Muslims need to have dialogue with each other, as the immigrant debate is creating divisions in the community, political analyst Thembisa Fakude said at the Kasi Muslim Dialogue in Soweto on Friday, 10 July.
Fakude spoke on xenophobia, afrophobia and immigration, and said that the current climate in which tensions are high around the debate on immigration posed one of the biggest challenges to the country’s Muslim community.
Fakude noted that there has historically been tensions within the Muslim community between different groups, particularly between the established Muslim community and the African Muslim community.
“The way in which we are choosing to respond is either going to get us into a situation where we move forward or move backwards. That is why it is so important that this discussion takes place.”
Fakude urged community leaders to find ways of engaging each other productively on the matter, rather than shying away from the debate. He said the reaction to the immigration debate was not nuanced enough and that the concerns of the Muslim community in the townships were not being considered.
“The communities are feeling increasingly marginalised and I think that’s particularly when it comes to the African Muslims or the so-called African Islam. Our women are going to be heavily targeted for the way they dress up or the way they practise the hijab.”
Fakude said there needs to be a discussion around this within the Muslim community.
“This is part of what it means to belong in this country. Part of what it means to be pious in a particular way, but also to take the religious obligations… to make it contextualised, to make it practical, to make it do-able.”
He called for Muslim women to take the forefront on issues relating to hijab and their identities as Muslims.
“It’s not supposed to be us as men telling you how to do something. It’s supposed to be you telling us how you want it to be done and what it is that you want protected for you, your comfortability for you, your safety for you… Let women speak out.”
Fakude challenged the Muslim community in Soweto to think of ways in which they can develop their own institutions and mechanisms for deliberating on issues affecting them.
“Unless we create our own structures and systems, our own machinery for engaging … we will always be on the receiving end of whatever happens, whether it has to do with Muslims in general or otherwise.”
Fakude said that he hoped that the Qasi Muslim Dialogue would be the first in a series of meetings on challenging the Muslim community.
“I hope that this is the first of many dialogues that are going to take place because I think it’s very important.”
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Image via AA.COM
