation, the state routinely speaks and acts in direct contradiction to both law and policy. What is significant here is the indication that the state, increasingly short of cash, intends to step back from some of its commitments to sustain some forms of public welfare. Sisulu is presenting the state’s public housing programme as if it were a temporary state response to apartheid, which, now that things have been normalised, can be abandoned. Both parts of this equation are seriously problematic. The ANC, in a posture that these days is simply farcical given that it is Putin rather than Lenin that restores the sparkle to Zuma’s eyes in tough times, likes to pretend to itself that it is a revolutionary organisation. But public housing, far from being some kind of unique and temporary South African exception to the general status quo, is a standard part of even basic social democratic programmes. Countries in the South, like Bolivia, Brazil and Venezuela all have public housing programmes of various kinds. These programmes all have serious flaws but the fact that they exist and that other states are committed to public housing as a principle, should not be denied. In Venezuela, the public housing programme includes housing that is entirely free for entirely impoverished people. There are also governments in the South that have actively sought to legalise land occupations and support the improvement of conditions in shack settlements. Sisulu’s assertion that people

under 40 ‘have lost nothing [to apartheid]’ is one of the most extraordinary statements to have escaped from the mouth of a cabinet minister since 1994. The pretence that apartheid’s consequences came to an end in 1994 is the sort of denialism that is so out of touch with reality – and in a way that works to naturalise inequalities inherited from a long history of brutal oppression that turned race into class – that it’s almost obscene to even engage it as if it were a serious proposition. In a situation in which millions of people cannot access housing through the market, the state should recognise the social value of land occupations, offer all the support that it can to improve conditions in shack settlements and develop the best and most extensive public housing programme possible. But, if the state continues to see most land occupations as criminal and to curtail its own public housing programme, it will place millions of people in a situation that is just not viable. The inevitable consequence of the state committing itself to an urban agenda that simply has no place for millions of people will be a radical escalation of the already intense conflict in our cities. To put it plainly, guns will become even more central to how our cities are governed. Sisulu’s comments amount to a declaration of war. This article by Dr Pithouse, who teaches politics at Rhodes University, was first published on the The South African Civil Society Information Service website: sacsis.org.za

Of Orientalism and other madmen SHAFIQ MORTON

EDWARD Said, the Palestinian exile and scholar, cracked the nut on post-colonial prejudice in his seminal work of the 1970s, Orientalism. In it, he exposed what he regarded as institutionalised racism against Arabs and North Africans. In essence, Said argued that western scholars had looked at the east with a jaundiced eye. Predicated by notions of superiority, western academia had misunderstood, misrepresented and misread what constituted the cultural and theological discourse of the Arab and Muslim world. For western scholarship of the late 18th century, when Orientalism gained impetus after Napoleon Bonaparte had invaded Egypt, the term meant someone who studied the Levant. It was a Latin-derived word referring to the sun’s rising in the east – in this case the eastern Mediterranean region between Anatolia and Egypt. While Said has had to withstand academic attack on his work, his central thesis has stood the test of time, despite its alleged errors; this due to the fact that many of those outside the Arab and Muslim tent have visited it with extreme prejudice and conjecture. What Said did was to successfully, and uncomfortably, expose their arrogance. A butt of Said’s public invective was Bernard Lewis, a BritishAmerican historian. Lewis, a professor at Princeton University, was the first to promote the idea of an ‘inevitable’ east-west clash, the so-called ‘clash of civilisations’. This was Muslim Views

Curiously, for his era, he believed in the supremacy of women and said that Muslims should be regarded as ‘half Christians’ picked up by US neo-con, Samuel Huntington, in his sinister treatise on post Cold War politics. Lewis’ methodology, argued Said, was a case of puffed-up agenda-driven intellectualism. It was based on a western-minded self-affirmation that merely enhanced US and European imperialism – and Israeli hegemony. Lewis (an advisor to Bush and Cheney) had replied that Orientalist study had done nothing to further western control. He asked how deciphering the past could contribute to this. The famous linguist, Noam Chomsky, shrewdly accused Lewis of having a short memory on the impact of western meddling and its political cock-ups in the Middle East. I interviewed Bernard Lewis in the 1990s and found him to be a courteous, if not formidable subject. Assured of his views, he was not easily put off his stride – though I did feel that Said and Chomsky had rattled him more than I ever could. I was reminded of Orientalism the other day, for, after writing about the roots of the extremist Wahhabi group, Isis, I was accused of ignorance and depravity. That I did not fit the jihadi mould of anAK47-toting extremist had apparently upset my critic, who commented:

‘[Muhammad]…vomit (pbuh)…what the hell do you know about what happened more than 800 years ago? Shafiq you are brainwashed…all you have is your faith and identity (which is obviously confused)…and that makes you oppose all who are different from you…you are vile…’ I saw this cyber tantrum (from someone with a name ending in ‘itz’) as Orientalism. I saw it as Orientalism not because of its crassness but rather because there appeared to be discomfort with the notion that Isis – the godchild of Ibn Abd ul-Wahhab – didn’t represent mainstream Islam. Later exchanges seemed to indicate that my Muslim-ness precluded me from being qualified to comment on Islam anyway! It led me to re-examining Orientalism, and discovering that its landscape has been dotted with madmen, eccentrics, theological claptrap and flashes of genuine scholarship for centuries. One of the first recognised Orientalists was Ramon Lull, a Franciscan from Majorca, who saw his life work as the conversion of Jews and Muslims. A scholar of considerable note, he was influenced by Al-Farabi and Ibn Sina, and called for the introduction of Arabic into European university syllabuses.

Obsessed with martyrdom, he visited North Africa three times to convert Muslims. On the last occasion, he was stoned by angry townsfolk who’d finally got tired of his incessant provocation. Licking his wounds (he didn’t get martyred) he found his way back to Majorca where he passed away in about 1314. John Wycliffe, the first to translate the bible into English, circa 1324, wrote that Islam was like the Catholic Church – ‘violent, corrupt and greedy’. It was the Catholic Church, and not the Muslims, who dug up his bones 40 years after his death and threw them into a river. In 1356, Sir John Mandeville, a travel writer of French identity – who claimed to be an English knight – wrote in Mark Twain fashion that the ‘coffin’ of the Prophet (SAW) floated in the air, and was suspended by magnets. The Kaabah in Makkah was filled with idols that killed any bird that alighted on it. The Frenchman, Guillame Postel, was regarded as a madman. He believed that Hebrew was the primary Semitic language. He was a linguist par excellence. In Istanbul, he learnt Arabic so fast his teacher thought he was a demon, and when he departed for the Holy Land in 1549 with a grey beard, it’s said he miraculously

returned with a black one. Curiously, for his era, he believed in the supremacy of women and said that Muslims should be regarded as ‘half Christians’. He was impressed by the east and wrote that ‘all things we hold in the west as of extraordinary edifice are like mere shadows of oriental excellences’. The author Robert Irwin says that Postel was driven by a fear of Islamic hegemony, a pathology that is noticeable in many western societies today that seem to think that the ‘Muslims are coming’. Another French Orientalist, Silvestre de Sacy, could not speak Arabic. On the other hand, the Englishman David Margoliouth could talk for an hour without notes in classical Arabic on the splendours of Abbasid Baghdad. Margoliouth also clumsily said that the Prophet (SAW) was an epileptic. Another fascinating Orientalist is the Hungarian Jew, Ignaz Goldziher, who studied at AlAzhar in Cairo and who later concluded that Islam was better than Judaism or Christianity. However, his view of Hadith – that they were later fabricated – did not endear him to the Muslim community. Goldziher is said to have influenced another Orientalist, Louis Massignon, and Bernard Lewis. Space, and lack of material, precludes discussion on the Russian Orientalists and perhaps even the Chinese. But suffice it to say that our very own home-grown Orientalist, ID du Plessis (who enjoyed a close relationship with the imperial PW Botha), fits the Edward Said model of Orientalism like the proverbial glove.

Muslim Views . November 2014

Thousands expected to converge on Joburg for forum on migration FARID SAYED

THE World Social Forum on Migrations (WSFM) will, for the first time, be held in Africa when Johannesburg hosts the 6th WSFM, from December 5 to 8. The WSFM 2014 will provide a platform to explore alternative models and strategies on managing migration globally and in Africa under the theme, ‘Building a Political Alliance of Social Movements’. It will also seek to strengthen civil society organisations and movements across Africa in order to contribute to nation-building, integration, social cohesion and tolerance of migrants. Previous WSFM’s – the first of which was held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2005 – have drawn migrant groups, mass-based organisations, social movements, academics and activists. The Local Organising Committee (LOC) is expecting up to 5 000 national and international delegates to attend WSFM 2014 events, including workshops, exhibits, cultural events, field

The forum is being organised against the backdrop of the deaths, this year alone, of 3 000 African migrants who attempted the hazardous route to Europe across the Mediterranean Sea. trips and a march, culminating in a mass rally, on the last day. Abdeslam Habiballah Ahmed, the Organising Secretary of the LOC, said in a statement to Muslim Views that WSFM 2014 ‘provides a unique opportunity to improve our understanding of migration patterns within, to and from Africa. ‘The forum will provide a space to fully engage on the issue of migration and mobility. This includes labour migration, refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced people. Human trafficking and smuggling of people will also come under focus.’ The forum is being organised against the backdrop of the deaths, this year alone, of 3 000 African migrants who attempted the hazardous route to Europe across the Mediterranean Sea.

Dr Vusumuzi Sibanda, the Secretary General of the LOC, declared that the partnership of the City of Johannesburg as hosts was significant. ‘This will strengthen Johannesburg’s campaign on its drive for social cohesion and integration, and clearly demonstrates that the city has recovered from the ugly xenophobic attacks of the past. ‘The WSFM 2014 will reinforce Johannesburg’s claim of being a truly international city.’ Dr Sibanda said that South Africa’s migration laws, in particular recent amendments, would probably be a major focus of discussions. The WSF on Migrations is linked to the broader World Social Forum (WSF) which first met in Porto Alegre in 2001, and has roots in Latin American activism.

Some suggest that the impetus for the WSF was the Battle for Seattle, in November 1999, where anti-globalisation activists led by – amongst others – the antiapartheid struggle stalwart, Dr Dennis Brutus, challenged World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations, which reinforced the neo-liberal economic agenda. According to Dr Sibanda, the WSF does not regard itself as an organisation but ‘prefers to define itself as an open-space; one that is plural, diverse, non-governmental and non-partisan. ‘The WSF stimulates decentralised debate, proposal building, exchange of experiences and alliances amongst movements and organisations engaged in concrete action towards global justice. It is a permanent space and process to build alternatives to neo-liberalism.’

The World Social Forum is explicit about not being a representative of all those who attend and thus does not publish any formal statements on behalf of participants. It tends to meet in January – at the same time as its ‘greatest capitalist rival’, the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The WSF on Migrations meets separately because of the complex issues related to migration and refugees. WSFM 2014 will be held at the Soweto Campus of University of Johannesburg. To secure participation in this major forum to discuss the critical issue of migration, register with the LOC via its website: www.wsfm2014.com. For further information, contact either Amir Sheik, the LOC Deputy Secretary General, on 011 487 0269; email info@wsfm2014.com or the LOC Organising Secretary, Abdeslam Habiballah Ahmed via email: migrantcommunityboard@gmail. com.

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Muslim Views . November 2014

Final days of Nabi Muhammad (SAW) SALIM PARKER

ABI Muhammad (SAW) led the salaah in Masjidul Nabawi up till a few days before Allah recalled him. He led the salaah despite being quite sick and having to be seated. About four days before our beloved Nabi’s ultimate demise, He was so weak that he could not even go to the masjid. ‘Have the people performed the salaah?’ he asked his wife Sayyida Ayesha (RA), in whose house he was resting. ‘No, they have not, they are waiting for you,’ she replied. He asked for water to be put in the washing utensil and washed with the assistance of his wives but when he tried to stand up, he fainted. When he regained consciousness, he again asked whether the people had performed salaah and the same sequence of events played out with him fainting again. He regained consciousness, asked whether the people had performed salaah, and the same sequence occurred for the third time. ‘Tell Abu Bakr to lead the people in salaah,’ the Prophet (SAW) requested. Ayesha, the daughter of Abu Bakr (RA) was worried that her father would be anxious and pained about taking the place of the Prophet (SAW) and said, ‘Abu Bakr is a very sensitive man, he is not strong of voice and he cries easily when he recites the Quran.’ The Prophet (SAW) was having none of it. ‘Tell Abu Bakr to lead the people in prayer,’ he again said. Ayesha wanted to suggest that the task rather be bestowed upon Umar when Hafsa (RA), one of the other wives, wanted to speak. The Prophet (SAW), however, silenced her and replied, ‘You are like the women who were with Yusuf. Tell Abu Bakr to lead the people in salaah. Let the blamer find fault and let the ambitious prosper. Allah and the believers will not have it otherwise.’ He repeated the last sentence three times. Abu Bakr proceeded to lead the salaah and did so for 17 waqts before the Prophet (SAW) finally succumbed to his illness. Nabi Muhammad (SAW) rested with his head on Ayesha’s lap for most of this time. However, when his daughter Fatimah (RA) visited, Ayesha would retreat a bit in order to afford them some privacy. During one of these visits, Sayyida Ayesha noticed him whispering something to Sayyida Fatimah and the daughter started crying. Thereafter, he whispered something to his daughter whereupon she started smiling through her tears. When Ayesha asked her what the conversation was about, Fatimah indicated it was a secret she could not divulge. However, she later told Ayesha that Nabi Muhammad (SAW) first told her that he would succumb to the illness and therefore she cried.

This is the front of the chamber that is the final resting place of Nabi Muhammad (SAW). Behind this barrier lies Allah’s Beloved with two of his Companions. This and part of the western side (if not all) are areas to which women do not have access. When one faces the qabr from this side, one stands with one’s back to qiblah – something that the Saudi authorities strongly discourage. Photo SALIM PARKER

The second whisper was when he informed her that she would be the first of his household who would follow him and join him, and therefore she smiled. A day before his demise, which was probably a Sunday, the Prophet (SAW) felt well enough to go to the masjid. He was helped by some of the Sahabah, and the salaah had already commenced when he entered. The people were so overjoyed to see him that they were almost drawn away from their salaah. He motioned to them to continue their salaah. His face was radiant and Anas reported: ‘I never saw the face of the Prophet (SAW) more beautiful than it was at that hour.’ Sayyidina Abu Bakr, who was leading the salaah, was aware of the stir behind him and surmised that it could only be that the

Prophet (SAW) had entered the masjid. Without turning his head, he stepped back but Nabi Muhammad (SAW) put his hand on his shoulder and pushed him forward again. ‘Lead the salaah,’ he said, and then joined the congregation to perform the salaah in a seated position to the left of Abu Bakr. The Prophet (SAW) returned to Ayesha’s house and Abbas (RA) and Ali (RA) visited him but did not stay long. As they left the lodging, some passers-by asked about the wellbeing of Nabi Muhammad (SAW). ‘Praise be to Allah, he is well,’ Ali replied. Abbas did not share Ali’s optimism and afterwards told him: ‘I swear I recognise death in the face of the Messenger of Allah, even as I have ever been able to recognise it in the faces of our clansmen. So let us go and speak with him.’

Abbas wanted to clarify whether the Prophet wished to confer authority on them, and if not, commend them to whoever was going to be in charge. Ali however was not keen and they did not go. The Monday morning, the twelfth of Rabil Auwal 11AH, in the year 633 AD, the Prophet (SAW) opened the curtain leading from Ayesha’s house to the masjid. Abu Bakr was about to lead the Fajr (early morning) salaah and all the Sahabah were delighted and surprised. The Prophet (SAW) smiled and his face expressed satisfaction at the sight of the Muslims properly aligned in their rows ready for salaah. When Abu Bakr saw him, he withdrew from the imam’s position and joined the lines with the other musallees, expecting the Prophet (SAW) to go forward and lead the congregation. Nabi Muhammad (SAW) waved to them to carry on, closed the curtain and withdrew to his room. He was not to be around for the next salaah. There was great joy amongst the Sahabah at the apparent improvement in the condition of the Prophet (SAW). Abu Bakr, who had recently married Habibah, the daughter of one of the Helpers with whom he had lodged ten years prior, set off to visit his new wife who was staying with her parents on the outskirts of Madinah. Yet, the Prophet (SAW) knew his time was arriving. When Fatimah expressed her concern about the great pain she was aware he was suffering, he replied: ‘He will not suffer any more when today is over.’ He asked that Fatimah’s children – his grandchildren, Hassan and Hussain – be called. When they arrived, he kissed them and advised that they should be well looked after. He also asked for all

his wives and when they arrived, he implored them to remember Allah. A while later, Nabi Muhammad (SAW) was lying on Ayesha’s bosom and she could feel that he was weakening as he was starting to feel heavier to her. When her brother entered the room, she noticed that the Prophet (SAW) was staring at his miswak (wooden strip used to brush teeth). She asked the Prophet (SAW) if he wanted it and he replied in the affirmative. She realised that it would be too hard for him and she softened it with her saliva. The Prophet (SAW) brushed his teeth vigorously with it despite his weakened state. There was a water pot close by, and he used the water to wipe his face, saying: ‘There is no god but Allah. Death is full of agonies.’ Not long afterwards, he fell into a state of unconsciousness. Sayyida Ayesha initially thought that the Prophet was passing away but after about an hour he opened his eyes. She then remembered him once telling her: ‘No Prophet is taken by death until he has been shown his place in Paradise and then offered the choice to live or die.’ She immediately understood that he had returned from a vision of the hereafter and realised that he would soon not be with them anymore as he had made his choice. He looked up, lifted his hand and she heard him say: ‘With those on whom you have bestowed Your Grace, with the prophets and the truthful ones, the martyrs and the good doers. O Allah, forgive me and have mercy on me and join me to the most exalted Companionship on high.’ He said ‘the most exalted Companionship on high’ three times. These were the last words she heard him speak as his hand dropped and he joined the most exalted Companionship. ‘To Allah we return and to Him we turn for help, and the last abode.’ Ayesha felt his head grow heavier on her bosom, and the other wives began to lament. Ayesha placed his head on a pillow and joined the other wives in lamentation. Their husband, the Seal of the Prophets, Allah’s Messenger, was no more in this world. Stories from the Hijaz is sponsored by Al-Anwar Hajj and Umrah.

The western side of Nabi Muhammad’s (SAW) resting place, which is inside what was the house of Sayyida Ayesha (RA), forms the one boundary of the Roudatul Jannah. Thus, if one is in that area and facing qiblah, the Prophet’s (SAW) resting place is on one’s left. Photo SALIM PARKER Muslim Views

Muslim Views . November 2014

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SANZAF 5 Pillars Game Show on iTV a resounding success WE are pleased to announce that 15-year-old Saabierah Ryklief from the Western Cape is the winner of the two Hajj tickets sponsored by Al Anwar Hajj and Umrah. The South African National Zakah Fund (SANZAF) is pleased to announce that Saabierah Ryklief aged 15 scooped the overall prize in the SANZAF 5 Pillars Game Show flighted during the month of Ramadaan. Hoosen Essof, South African National Zakah Fund Administrator in Gauteng, added that ‘although the show has a definitive entertainment value to it, the real value is in what we have been able to achieve by way of education as evidenced by the number

game which was great because they learnt new things about the deen’. This year, Al Anwar Hajj and Umrah sponsored the Hajj package for two as part of their social responsibility and commitment to support initiatives that empower youth. SANZAF expresses sincere gratitude to all the sponsors and members of the public who contributed to the success of the 5 Pillars Game Show. Al-Anwar Hajj and Umrah Travel Representative Mohammad Ashraf, Al Anwar Hajj and Umrah Travel Director Ganief Harris, Saabierah Ryklief, Mogamat Ryklief, Shanaaz Ryklief. Photo SUPPLIED

of participants who scored as well as they did.

‘We learnt that many of the contestants actually studied the

Zakaah Quiz in Paarl Come join us on Saturday, November 29, 2014, at Almahadul Islam Centre, Lappert Street, Paarl. For more information telephone 021 862 7836.

SANZAF bursary applications now open

Register online today THE South African National Zakah Fund (SANZAF) recently announced that the SANZAF Bursary Applications for the 2015 academic year are now open. The SANZAF Education and Empowerment and Development (SEED) Programme is a national programme that focuses on development and empowerment of our beneficiaries through education projects which comprises five pil-

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lars namely, Childhood Development, Mentoring Youth, Religious Studies, Tertiary and Skills Development, investing R11,6 million in education in 2014. For 2015, we are earmarking a 20% increase of which R1 million alone will be allocated to tertiary education students in Uitenhage, East London, Port Elizabeth, Kimberley, Ladysmith and George. Candidates are encouraged to

examine the requirements thoroughly and ensure that all the necessary documentation is attached when submitting an application. The closing date for applications is Friday, January 9, 2015. Students are encouraged to apply to other bursars for funding as SANZAF does not guarantee a full bursary. SANZAF also encourages corporates to get involved in the

SEED Programme as a means to invest in the education of students, enabling them to become financially independent. For further information on SEED, contact SANZAF on 086 172 6923. All SEED details are available on www.sanzaf.org.za, or like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. SANZAF changing lives through development and relief.

SANZAF reaches out during Muharram and Safar

IT’S all hands on deck for SANZAF staff in the Western Cape as the Islamic new year begins; the month of Muharram and Safar is a time for SANZAF to emphasise the plight of the elderly and children in need. During the next few weeks, all SANZAF offices will be actively engaging with young people and senior citizens throughout the province, providing relief and joy to those in need.

SANZAF CARES FOR CHILDREN Children are a blessing from Allah SWT, and Islam considers children to be an amaanah (trust) given to the family with the obligation of raising the child in a righteous manner. In Islam, both male and female children should be treated equally and should be loved and cherished.

SANZAF HONOURS THE AGED According to Islamic principles, old-age homes should not be in existence. The belief is that just as our parents cared for us when we were young so, too, should we do the same for them as they reach their golden years. SANZAF has organised a number of activities for the senior citizens and children within the community; this includes numerous Children’s Days and Senior Outreach Programmes within the areas of Bridgetown, Elsies River, Belhar, Mitchells Plain, Green Point Park, Manenberg and Retreat. To contribute financially or in kind to a SANZAF project or programme email info@sanzaf.org.za, contact 021 638 5108/ 021 638 0965/ 021 447 0297 or visit www.sanzaf.org.za, like SANZAF on Facebook or follow @SANZAFSA on Twitter. Alternatively, if you would like to volunteer your time, contact SANZAF on 021 447 0297.

Muslim Views . November 2014

Triumph of Arafah: Wuqoof

HE sun had just risen over the vast plains of Arafah, and the millions were arising and arriving for their own unique space, time and spirit to soon converse with their inner selves and their Creator. It was already hot but no one was deterred from their determination to have, for the vast majority, a once-in-a-lifetime chance of asking for, and most likely receiving, the Mercy of Allah, for is this not the day when Allah forgives more of His subjects than on any other day? Is this not the day when more prayers are answered and the direction of the future laid bare? It was the second day of Hajj, the day when all converge on Arafah. Hajj is Arafah. Even a mere moment on Arafah validates Hajj, and if there is no Arafah, there is no Hajj. An ihram-clad man walks to one side of our camp. In deep thought he looks around and then, slowly, picks up a sharpedged stone. He writes a name in the sand. Her name, the name of a person who had asked him not to have any contact with her any more. She was thousands of miles away yet, she was innermost in his thoughts. Her deen demanded that he either marry her or move on; he did not want to get married for whatever reason but also did not want to move on. He suddenly became acutely aware that others might have noticed him writing in the sand and he sheepishly tried to wipe away the letters. ‘Strange,’ I thought, ‘here is an attempt to hide her name from the rest of the world yet Allah sees and knows everything, and surely Allah saw

Midday was approaching and the time of standing, the time of Wuqoof, was getting near, writes Doctor SALIM PARKER. the name.’ I saw the smudged letters still in the sand. It will forever be etched in the sands of Arafah, as she would forever be embedded in his heart. He looked lost, confused and bewildered, and moved to an area which, though initially touched by golden soft and caressing rays, now had heat emanating from its bare soil, like oppressively humid water vapour rising and glistening. Then, as happens every year, there was a slight breeze; not enough to cool anyone, not nearly enough to rush out and have the accumulating sweat dry a bit; only enough to assure all that with every test there is some relief. Another gentle whisper, just discernible as the small branches of the mechanically-watered trees bowed ever so slightly. His ihram flaps ever so slightly and he whispers her name. Does he wish it to echo and reverberate perpetually on the vast plains? He again seems at a loss and looks around to see whether anyone noticed. ‘How weird,’ I thought again. ‘Surely Allah saw him writing, heard him saying, and definitely knows that in his heart is entrenched – her name. Midday was approaching and the time of standing, the time of Wuqoof, was getting near. For some it will be a just a moment, for others an eternity.

After Wukoof, the climax of Hajj, not only does one leave Arafah cleansed of all sin but it is as if one’s questions about the Photo SALIM PARKER way forward are also answered.

I attended to a lady who collapsed due to a combination of heat exposure, inadequate fluid intake and overdressing. ‘Is it Wuqoof yet?’ were the first words she uttered when she regained consciousness. I attended to a few others who were clearly exhausted after walking from Mina to Arafah in the scorching heat. I reminded them that our Beloved Prophet (SAW) used his camel as a mode of transport. Wuqoof is the time to be physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually at the peak of our capacity as it would come only once in the lifetime of most; it is the time of asking, the time to repent, the time to connect with the inner self. It is the one time where everyone is a speck of individuality within the sea of ihram-clad uniformity and anonymity. ‘This is the wonder of Arafah,’ someone remarked. ‘Allah has reduced us all to a common physical denominator. Now, at the time of Wuqoof, He is going to bare our souls and we can expose our deep-seated emotions.’ The man had by now returned to his camp, still unsure whether anyone had noticed his writing and whispering. By now he looked content, not as if having received revelation about his future but simply about being present on Arafah. Someone asked him about his feelings and it seemed that he could not stop expressing himself.

‘I do not know whether I am welcoming the future or saying farewell to the past. Maybe I am doing both but all I know is that I am in the present here on Arafah. ‘I feel like I am in my ihram but, somehow, am way outside it, looking at myself. And I see a simple human being covered in a piece of white cloth. The body and cloth can be washed and cleaned; inside the soul only my Allah sees, and the cleansing of it needs my willingness and Allah’s mercy. I am going to ask the way forward,’ he said. ‘Sometimes the road ahead is clear but the rocks and sharp objects on it, and numerous bends and forks in it are a deterrent,’ someone remarked. ‘At least I would have made my choice and then have to live with it,’ he replied. ‘What if the wrong choice is made?’ someone else asked. ‘Sometimes there is no right or wrong choice, just alternatives. Each will have different consequences,’ he replied. ‘Sometimes we see things in black and white and compartmentalise everything into blocks that either fit our vision or not. ‘I want to stand here and not only want to ask forgiveness for harm that I caused but to ask for the blessings for the little good that I do and the strength to continue the good.’ He paused. ‘As long as responsibility is taken for the harm caused and reparations attempted,’ someone commented.

Profound words were spoken on an auspicious plain at a divinely ordained time. People rose, some went alone to seek solace. Couples could be seen seeking their own spots, delivering prayers individually and together. Families huddled together, sometimes stepping back inhaling to pray individually while, at times, exhaling the melodies of collective prayers. Groups congregated, different nations were visible in their camps but, on Arafah, at Wuqoof, it was one ummah, one religion’s devotees who, though each had a unique soul, had one heartbeat pulsing through all of them. He stood at Wuqoof, hands raised and reached out. He cast no shadow as the blazing sun was directly above him. Yet, his prayers shaded him and the inevitable welcoming slight breeze whispered: ‘You are here.’ I looked around. Some were thinking of their beloved, others searched serenity. I knew that he had searching troubles to resolve but at that moment he was at one with all of humanity, at one with what his Creator had ordained, and at one with himself. Many an issue needed still to be resolved out there but, at least, at the time of Wuqoof, we could cocoon ourselves with ‘Labaik; I am here, we are all here.’ Comments to salimparker@yahoo.com

Muslim Views

Muslim Views . November 2014

AWQAF - promoting self-reliance and sustainability

Trusts and waqf: a legal perspective AASIF NAJJAAR

WAQF is an Islamic law institution which was introduced by the Prophet Muhammad (SAW). In simple terms, waqf (or awqaf in plural) refers to property which is voluntarily given for the benefit of broader society; it is a ‘continuous charity’ or ‘sadaqatu jariyah’. Jurisprudentially speaking, waqf is a permanent dedication of any movable or immovable property for the upliftment and benefit of a community at large. The characterising theme of waqf is that the ownership of such a property will not pass to any single person, it is seen as a pledge to Allah to be used by the community at large. In South Africa and many other countries where a shariah legal system is absent, the waqf system has been realised through the English law concept of Trust. The institution of awqaf has successfully been employed in several countries with proven results in addressing many societal concerns relating to social, economic and legal affairs. Muslim countries based on shariah law can easily employ the waqf concept, governed as part and parcel of their legal system. South Africa, through AwqafSA, has managed to integrate a fullyfledged waqf system in a country based on a Roman-Dutch legal system and, moreover, feature internationally. In 2007, the Southern Africa

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International Waqf Conference was successfully hosted in Cape Town by AwqafSA in conjunction with the Islamic Research and Training Institute, based in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait Awqaf Public Foundation. The institution of waqf has drawn the attention of many scholars and academics from across the world, uniting to strategise and find solutions to current challenges. The intercontinental unification can best be evidenced by the Global Islamic Economic Summit 2013 which was held in Dubai, boasting an attendance of over 2 000 delegates from around the world. In the South African context, AwqafSA is strictly managed under the rules relating to waqf, in accordance with shariah law. The difference is that our legal system does not recognise the concept of waqf as it is in countries with a shariah legal system and, therefore, we have merged various recognisable legal principles provided for by South African law, to create a shariahcompliant awqaf system. There is, undoubtedly, a need for the waqf concept in addressing the evident and growing concerns relating to social welfare, including education, job creation, housing, youth development and renewable energy. Comparatively, countries governed by shariah have the necessary legal framework to readily employ an awqaf system.

...the Jordanian awqaf system extends as far as providing underprivileged persons monetary and other support in order to obtain an education and, consequently, enter the job market... Such a service is especially necessary in South Africa, as it would be beneficial to the public and our economy as a whole. A prominent legal academic, Dr Shabeeb, from University of Jordan, added that the Jordanian awqaf system is regulated by the government through the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, under a mass of legislation ensuring strict adherence to shariah. Interestingly, the Jordanian awqaf system extends as far as providing underprivileged persons monetary and other support in order to obtain an education and, consequently, enter the job market (The Regulations for

Waqf Projects no 83 of 2005). Such a service is especially necessary in South Africa, as it would be beneficial to the public and our economy as a whole. In South Africa, the English law of Trusts serves as a vehicle for waqf institutions to operate, due to the notable resemblance between Waqf law and the law of Trusts. Many academics and scholars maintain that Trust law was derived from the Islamic concept of Waqf. If this is the case then it was a great compliment when Fredric Maitland described ‘the trust idea’ to be the greatest achievement in English jurisprudence. The concepts of trust in common law systems and waqf in Islamic law systems are two important legal and economic mechanisms. The law of Trusts has been particularly effective in advancing economic activity as an economic and legal instrument. In contrast, the Islamic law of waqf has acted as more of a social welfare mechanism. Apart from this, there are several other similarities and differences between a waqf and a trust. The resemblances in both concepts are evident from the outset: every waqf is required to have a waqif (founder), mutawillis (trustees), a qadi (judge) and beneficiaries. The defining characteristic of a waqf is that a waqif is prevented from having an interest in the assets of the waqf.

Assets held in trust are alienable whereas the assets of a waqf are inalienable, except in the instance where a shariah court grants permission. The rationale for this is that a waqf is meant to exist indefinitely. The indefinite existence of a waqf is further ensured through the rule that bars a waqif from revoking a waqf, whereas trust law permits the power to revoke. It is clear from this that a trust, as it is used in our context differs from a waqf and therefore needs to be adapted in order to serve as a shariah compliant mechanism. To ensure that a trust is governed in accordance with the rules pertaining to waqf, its constitution must contain the necessary provisions. The constitution must direct that the trust deed contains the provisions which form the shariah standards by which a waqf is required to function. AwqafSA is governed in this regard with a team of highly qualified personnel in every sphere of its structure, to ensure compliance with Islamic law in the most efficient manner. Moreover, AwqafSA has gone above and beyond this by acting as an advocate to those who need to be heard, guaranteeing a high degree of transparency and accountability, and empowering communities and people in a sustainable manner. Aasif Najjaar, currently based in Saudi Arabia, writes for AwqafSA in a voluntary capacity.

Perspectives

Muslim Views . November 2014

Hallaq’s impossible state: an interpretation Part 2: The modern state

CCORDING to Wael Hallaq, we should not assume that the modern state is a natural and obvious phenomenon. It is not natural and obvious because it is ‘modern’ – having emerged from the modern world and exhibiting the characteristics of that world. Hallaq lists five such characteristics. The first of these characteristics is that the modern state is a European product. It was forged in the Enlightenment and represents the unfolding of a political and cultural arrangement that was inspired by that movement. It may have been presented as natural and obvious – as timeless and universal – but it is a product of particular historical circumstances. More specifically, it can be traced to the Treaty of Westaphia of 1648, when Europe took explicit steps to recognise the ‘sovereign nation’ as the basis of a new political order. There was nothing quite like the nation in this sense in the premodern world. ‘Sovereignty’ is, in fact, the second characteristic of the modern state identified by Hallaq. Sovereignty is established on the idea that a nation is the sole author of its will and destiny. The will of a nation here acts as a substitute for the concept of divine will. And the nation, like God, can demand that the lives of its

In this series of eight articles, Dr AUWAIS RAFUDEEN presents an interpretive summary of a major recent book, The Impossible State, by a distinguished expert in Islamic law, Professor Wael Hallaq. The book speaks in a major way to the modern Muslim condition and the issues it raises are deserving of careful consideration by all those seeking to faithfully adhere to the shariah while navigating the tempestuous modern world.

citizens be sacrificed for its sake – for the sake of the nation. Sovereignty gives the modern state its own theological character, one that exists in competition with traditional theologies. Hallaq writes: ‘To be a citizen is to live under a sovereign will with its own metaphysics. It is to live with and yet under another god, one who can claim the believers’ lives.’ This theological character is reinforced when we consider that sovereignty is held in place by the law, the third characteristic of the nation-state. The modern state, by necessity, produces laws as it seeks to put all domains of society under its control, regulating a citizen’s life from birth to death.

And so an omnipotent God is mirrored by the omnipotent lawgiver, the parliament of the nation-state. State violence (through jails, for example) becomes necessary to implement law and, in so doing, regulates all layers of society. The state and the law cannot be separated. The modern state is also characterised, fourthly, by an extensive bureaucracy. Bureaucracy in modern state administration is a tool through which society is controlled. But as the tentacles of the state expand into other domains, the bigger the bureaucracy becomes. Bureaucracy, in fact, has become so big that it breeds its own community – the community of the state. The state becomes more and more pervasive, allowing increasingly less space to civil (non-state) society. The fifth characteristic of the modern state follows from the fourth: the state also penetrates the cultural. The state has to destroy (or reconstitute under its own jurisdiction) all cultural formations and authorities that could challenge its sovereign will, its claim to represent the nation. This is what happened in England and France and it is something that a modern Islamic state would also feel entitled to do. This sense of entitlement, and the theology of national sovereignty which underpins it, is built into the very structure of the modern state.

It is unconscionable that an Islamic ‘state’, in its expressed purpose to serve the one God, does so by serving another god It is unconscionable that an Islamic ‘state’, in its expressed purpose to serve the one God, does so by serving another god. Muslims need to radically rethink the notion of a state as a vehicle for the implementation of the shariah. Some important questions need to be addressed here. What if the impact of the state is felt as benign and even welcomed? What if the state does not intrude upon cultural identities and allows them breathing space, so to speak? What if the laws of the state (such as the need to have an identity document) are seen as necessary for the normal functioning of the society? These are important considerations because they affect the quality of life under a state. A hijabobserving woman will presumably feel more comfortable in South Africa, with its high degree of allowance for cultural and religious traditions, than she would in less tolerant France.

And no one would dispute the need for laws that ensure the smooth running of society. But I think Hallaq’s point is that, whether experienced as benign or overbearing, it is the modern state that defines the space and conditions for cultural and religious traditions, and for civil life in general. The state seeks to centralise – bring under its own jurisdiction – the life of society. It can do this gently, compassionately and with understanding and tolerance or it can harshly impose its will. But, either way, it is still centralising. It determines the rules of engagement. It is still in charge. Reference: Wael Hallaq, The Impossible State, Columbia University Press, New York, 2013. In part three, Dr Auwais Rafudeen, explores Hallaq’s poser: Which is more democratic? Modern law or the Sharia? Dr Rafudeen is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies and Arabic at University of South Africa.

Muslim Views

Muslim Views . November 2014

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What is Ebola? Dr Salim Parker (Muslim Views, August 2014) captures the Ebola Virus Disease in summary: ‘Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions such as nasal mucous, and the organs, such as the liver, or other bodily fluids of infected animals. ‘Infection was traced in Africa after humans handled infected chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines. These animals were often found ill or dead in the rainforest. ‘Humans then spread it amongst each other when the blood, bodily fluids and secretions of those infected or had died

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of it, come into close direct contact with others. Clothes and other materials soiled with blood or secretions are also sources of transmission. ‘Health care workers who do not practise optimum precautions also have either contracted or spread the disease. ‘The virus is not easily spread through the air and this fact allows effective quarantining and isolation with good medical practice and standards to contain the disease.’ A person can have the virus and not show any symptoms for

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The africacheck.org website advises: ‘In addition to supportive and symptomatic treatment, health workers can only really control the spread of the virus: isolating those infected, raising awareness of the virus and how it is spread in affected communities, ensuring appropriate protective gear is worn by all in contact with Ebola sufferers and ensuring the quick and safe burial of those who have succumbed.

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and Guinea are worst hit. Local medical teams, already underfunded and with strained resources, are overwhelmed and struggle to treat victims or contain the outbreak. Muslim Hands has a history of work in Liberia and Sierra Leone and has been working closely alongside local medical professionals. Teams are operating in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, and Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown as well as a number of smaller towns and cities where the outbreak is concentrated. Guided by our medical partners, teams are providing food and non-food assistance to those in quarantined areas who are unable to move freely or work. In addition, a training programme is being run to highlight and raise awareness of how the disease is spread, as well as providing hygiene and sanitation supplies. Donate: Provide a family with a food parcel (R1 350) Donate: Provide a hygiene kit and safety training for a family (R810) Donate: Family Pack including food, hygiene kit, awareness training and shelter (R3 960) Our work on the ground is extremely focused and effective but we urgently require donations to help more of those affected. Please donate generously and help save lives Insha Allah. Contact Muslim Hands on 021 633 6413 or visit muslimhands.org.za

Muslim Views . November 2014

Muslim Views

Muslim Views . November 2014

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Crescent Lifestyle follows their members’ hearts

(Left) Crescent Lifestyle Managing Director, Al-Firnas Patel, handing over a cheque to Mr Phaldie Jeppe of Beitul Aman Old Age Home while resident Mrs Roegaya Peters looks on. (Above) Crescent Lifestyle Managing Director, Al-Firnas Patel, and Crescent Lifestyle Marketing Manager, Khalida Khan, handing over a cheque to Emily Thomas and Allauddin Sayed of Gift of the Givers in Johannesburg. (Right) Crescent Lifestyle Managing Director, Al-Firnas Patel, handing over a cheque to Imam Moutie Saban of Jameah Photos SUPPLIED Masjid, Chiappini Street, Bo-Kaap, at the VOCfm Studios.

WHETHER it’s through helping its members to Connect, Save, Give or to Win – Crescent Lifestyle is always right at the heart of the Muslim community. The months of September and October were all about heart as Crescent Lifestyle completed its second round of beneficiary payout ceremonies for 2014. Crescent Lifestyle not only offers their members a great range of benefits to enjoy for themselves but they also give members the opportunity to select charities from in and around their communities to receive a portion of their monthly membership fees. The latest payout of R201 287,34 to more than 150 charities across South Africa tipped the total amount donated on behalf of Crescent Lifestyle

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members since 2008 to over R2,2 million. The difference these contributions have made and continues to make is clearly visible in the projects that the various beneficiaries run and complete so devotedly. Some of the beneficiaries in the Cape Town area that received contributions in the recent payout include: Muslim Judicial Council: R7 385

Jameah Masjid: R3 104 Beitul Aman Home for the Aged: R3 876 Muslim Aids Programme: R2 159 Muslim Hands: R1 986 A few other beneficiaries that are based in Gauteng but who also reach out to communities in Cape Town include Gift of the Givers (R24 200) and Al-Imdaad Foundation (R13 787). Al-Firnas Patel, Managing

Director of Crescent Lifestyle visited some of the Cape Townbased beneficiaries to personally hand over contributions on behalf of its members. ‘Some of the beneficiaries mentioned that they have been finding it difficult to raise the funds they need for their projects and reiterated just how grateful they are for the regular contributions from Crescent Lifestyle and its mem-

The difference these contributions have made and continues to make is clearly visible in the projects that the various beneficiaries run and complete so devotedly.

bers,’ says Al-Firnas Patel. ‘We are grateful to be able to give back to the community. ‘In the end, we’re only helping our members to take what’s in their hearts and to place it in the hands of those they would like to help the most.’ It’s plain to see that with a Crescent Lifestyle membership, giving and receiving goes hand in hand. Join Crescent Lifestyle today to start helping the charities closest to your heart and to start celebrating all aspects of your life of Islam with a range of fantastic benefits. Call 0861 444 786 or SMS CL to 31699 or email info@crescentmobile.net Visit www.crescentlifestyle.com for more information.

DISCUSSIONS WITH DANGOR

The aftermath of the occupation of Iraq Iraq has been subject to the largest use of DU munitions of all areas of conflict and test sites, writes Emeritus Professor SULEMAN DANGOR. HE invasion and occupation of Iraq not only resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and destruction of Iraq’s infrastructure but also in the appearance of and rise in a number of diseases. It is estimated that the United States used 350 tons of depleted uranium (DU) munitions in Iraq during the 1991 war, and 1 200 tons during its 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation. In a report submitted to the UN Secretary General, Iraq expressed ‘deep concern over the harmful effects of the use in wars and armed struggles of armaments and ammunitions containing depleted uranium, which constitute a danger to human beings and the environment (the air and the soil)’. According to a 2013 report by the Netherlands-based organisation Pax Christi, Iraq has been subject to the largest use of DU

munitions of all areas of conflict and test sites, conservatively estimated to be at least 440 metric tons though the UN Environment Program has estimated an amount up to five times that based on satellite imagery. Dr Jawad al-Ali, a consultant physician and oncologist at the Basra Cancer Treatment Center, estimates that there are 300 sites throughout Iraq that are contaminated with radiation from the DU munitions. This contamination is causing sharp rises in congenital birth defects, cancer cases and other illnesses throughout much of Iraq, according to numerous Iraqi doctors. Iraqi doctors and prominent scientists believe that DU contamination is also connected to the emergence of diseases that were not previously seen in Iraq, such as new illnesses in the kidney, lungs and liver, as well as total immune system collapse. DU contamination may also be connected to the steep rise in leukemia, renal and anaemia cases, especially among children, being reported throughout many Iraqi governorates. Official Iraqi government statistics show that, prior to the outbreak of the first Gulf War, in 1991, the country’s rate of cancer cases was 40 out of 100 000 people. By 1995, it had increased to 800 out of 100 000 people and, by 2005, it had doubled to at

least 1 600 out of 100 000 people. Current estimates show the trend continuing. ‘We have noticed bouts of malignant tumors affecting children’s limbs,’ an Iraqi doctor who has worked in various parts of the country for 20 years declared. ‘These malignancies are usually of very aggressive types and in view of the shortage of facilities we are running in our hospitals, they usually have a fatal outcome.’ There has also been a dramatic jump in miscarriages and premature births among Iraqi women, particularly in areas where heavy US military operations occurred, such as Fallujah during 2004. According to a chemist, Chris Busby, the Fallujah health crisis represented ‘the highest rate of genetic damage in any population ever studied’. Doctors in Fallujah continue to witness a steep rise in severe congenital birth defects, including children being born with two heads, children born with only one eye, multiple tumors, disfiguring facial and body deformities, and complex nervous system problems. Dr Samira Alani, a paediatric specialist at Fallujah General Hospital, stated, ‘We have all kinds of defects now, ranging from congenital heart disease to severe physical abnormalities, both in numbers you cannot imagine.’ Alani co-authored a study in 2010 that showed the rate of

Muslim Views . November 2014

heart defects in Fallujah to be 13 times the rate found in Europe. And for birth defects involving the nervous system, the rate was calculated to be 33 times that found in Europe for the same number of births. Iraq’s southern city of Basra, like Fallujah, was heavily bombarded with DU munitions by US warplanes during the 1991 war. Dr Al-Ali who was involved in working on two birth defect studies carried out in the wake of the war on Iraq made the following submissions: ‘The types of birth defects were hydrocephaly [an abnormal buildup of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the ventricles of the brain], anencephaly [the absence of a large part of the brain and the skull], cleft lip and phacomelia [loss of limbs].’ Cancers increased three-fold during the last two decades. Clusters of cancers occurring at higher incidence within the same family were another new phenomenon seen in Iraq only after the 1991 and 2003 wars. Other diseases related to the effects of DU were kidney failure of unknown cause and stone formation. Respiratory problems like asthma, myopathy and neuropathy are now very common as well. According to a study published in the Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, there was a sevenfold increase in the number of birth defects in Basra between 1994 and 2003. In addition, never before has such a high rate of neural tube defects (‘open back’) been recorded in babies as in Basra, and the rate continues to rise. According to the study, the number of hydrocephalus (‘water on the brain’) cases among new-

borns is six times as high in Basra as it is in the United States. Childhood cancer also appears to be unusually prevalent in Basra. In Babil Province, in southern Iraq, cancer rates have been escalating at alarming rates since 2003. Dr Sharif al-Alwachi, the head of the Babil Cancer Center, blames the use of depleted uranium weapons by US forces during and following the 2003 invasion. ‘The environment could be contaminated by chemical weapons and depleted uranium from the aftermath of the war on Iraq,’ Alwachi infers. ‘The air, soil and water are all polluted by these weapons, and as they come into contact with human beings they become poisonous. ‘This is new to our region, and people are suffering here. ‘The only help we can provide to those children is amputation, which sometimes does nothing but prolong their suffering, in addition to the great psychological impact on both the child and the parents,’ Alwachi said. ‘We know that it is possible to save most of these children in specialised oncology centres by advanced salvage surgery, with the attendant chemotherapy and radiotherapy. ‘Unfortunately, this seems to be a kind fantasy for our government and health administrations, which are currently busy with the large amount of trauma overwhelming our hospitals’ resources.’ This is the aftermath of the war waged by the most ‘moral’ and ‘civilized’ nation on earth! [Source: http://truthout.org/news/item/26703-iraqidoctors-call-depleted-uraniumuse-genocide]

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Focus on Finance Muslim Views . November 2014

Registering for income tax HASSEN KAJIE, CA (SA), a director of NEXIA SAB&T, based in the Cape Town office, and Aysha Osman CA (SA), Technical manager at Nexia SAB&T, point out the steps to be taken to register as a tax payer.

DO you know if you are a registered tax payer? Either you or your employer would have registered you and you would have been issued with a 10-digit tax reference number from SARS. You may have an IT150 Notification of registration that states your reference number. If you have an IRP5 certificate or payslip from your employer, your tax reference number may appear there. If you think you might have a tax number but aren’t sure, rather phone SARS at 0800 00 7277 to check.

If you have not registered then the process is easy 1. Simply download the IT77 form from the SARS website, print it out and follow these easy steps to complete it. 2. You will need the following documents to be submitted with your completed IT77 form: l A certified legible copy of your ID, passport or drivers licence. Certification of copied documents can be done at your nearest police station (just remember to take the original along, too). l Proof of address (this can be a rates bill, utilities bill, phone bill etc. – anything that shows your name and your address

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on an official letterhead) l three month’s bank statements or an official letter from the bank indicating when the account was opened and documenting the details of the account holder. These should be original and stamped by the bank. 3. Now let’s have a look at the registration form and complete it step-by-step: l Page 1 requires you to enter all your personal details. Be as upto-date and accurate as you can to avoid having to repeat any of this information if SARS requires it. If you don’t know what a VDP

agreement is then just mark the No box under the Voluntary Disclosure Programme section. Remember to sign this page with your signature. l Page 2 requires you to enter the details of your tax practitioner, if you are using one. Your employer’s details are also required on this page. If you have an existing IRP5 then you should be able to find the details there. l Page 3 asks you to describe the details of your income and where it comes from. Note that this should be an estimate. When describing the source of your income, enter dates val-

Hassen Kajie is a Director of the Cape Town office of Nexia SAB&T.

Aysha Osman is Technical Manager in the Cape Town office of Nexia SAB&T.

ues in YYYYMMDD format e.g. 20130301 (for 1st March 2013). The Gross Amount is your total income before any deductions have been subtracted. Page 3 also requests the details of any partners that you are in a partnership with to earn an income. l Page 4 asks about your Estate details. This page does not apply to you as an individual – ignore it! l Page 5 contains information about what documents you may/ may not need. There is nothing to complete here. 4. Visit your nearest SARS branch with the completed IT77 form and relevant documentation where a friendly SARS employee working at the counter will assist you. Remember to get an acknowledgement slip from SARS as it contains your reference number and stands as proof that you have submitted your registration forms. Alternatively, you may be

issued with a tax number immediately. If you prefer, you can post these documents to the postal address of your nearest office instead. SARS should get back to you with your new tax number within a maximum of 10 days. You may receive your tax number by post in the form of an IT150 / Notification of registration. If you prefer, you can call them on (0800 00 7277) to find out what the current status is. Remember to have your reference number with you when you call. Visit any branch of Nexia SAB&T now and we will help you through the next steps of becoming tax compliant. This article is intended for information purposes only and should not be considered as a legal document. If you are in doubt about any information in this article or require any advice, please do not hesitate to contact Nexia SAB&T Tax department at 021 596 5400.

Health File

Muslim

Spiritual and physical fitness – merging the two NABEEL YASIN

AMADAAN and the Hajj season have come and gone and, with that, the many nice treats we ate while visiting friends and family during these two auspicious times of the year. As Muslims, we exercise great caution with regards to our spiritual well-being and do all that is necessary to make sure we succeed. Unfortunately, we forget to exercise the same caution when it comes to our physical well-being. We should not look at the physical and the spiritual aspects of well-being as two separate things but rather as two aspects that grow and nurture one another. Physical well-being is achieved through correct eating habits and physical activity. In the modern world, we need to constantly review what we consume. The processes that many food products go through strip them of their nutritional content. A direct result of eating foods which have no or minimal nutritional value is the increase in diseases of lifestyle, namely diabetes, hypertension, obesity etc. As Muslims, our dietary requirements are strict; we cannot eat food where the name of Allah has not been invoked. Allah says in the Holy Quran: ‘Eat of what is lawful and wholesome on the earth.’ (Quran 2:168) This verse not only instructs us to strictly consume food which is halaal but also encourages us to consume food which would be

nutritious to our bodies and assist in good health. A body that does not ‘move’ nor consume nutritionally sound, wholesome food is a body that will not perform at its best in worship, duty towards family, friends and humanity at large. Alhamdulillah, we have been guided to what is good for us not only spiritually but physically as well.

Rasulullah (SAW) encouraged Muslims to engage in certain physical activities such as wrestling, swimming, horse riding and archery. These activities have vast benefits to our physical health and general well-being. Wrestling strengthens the muscles, ligaments and joints, and develops the body to attain a great degree of strength in different planes while swimming

strengthens the heart muscle and improves endurance and cardiovascular fitness. Horse riding has been well documented to stimulate positive psychological feelings as it assists with managing stress and depression as the rider is outdoors and interacts with the horse. Archery requires a great deal of mental focus; it improves concentration and hand-eye coordination. The above activities may be perceived as masculine activities. The main causes of this view are the ‘traditional’ cultural norms and the perception that women are not allowed to do certain things. These views are false since, in reality, all the above activities are permissible for women within the parameters of the deen. They, therefore, can also enjoy the many health benefits associated with these activities. In fact, Rasulullah (SAW) ran races with his beloved wife, Ayesha (RA). Prophet Muhammad’s (SAW) beloved wife Ayesha mentions their love of games and sports. She said, ‘I raced with the Prophet and I beat him. Later, when I had put on some weight, we raced again and he won. Then he said, ‘This cancels that (referring to the previous race).’ This shows us as the ummah of Rasulullah that physical activity shared between husband and wife is encouraged. It also encourages us to participate in running as an activity. To get started, we need to

assess ourselves inwardly and outwardly and set goals for ourselves spiritually and physically. Once we set a goal, we can take the first step toward achieving it. Summer is on our doorstep, which means we can take full advantage of the outdoors and later sunsets. The easiest means of engaging in physical activity is to start walking. However, to truly benefit from walking, we must engage in walking a collective 30 minutes a day and most days of the week to reap the cardiovascular benefits. Those of us who have sedentary lifestyles can start a little slower and start walking a minimum of twice a week. Eventually, we would have to add flexibility training and strength training into the regimen as our lifestyles do not provide us with enough physically demanding tasks to reap the health benefits of such activities. The Quran and hadith has set the tone as to how we should be leading our lives. It is for us to take the lessons learnt with regards to our physical well-being to heart and implement them in our lives and family’s lives. In turn, a healthier more productive nation will develop, which will be of greater benefit to humanity. To get started, speak to your doctor or biokineticist to engage you in a more physically active lifestyle. Nabeel Yasin is a biokineticist who practices in Belthorne Estate, Lansdowne, Cape Town.

Muslim Views

Change is possible

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Muslim Views . November 2014

IN his book Why States Recover, author Greg Mills pens in his tributes that ‘Writing about the reasons for failure always risks becoming a target. People do not want to and rarely like hearing about the personal roots of their difficulties, preferring to externalise them and make them some-one else’s fault.’ The systemic message from the Department: Justice and Constitutional Development informs fathers to pay maintenance. Maintenance is the obligation to provide, for exam-

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ple, a minor with housing, food, clothing, education and medical care. That maintenance can be claimed from grandparents is a progressive step as this will somewhat guarantee that parents teach their progeny manners. The growing narrative suggests that there are many who are unwilling to accept that they must sustain their children. Stricter conditions must be applied as the high and increasing rate of teen and unintended pregnancies among those who cannot maintain themselves must be stopped. That taxpayers reward the sensual activities of emotive but ignorant individuals with free

money must stop. The following examples should clarify. Since the morality of others is not my primary concern, society must examine realistic strategies how taxpayers can be protected from another endless expense. For example, those who access grants are eligible until they are 18-yearsold. With free education, health care and housing, free water and free electricity, including municipal debt write-offs and indigent grants from all levels of government, one woman with three children costs the taxpayers millions over a period of 18 years. Often, Muslim men, like other

men, have children with different women and are then unwilling or unable to pay maintenance. The women then complain to the local imam, who in reality cannot compel the man to maintain his children. I suggest that women report these matters to the authorities as this will at least ensure that the man is pressured and thus less eager to impregnate other naïve women. Secondly, some time ago, I was privy to a school meeting where many learners failed because they were troubled by their parents’ divorce. This case validates how an individual’s emotion has direct financial consequences for other people. Since a few learners were traumatised, the broader class suffered as the learners often acted-out. Ironically, the classroom is often considered a safe space in contrast with the home milieu. With an average class size of 35 learners, very few teachers can cope with a full teaching load, emotional-

ly needy children and the upkeep of overall discipline. As a result, the school has limited options as the needs of the wider school community must be secured ahead of individual issues. While a fee-paying school can afford to hire a social worker, this will increase the fees of all students the next year. Is this needless financial burden fair on the bulk of other parents? Since divorce statistics in South Africa hover around 50%, this phenomenon is replicated across the country on a massive scale. How must poor communities cope where schools cannot afford social workers? Since the National Department of Education has huge infrastructure backlogs, do rural school communities sacrifice access to toilets or request a departmental social worker?

CONTINUED ON PAGE 29

Muslim Views . November 2014 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 28 Experience suggests that those engaged in divorce have limited concern for taxpayers as their focus is on their private emotional needs. How then, do we engender a stable society when 50% of families are seemingly at war? The argument is that the activity of any given individual sooner or later has an impact on the social order as a whole. As a society, how should we manage such issues realistically and not respond with political correctness or ethical disputes that have no real outcomes? Thirdly, in Cape Town, there are thousands of drug and alcohol addicts that waste billions in rate and taxpayers revenue via free housing, health care etc. This excludes the cost of their criminal activities.

Addiction is increasing and seems overpowering as profits from narcotics are worth the material risk. Our desperately considerate system of justice, the ineptness of the lowly paid law enforcement officials and infantile political strife will, unfortunately, ensure that drug addiction will remain a problem for decades. In a media release on October 9, Mayoral Committee Member for Health, Cllr Benedicta Van Minnen said: ‘We cannot deny that there is a strong link between substance abuse and mental health issues and, while we don’t have statistics on the number of “dual diagnosis” cases, we have noticed high rates of mental health issues with substance abusers as well as high rates of substance abuse with mental health clients. ‘Traditionally, substance abuse and mental health services have been fragmented but because the City’s treatment sites are based in

clinics, many of which have doctors and mental health nurses, it has allowed the provision of an integrated service where the client can be treated for both issues.’ The treatment sites screened 1 621 clients last year. Many addicts suffer from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and the costs into the future are infinite. Clinics are filled with unplanned pregnancies that create infinite liability to the taxpayer as most remain state dependant. These outcomes prove that billions spent on contraceptives and preventative programmes have failed. Also, how will the City of Cape Town sustain addicts with mental issues who produce children when we have an existing housing backlog of 500 000? To prevent spiralling costs requires action. To moderate unplanned pregnancies, those who receive free housing or welfare etc. must submit to sterilisation as a social service to taxpay-

ers as they are often unable to make quality decisions. Those who impregnate unmarried teens and are unable to support them should also be sterilised. Criminals, who are guilty of serious crimes such as murder and rape, must be sterilised in lieu of their free lodging, food and clothes. Any study of criminals will confirm a link between a dysfunctional family history and a reliance on state support. In reality, taxpayers are aiding and abetting their own victimhood via the enabling programme of welfare. Security companies often specify that in the suburbs beggars do surveillance for burglars. Thus, they discourage residents from helping beggars as this only encourages a return to the suburb. My father learnt this lesson the hard way when he hired people off the street for his workshop. In one night, they stole equipment that had taken 40 years to accrue. His trade

was finally ruined when his vehicle was stolen. By governing the movement and activities of those who threaten the sustainability of society, we can compel them to accept the support that the City of Cape Town has to offer. Locals would feel safer at home and at work when they know that ruffians are not able to throw bricks willy-nilly. In the words of the wise, almost everything in life is a result of human intellect; if we improve the way we think, we progress. Our shared social sustainability cannot be dependent on the emotive needs of a minority. Communities who do not learn from history and reality will eventually become its victim. Cllr Yagyah Adams Cape Muslim Congress Write to: editor@mviews.co.za Please submit full name & address

Muslim Views

Muslim Views . November 2014

From Consciousness to Contentment

Matric: an end and a beginning JASMINE KHAN

HE matric examinations herald the end of twelve years of grade school, and also the beginning of a new era in your life. The prospect of finally being free of the school bell and being at the mercy of the educators takes a back seat to the stress of the approaching examinations. It would seem that stress is an integral part of the entire process. In fact, the young people I spoke to seemed of the opinion that it is expected of them to be stressed. Love them or hate them, examinations are a necessary rite of passage for everyone who has attended school. It remains the only way of ascertaining whether the learner has in fact grasped what he has been taught. It is a conundrum that without a matric certificate no one can be admitted to further study or enter the labour market. Yet, even with it there is no guarantee of success in later life. There are many matriculants pounding the streets looking for work or waiting on admission to tertiary institutions. On the other hand, there are countless numbers of people who have either failed the examination or did not make it to grade twelve at all, and they are successfully earning a living. This does not, however, change the perception that passing matric is a mark of your success. Neither does it in any way lessen the anx-

Beginning of the end: As matriculants started their final examinations recently, it heralded both the end of an important developmental period of their lives and the start of life beyond the relative protected environment of school. This, coupled with the need to succeed in the final examinations, is a cause of immense stress for these individuals. Photo M T NAKIDIEN

iety and stress experienced by these young people. The amount of stress that the learners suffer can adversely affect their performance in the examination, and there are many reported cases of extreme depression and anxiety attacks among the young people. Many will believe that an unsatisfactory pass mark is an unacceptable outcome of twelve years of hard work. The stress they feel may cause them to forget everything they have so painstakingly studied. In addition, many will memorise the information and promptly forget it once the paper is handed in. Yet, they have no choice but to do

the preparation and hope for the best. Stress is not exclusive to the learners; in many cases, the parents are even more stressed. This results in them putting great pressure on their chidren, which in turn produces a more stressful situation. With all due respect to parents, they should realise that the child is the one who attended school and went through the process of learning; it is the child who will sit up nights studying and, ultimately, it is the child who will walk alone into the examination hall, sit down and attempt to answer the questions.

As parents, we should provide support and encouragement but not push and nag. We need to trust that our children are cognisant of the gravity of the situation and that they will do what is necessary. The child’s performance may be adversely affected by too much pressure, causing even more stress. It is pressure enough to know that the results will affect their future. Even though the system is far from perfect, we have to accept that examinations have for centuries been used to gauge a person’s readiness to face life as an adult, and it is here to stay. One can but hope that certain reforms will take place sometime in the future. A way in which all the relevant course information can be covered and tested will be an improvement. In this way, the student’s understanding of the concepts can be ascertained. Many learners do very well in the classroom but ‘freeze’ in the examination room. The progress the child makes in the classroom should be taken into consideration when judgements are made.

In spite of these real concerns, the examination model does have a few positive outcomes. Learners are encouraged to develop their memory to understand the course material. It forces them to be specific, to focus, and teaches discipline as examinations have a time frame. It also promotes a healthy sense of competitiveness, which could result in greater effort being made. Education has certainly seen many changes over the decades, and I am certain that much of the material covered today will be of benefit to these young people as they navigate the adult world. However, there is still the concern that knowledge acquired by cramming will have no useful purpose later in life. I remember in my matric year we had to learn the body parts of the common house fly. Part of the lesson was to draw the insect. Being hopeless at drawing, mine in no way resembled a fly. My biology teacher took one look at my effort and remarked: ‘If the fly could see how you depict him, he would not want to be a fly.’ I consoled myself with the fact that the existence of the fly did not depend on how well I drew it. A good matric pass may open doors to further education or employment but it will need more than this to become a fully functional and responsible adult, Insha Allah.

Muslim Views

FOR ALL

Muslim Views . November 2014

The delight of dynamic sculptures The work’s core shows that life should be lived to the full but with due caution of the risks, writes Doctor M C D’ARCY. TATIC is the opposite of dynamic. Dynamic art moves. Don’t just look; observe closely and you’ll see what an artistic rush is all about. Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden was picture perfect, the sky crystal azure. At the garden’s entrance a water feature tinkled a ‘welcome’ greeting. A few metres away a little springbok leaps into the air; at its heels comes death. The snort of the cheetah’s breath crackles like fire as she reaches out for the little springbok’s legs. The next bite would be for the neck. The terminal scream of the buck would be frozen, silent. This drama played out in jiggered dark bronze right before me, in the midday sun; and all thanks to the brilliance and skill of the sculptor. The rough exteri-

or surfaces of the sculpture were smoothed out in the mind’s eye. It gelled the horror of death and dismemberment of one species as opposed to nourishment and survival for the predator higher up the food chain. According to a SANBI note in ‘Art in the Garden at Kirstenbosch NBG’, sculptor ‘Dylan Lewis is among the most highly regarded figurative sculptors working with the animal form today. ‘He works in clay, crafting the medium so that its final shape and surface take on an almost elemental quality, its texture not only bringing the animal to life but speaking of the wilderness itself.’ On every visit to Kirstenbosch, this bronze sculpture is my first stop. Its fascination has not ebbed over the many times I have photographed it from all angles. What is the reason for this enthralment? I have seen cheetahs up close on reserves, and wild springboks by the hundreds at Etosha Pan, in Namibia, but I have never seen the ‘kill’. At an exposed Etosha waterhole, the bus engine is silenced. We hold our breath. A small troupe of buck has come from the security of the enveloping dry scrub bush to drink.

Every few steps they stop, scan the open surrounds of the waterhole and sniff the air. As they near the waterhole, the fear in the searching eyes of the leading buck is palpable, escalating with every tentative move. Water is vital for the buck but they are exposed and defenceless in the open plains. Every time they must assuage their thirst they have to come to the waterhole and dice with a violent death. At times like these, you recount that when you pull your chair to the table and dig into a steak or a meat stew you just gulp the food down without a thought of how and from where the meat comes. For me, that sculpture in Kirstenbosch Garden evokes all those aphorismic memories. The work’s core shows that life should be lived to the full but with due caution of the risks. It is good to live responsibly and know that life is a vulnerable situation, only death is certain. But while you still breathe, it is pointless to freeze in fear of the inevitable. The second forceful piece of sculpture is a fantastic creative tour de force, a masterly achievement, in which man is the victim. On a visit to the Vatican I was struck by rooms stuffed with marble busts of donors keen on preserving their faces for eternal memory in holy divinity. Obscuring dust has long ago covered their pompous lustre, their lips forever silent, evoking no emotions, sending no messages to the millions who pass by. But, at the entrance of the museum, a father and his two sons wrestle with a sea serpent, its sinuous body squeezing the lifeblood from the fighting father; a cruel battle for survival as old as eternity. You can feel the relentless strangling coils, you can feel the pain. This marble sculpture was discovered buried on Rome’s

TOP: The Laocoön depicts the death throes of the Trojan priest and his sons who were punished by the gods for warning the Trojans not to drag the wooden horse into the city. Photo M C D’ARCY

Esquiline Hill in 1506. It is surmised that it was probably created about 30BC by three sculptors Hagesander, Athenodoros and Polydorus from the Greek island of Rhodes. According to the Greek poet Virgil’s epic poem Aeneid, when the Greeks besieged the city of Troy (in present Turkey), the Greeks placed a big wooden horse filled with soldiers outside the gates of Troy. Laocoön, a Trojan priest and his two sons tried to warn the Trojans not to open the gates and drag the wooden horse into the city. The Greek goddess, Athena, goddess of wisdom and war, and Poseidon, God of the Sea, punished Laocoön by sending a sea serpent to kill Laocoön and his sons. It is said of the Laocoön: ‘The sculpture group is acclaimed for its dignified portrayal of agony.’ How can agony be dignified? Philosophically the sculpture is about life and death depicted in bronze and stone. You cannot walk by without emotion. It affects one in message and execution. Much of sculpture is ego trips by politicians, captains of industry and education. Some are toppled dramatically like the tyrannical Saddam Hussein of Iraq, repeated ad nauseam on television. Most just gather dust and pigeon droppings, and soon they become invisible to the passersby. On the V&A Waterfront, there were two pieces of sculpture that

LEFT: The realistic depiction of the ‘hunt’ at the entrance to Kirstenbosch NBG is beautifully contrasted by the serenity of the botanical garden situated at the foot of Table Mountain. Photo M C D’ARCY

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Top: This photograph vividly illustrates the contrast between static and dynamic sculptures. The ‘Lego Man’ not only towers over the sculptures of these South African icons but is also animated. Photo M C D’ARCY

caught my eye and illustrate dynamism, and the lack thereof. The front bronze show static diminutive figures standing in a row, the same distance apart, of the same ‘burnt half-candle’ size and posed rigidly like four bored pillars of salt. You will probably recognise that they depict Oliver Tambo, Bishop Tutu, F W de Klerk and President Mandela. Contrast the Lego Man in the background. It has movement: its mouth is open, the arms are raised and the fingers give the ‘vfor victory’ sign or whatever modern meaning. It is communicating with the viewer on many fronts. The men in the front are creatively deaf and mute. They have no audience around them. Lego Man has a figure sitting on his left leg. Someone is taking a picture of her. Other figures are admiring the artwork. What is dynamic and what is not?