A young man recorded a video at Northcliff Masjid and Madressa making derogatory remarks about Islam. The mosque’s response was to invite him in. He came, with two friends, and spent the Open Day in conversation.
Northcliff held its National Mosque Open Day on Saturday 19 September, one of the first venues on the 2026 list to open its doors. The programme covered the basic beliefs of Islam, what a masjid is for, and the misconceptions people arrive with — alongside medical screenings and hijab tutorials.
Moulana Omar Bham, who hosted the visitors, put the case for the day plainly: people “drive past the mosque but do not know what goes on in a mosque”. Moulana Ismail Moosa spent much of the morning in conversation with the three visitors.
The visitors left saying the experience had changed something. One encouraged others to visit their own local mosque and ask whatever they wanted to ask. Another said that Christians and Muslims can respect one another even where they disagree.
Read the Full Story
“From insult to invitation: How a Johannesburg mosque answered Islamophobia with an open door”
By Shonie Lesoga, 1 Nation Media, 21 September 2026. The full account, with the visitors in their own words, is worth reading there.
Why It Matters
Islamophobia in South Africa does not usually arrive as an attack on a building. It arrives as a video, a comment, a joke shared onward by people who have never set foot inside a mosque and have no reason to think they are wrong.
Northcliff’s answer was not a press statement or a complaint. It was a door held open. That is the entire argument for National Mosque Open Day, made in one Saturday morning by one mosque — and it is a more persuasive one than anything the South African Muslim Network could write.
National Mosque Open Day 2026 is on Thursday 24 September, Heritage Day. Find a mosque near you →
Shared by the South African Muslim Network in the interest of building our communities and dispelling misconceptions about Islam.
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