The South African Muslim Network took part in a Radio Islam interview on the growing problem of Islamophobia in South Africa — how anti-Muslim prejudice is showing up locally, what it means for our communities, and what has to be done, collectively, to counter it.
Listen to the Interview
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Why This Conversation Matters
Islamophobia is often discussed as something that happens elsewhere. It does not. It shows up here in the ordinary places — in workplaces and schools, in how a story is framed in the media, in what is said online under cover of anonymity, and in the treatment people receive because of a name, a beard or a scarf.
Naming it accurately is the first task. Prejudice that goes unnamed is easily dismissed as sensitivity, and a community that cannot describe what is happening to it cannot ask anyone to help. The second task is harder and more important: countering it without turning inward. Hate is answered by contact, by plain information, and by the ordinary business of neighbours knowing one another — which is precisely why SAMNET puts as much work into opening doors as into objecting to what is said about what is behind them.
SAMNET remains committed to fighting prejudice, intolerance, hate and violence in all its forms — against anyone, and by anyone. The dignity the organisation asks for its own community is owed equally to every South African, and the case is worth nothing if it is made selectively.
If You Have Experienced or Witnessed It
Report it. Incidents that are never recorded do not exist as far as policy, policing or the courts are concerned, and the absence of a record is routinely used as evidence that there is no problem. Write to info@samnet.co.za or send a message on WhatsApp to 084 333 3979, with the date, the place and what was said or done. Keep screenshots.
Shared by the South African Muslim Network in the interest of a just, inclusive and dignified South Africa.
Contact SAMNET
info@samnet.co.za
WhatsApp 084 333 3979
www.samnet.co.za