Jason Felix
THE Muslim Judicial Council, United Ulama Council of South Africa and a number of other Islamic groups have dismissed the opening of the new Open Mosque on Friday as an “embarrassing failure”, while calling it a “cult”.
The Open Mosque has been founded by Taj Hargey, a professor of Islamic Studies and African history at Oxford University, and its first Friday prayers were held last week.
The Islamic groups said: “Hargey’s cult has totally no affinity with the Islam which the Muslims of South Africa follow.
“We believe that it is... highly deceptive for Hargey to call his warehouse of ‘worship’ a mosque and his cult ‘Islam’.”
The statement was also signed by a number of branches of the United Ulama Council of South Africa, Sunni United Ulama Council of South Africa, Mujilsul Ulama of South Africa and Jamiatul Ulama of South Africa.
Speaking before the start of its first Friday prayers, Hargey said that despite being targeted, his mosque would remain standing.
The Cape Town-born academic said he had received death threats before the opening of the mosque.
He has said it is to invite women to lead prayers and that it welcomes gay people and non-Muslims.
“They can kill me. I don’t fear any one of them. I fear only God,” he said, addressing journalists and a group of Muslim men who were strongly opposed to the mosque’s opening.
“If they kill me, I know my mosque will still remain.
“In 1994 our country won freedom and we all had equal rights. But in our religion, these changes and rights have not taken shape. In my eyes the Muslim Judicial Council is a joke. It should be named the Muslim Jokers Council.”
Interjecting, Muslim men shouted at Hargey and heckled him.
Hargey said the MJC should not tell him how the mosque ought to be run.
“We are open to all, no matter who wants to join.”
Some of the men interrupted the interviews by journalists, pushing Hargey and blocking the entrance to the mosque building.
“ Ons maak die jong in sy p***. Kry ’n mes, ek f*** stiek hom(Let’s sort this guy out. Get me a knife, I will stab him),” said one man who identified himself as Adnaan.
Hargey confronted one of the outspoken Muslim men, Shaheem Wardien.
“What are you going to do about this mosque?” he asked Wardien repeatedly.
“What are you going to do?”
Wardien screamed in response: “We will not allow this.
“This goes against the law of Islam. This is not a mosque. We will not allow him to do this.”
When the sermon started, the hall was filled with journalists and those curious to see what unfolded.
Before Hargey began his sermon, Reeza Williams, a devout Muslim from Worcester, said he had decided to attend the Friday prayers to find out what the Open Mosque was about.
“I can’t really grab what the fuss is about with this new mosque,” he said.
“There are many Muslims who do not do their own readings and make assumptions from what they hear from others.
“I have heard that what happens here is not within the values of the Islam religion.
“I must say I had my reservations about coming here, but I did so to find out for myself and then make my decision.”
MJC president Maulana Ihsaan Hendricks said: “Islamic religion clearly delineates the roles of men and women on an equitable basis in all spheres of life that includes the morality, ethics and etiquette of mosques in Islam.”
Quoting from the Qur’an, Hendricks said: “He who obeys the Messenger has obeyed Allah (God); but those who turn away – we have not sent you over them as a guardian.”