Banjul, Gambia - South African Muslims have swiftly reacted to the alleged disappearance and continuous detention of their country's two Muslim clerics in The Gambia.
The clerics reacted through Khulumani Support Group whose board chairperson, Dr. Marjorie Jobson said, "despite newspaper reports that the two Pretoria-based clerics were finalising plans to return home nearly sixteen days after their departure from South Africa on a brief exchange visit to Islamic learning institutions in Senegal and The Gambia, and thirteen days after their scheduled return, the two clerics remain in custody in a detention centre in The Gambia."
Moulana Farhaad Ahmed Dockrat, the principal of the Darus Salaam Islamic College in Laudium in Pretoria and Muaaz, his son in his 20's and a lecturer at the college were allegedly arrested by Gambian security agents early this month. Various South African media reports have attempted to link the detention of the two clerics to allegations of their connections to al-Qaeda activities in various regions of the world.
According to the statement, the Support Group believes that the action taken against the two South African Muslim clerics represents action based on global discourses about the so-called "war on terror." Dr. Jobson doubted why normal cultural exchanges between people for the promotion of knowledge and understanding would be assumed as source of terror for Islamic fundamentalism.
The Group fear that unhelpful and hegemonic discourse is being used to justify their detention, which is in line with the harassment Muslims across the world are subjected to. "While we respect the right of a state to seek to advance state security, we wish to assert that human security is not advanced by undermining basic human rights, as has happened in this situation," Dr. Jobson said.
Dr. Jobson added, "South African Constitution provides for the right of every individual to freedom and security of the person including the right not to be deprived of freedom arbitrarily or without just cause; not to be detained without trial; to be free from all forms of violence from either public or private sources; and not to be tortured in any way." He therefore said described the detention of the two clerics as a violation of South African Constitution. "The two clerics have in fact been subjected to an enforced disappearance."
Dr. Jobson also quoted the UN Convention on Human Rights, which protects all persons from enforced disappearances. He said the disappeared persons have been taken into custody by state agents who concealed their whereabouts and fate. "This was the situation pertaining to the disappearance of Moulana Farhaad Dockrat and his son until a few days ago."
The statement expressed the Group's vigorous disapproval of this action that "appears to have been taken on an alleged basis of protecting public security." While condemning the enforced disappearance of the two Pretoria-based Muslim clerics, the Group calls for the cessation of unwarranted and ongoing harassment of members of the Muslim community in South Africa. "We believe such 'victimisation' does not serve the deepening of democracy in South Africa."