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April 26, 2007

South Africa: Funeral Raises Islamist Tensions

Today, the Independent Online reported on the funeral of an anti-apartheid activist, Ismail Abrahams, also called locally "Boeta Mylie from Bonteheuwel".

Abrahams had also been a member of Islamic groups which could be construed as radical, including "Call of Islam" and the more controversial group called Qibla. The latter group, founded in South Africa in the early 1980s, was started with the aim of implementing the ideals of the Iranian Shia revolution in South Africa, particularly in the Western Cape, where a high number of Muslims live.

After Abrahams died on Friday after a long struggle with cancer, his funeral took place on Saturday (April 21), attended by the Premier of Western Cape province, Ebrahim Rasool, a member of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party. Rasool had been regarded highly by Abrahams and it had been the deceased's desire that he should attend the funeral. Abrahams' family had said that the dead activist's desire had been to see his funeral uniting radical factions in Islam with those who once fought together against apartheid - represented by Finance Trevor Manuel and Ebrahim Rasool, whom Abrahams had regarded as a "son".

What resulted at the Bonteheuwel was an angry demonstration, which saw the Premier of Western Cape province insulted and threatened by members of radical groups. The disturbance indicated that Islamism, which has long been simmering away in the Western Cape, has not disappeared and is as potentially explosive as it has ever been.

In 2000, there had been a series of nine bombings in the province which caused serious injuries. On August 25, 1998, there had been an explosion at Planet Hollywood, Cape Town, In all, there had been 189 bomb attacks between 1996 and 2000.

The Planet Hollywood attack was assumed to be the handiwork of PAGAD (People Against Gangsterism and Drugs), a mainly Muslim group which had been formed in December 9, 1995 in the Cape Flats section of Cape Town. In 2001 a major crackdown took place by authorities against PAGAD leadership, and the violence appeared to subside. PAGAD was also blamed for a car bombing at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town on January 1, 1999, and also a firebombing of a US-affiliated restaurant exactly a week later. PAGAD vigilantes are shown below.

At Abrahams' funeral on Saturday, members of PAGAD were in attendance, along with some wearing Hizbollah sweaters, some with Hamas bandanas, and others with ANC and Qibla T-shirts.

Abrahams himself had been a radical - his noble struggle against apartheid was not ennobled by his involvement with Qibla, whose slogan was "One Solution, Islamic Revolution". Qibla's leader was Achmad Cassiem. WIth PAGAD, members of QIbla used radio station 786 to promote their anti-US and pro-Islamist message.

In 1999, according to that year's US Patterns of Global Terrorism report, Qibla had about 250 members, and PAGAD had at least 50 gunmen. Two of Abrahams' sons, Yusuf and Nazeem, had been found guilty of committing a bombing against the Lincoln Tavern in Belgravia, at Kimberley in Northern Cape in 1985.

With Abrahams' associations with terrorist groups, it is not hard to explain the degeneration of the funeral service. When Premier Rasool tried to deliver a eulogy, he was shouted down by Islamists, who upon his arrival at the mosque had accused him of being "too accommodating of other faiths", for not outlawing alcohol consumption, and not fulfilling their expectations of Islamic policy making.

Security forces intervened, and the funeral ended earlier than expected. Today, according to Independent Online, the premier explained his views. He said: "I knew they (the militant Islamic factions) would also claim Boeta Mylie as one of their own and would be there. But I had thought that we should leave that dangerous period of the late 1990s behind us and move towards a far more peaceful period in the Western Cape."

"I was very disappointed that such narrow-minded people would have tried to disrupt the funeral of a man that we all understood to be courageous in the struggle against apartheid. They disrespected him by the way they behaved."

The family of Ismail Abrahams expressed their disappointments at the behavior of the Islamist elements. The irony is that the funeral of someone who took part in the struggle against racial apartheid was disrupted by people who support religious apartheid.

The funeral highlights how ferocious one strand of South Africa's Muslim population can be. Muslims comprise only 2.3% of the demographic in SA. The most well known Muslim in the nation was the controversial Indian-born Ahmed Deedat, who died in 2005 aged 87. Deedat was responsible for da'wah activities leading to many conversions into Islam in South Africa and beyond, but has been criticized as an anti-Semite.

American journalist, counter-terrorism expert and Fox TV presenter Steve Emerson produced a show called "Terrorists among us - Jihad in America" in 1994. When this was aired in South Africa, Emerson was informed by the FBI that a South African Muslim group had sent a team to the US to kill him. The identity of this group is not known, though it may have been from Qibla. Since that time, Emerson has had to be cautious in his activities.

Qibla's alliance with PAGAD highlighted its terrorist potential. PAGAD had a militant activist wing, called the G-Force. PAGAD emerged from an alliance of Muslims and local neighborhood watch groups, but turned to direct actions of vigilantism and eventually full-blown terrorist attacks. It was notorious for its killing of Rashaad Staggie on August 4, 1996 (pictured left).

Staggie was one of two brothers (Rashied Staggie was the other) who ran a small gang, the Hard Livings gang, in the Cape Flats selling drugs, and his murder was caught on film. The Cape Flats had been where people had been relocated after a racially mixed area of Cape Town, called District Six, had been demolished in 1950 under the terms of the Group Areas Act - it predominantly housed those classed as "coloured" - neither specifically black, Indian, or white.

A large march of Muslims, mostly wearing kefftieh scarves wrapped around their faces, with a motorcade of 500 vehicles descended upon the neighburhood. Staggie was set on fire, and then shot dead. In 2002, PAGAD's national coordinator Abdus-Salaam Ebrahim, PAGAD's security chief Salie Abader, a former spiritual leader of Pagad called Abdur-Razaak Ebrahim, and Pagad member Moegsien Mohamed were acquitted of involvement in the public lynching of Staggie, but were found guilty of public violence. After the acquittals of these men on lynching charges, there were fears of a resurgence of bombing attacks.

Abdus-Salaam Ebrahim (pictured, right) was sentenced in March 2002 to five years' jail and was sent to Goodwood Prison. Abdur Razaaq Ebrahim was jailed for three years - though he was told that he would not necessarily serve the entire jail term.

By 2000 PAGAD was thought to be officially dead. The behavior at Saturday's funeral raises further doubts about the real disappearance of the group.

On Monday, August 29, 2005, there were warnings made by South Africa's Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils that al-Qaeda was believed to be trying to set up networks in the country.

He said: "There are groups in Africa that claim to be part of al-Qaeda and other structures, and here in southern Africa they have been discovered seeking refuge and quite possible attempting to set up networks. There is nothing to stop terrorists attacking a maritime target in Africa, along our busy sea lanes or in our harbors.... We must also note the potential for terrorist groups to use the sea.. Africa is not immune to this."

"The challenge to us is to develop our maritime power, our naval power, to a level where this continent will no longer be an easy target ... and to discourage adventures by foreign actors, be they states or non-state groups such as international terrorists, narcotics smugglers or mercenaries."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at April 26, 2007 12:56 PM

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Posted by: skh.pcola at April 27, 2007 4:31 PM

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