23 August 2020

The “AZAAN Judgement”

The South African Muslim Network notes the poor judgement handed down in the case related to the stopping of the Azaan in Isipingo. We have unambiguously expressed the disappointment of our community with the poor judgment in various mainstream media interviews and the fact that it needs to be and will be appealed right to the Constitutional court if necessary.

While we are all appalled by this decision and the Islamophobic nature of the applicants’ mentality, we should not be responding, whether on social media or against other faith groups, in a way that is not befitting our Islamic teachings or the example of our Prophet Muhammed (Peace be upon him).
Our experience over the past five years of managing the Mosque Open days which serve the purposes of addressing the misconceptions and ignorance about our religion, has shown us that education and dialogue in a friendly environment is much more conducive to building mutual respect and acceptance than denigration of other people’s faiths and resorting to vulgarity. We cannot stress enough the importance of having these Mosque Open days as a forum for dialogue and education.

The SAMNET 2019 National Mosque Open Day hosted over 2000 participants across six provinces with 45 Mosques registered. People of all faiths (or none), cultures and ethnicities visited the Mosques in their communities for a two hour programme. Words such as kindness, warmth, sincerity, friendliness and understanding came up frequently as feedback from participants who left the mosque with a better understanding of Islam, a sense of community and more accurate information and understanding.

We need to keep the doors open for dialogue at all times while at the same time sparing no legal effort to ensure that our religious rights are protected and Islamophobes taken to task within the ambit of the law. We urge more Masaajids to join the SAMNET NATIONAL MOSQUE OPEN DAY campaign so that we can have a national footprint of masaajids that all people can visit and learn from.