Three Islamic strands in the South African struggle for justice

Third World Quarterly

Volumn 10, Issue 2, 1988, Pages 473-498

  Esack, Farid ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 84963133372     PISSN: 01436597     EISSN: 13602241     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01436598808420068     Document Type: Article

References (46)

1. G. Lubbe, Robben Island: The Early Years of Muslim Resistance, Bellville: Kronos University of the Western Cape, 1987, p 49.
2. By the term Islamist we refer to those Muslims committed to Islam as a comprehensive worldview.
3. Achmat Davids, Mosques of the Bo Kaap, Athlone, Cape: South African Institute of Arabia and Islamic Research, 1980, p 7; Sulaiman Dangor, Shaikh Yusuf, Durban: University of Durban Westville, 1979, p 59.
4. Dangor, Shaikh Yusuf, p 59; Davids, Mosques of the Bo Kaap, p 93.
5. A. Davids, The History of the Tana Baru, Cape Town: Committee for the Preservation of the Tana Baru, 1985, p 86; Muslims in South Africa have until recently been far more rigid in adhering to their dietary regulations than anywhere else where I have travelled in the Muslim World.
6. Cape Times, 1 August 1882; Davids, The History of the Tana Baru, p 86.
7. Davids, The History of the Tana Baru, p 9.
8. A. Davids, ‘Politics and the Muslims of Cape Town’ in Studies in the History of Cape Town (4) C Saunders (ed), Cape Town: University of Cape Town, 1981, p 25.
9. Muslim News (Cape Town) 12 May 1961; Muslim News, 31 March 1961.
10. A. Z. Berman, ‘Debates of the House of Assembly’, Hansard, First session-First Parliament 5-27 June 1961, Vol 1 quoted by A. R. Omar in ‘The impact of the death in detention of Imam Abdullah Haroon on Cape Muslim political attitudes’, unpublished BA (Honours) thesis, University of Cape Town.
11. Omar, ‘The impact of the death’, pp 27-37.
12. Muslim News, 31 July 1964.
13. Again not a word was said about the political problems of the community. The Majlis Ashura Al Islami is today a conservative religious entity to the right of the slightly progressive MJC. Its President, Sheikh Shakir Gamildin, advocates hijrah-migration-for any South African Muslim who is dissatisfied with apartheid.
14. It was the largest funeral ever witnessed in the Cape. The figures for attendance may have been rivalled at the funeral of another martyr, Adbul Karrim Friddie on 19 October 1985.
15. The Majlis 7 (2) p 12.
16. S. Jeppie, Towards a Principled Struggle, Cape Town: Impress, 1987, p 1.
17. Islamic Training Programme video recording, Johannesburg, 1984.
18. There is no evidence to suggest that the foreign organisations associated with the international movement felt that they had anything to learn from the South African experience of Islam; Jeppie, Towards a Principled Struggle, p 6.
19. ‘Thrusting the MYM into the political arena’, Al Qalam, July 1987, p 3.
20. S. P. Manzoor, ‘Re-educating the Muslim intellectual’, Inquiry, July 1985, quoted by E Moosa in ‘Religion and politics: the MYM and the search for an Islamic response to South Africa’, paper delivered at the Muslim Students Association (MSA) Annual National Convention in the Strand (Cape), 30 June-4 July, 1987.
21. This warning was issued at the General Assembly of the MYM in Ladysmith. It was a repeat of a similar warning issued to the MSA at its national conference in 1981.
22. Al Qalam, July 1987, p 3.
23. For further details see Sechaba-Journal of the ANC, London, April 1985 and The African Communist-Journal of the South African Communist Party, London, Vols 1 and 2, 1986.
24. A. R. Omar's speech at a joint Qiblah-MYM rally on 9 May 1986 (unpublished) and the articles of S Manjra in ‘Al Mizaan’ (Natal MSA publication), undated. They are, respectively, the national president and the vice-president of the MYM. Criticism from the far left has come from: The New Unity Movement, Cape Action league, APDUSA (African People's Democratic Union of South Africa) and the Society of Young South Africans.
25. For Najaar's views on this matter, see, Sunday Times, 12 October 1985; Armin Fakir's opinions were conveyed during a personal interview held 28 October 1985; The Qibla position was reported in an article by Riter, ‘Necessity for revolution’, Muslim News, August 1984, p 2. The significance of 22 and 28 August 1984 as dates for an Islamic Revolution arose from the fact that these dates corresponded with the elections for the (coloured) House of Representatives and the (Indian) House of Delegates respectively.
26. Inqilaab (editorial), Cape Town: MSA University of Cape Town, July 1982, p 3; For further details see, Al Qalam 10(11) 1986 (supplement on Da'wah).
27. Riter, ‘Necessity for revolution’, p 2.
28. Cassim in an interview with Gerrie Lubbe, September 1984; Koran 2: 249. 59 There was another curious and somewhat comic dimension to police reaction to the intensity of the Allahu Akbars as we took to the streets in a near frenzied manner. The police tend to be recruited from the lower classes of Afrikanerdom, they are by and large uneducated and are quite superstitious. Problems of infertility, inexplicable ailments and other matters relating to the occult are often referred to the Muslim ‘dukums’, the equivalent of the Indo-Pak ‘pir’ or ‘aamil’. Islam to a large sector of the Afrikaner community is still part of the mystique of oriental occultism. This fear played an important role in the police ‘hands off’ policy when Muslims took to the streets.
29. BBC International service news report, 19 October 1985.
30. Cradock is the hometown of Matthew Goniwe, another famous martyr, ‘Fight with Cradock’ is a prominently displayed slogan on a wall in Athlone.
31. Arabia: The Islamic World Review, ‘Opposing apartheid’ (London) October 1986. 45 Imam Hassan Solomon fled the country in August 1985 after being sought by South African Police and Sheikh A. G. Gabier did likewise in March 1986. Sheikh Faiq Gamildin is pursuing theological studies in Islamabad, while Maulana Farid Esack's membership of that body is largely symbolic.
32. Y. Da Costa ‘Whither Muslims in South Africa?’, Muslim News, 29 December 1967, p 4.
33. ‘The Call of Islam’, p 5.
34. H. Solomon, ‘I will return’, South (Cape Town) 9 April-15 April, 1987, p 10.
35. R. Ghannoushi, interview in Arabia-The Islamic World Review (London) October 1986.
36. E. Rasool and F Esack, Why the National Democratic Struggle p 7.
37. ‘Let's debate’, Campus Call 1 (4), p 2.
38. ‘Riter’, ‘Ideological warfare’, Muslim News, 12 August 1983, pp 2.
39. ‘Evil learned men’ The Majlis, 7 (2).
40. For further details see ‘Bericht uit de gevanggenisel’ Vu-Magazine (Amsterdam) February 1986, p 54.
41. Moosa, ‘Religion and politics’, p 6.
42. F. Ali, ‘Tell the Muslims I'm proud of them’, Sechaba (London) April, 1986.
43. Esack, ‘The Review of Faith…’ p 199.
44. P. W. Botha, Partners in Terror, Parow CTD Book Printers, 1987, p 3.
45. PW Botha, Republic of South Africa, Debates of House of Assembly, Hansard, Third Session-Eight Parliament, 14-18 April, 1986 (10) p 3590; quoted in R Omar, ‘The Impact of the Death… p 3.
46. The speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Hashemi Rafsanjani, told reporters at the NAM summit in Harare in 1986, that Iran still has multi-million rand investments in South Africa which included shares in vehicle assembly plants, strategic mining installations and oil refineries. For further details see Al Qalam, March 1986.