If you like Bob so much, why don’t you keep him?

Hajira Amla | April 7, 2008

I can see it now – Thabo Mbeki at a Zanu PF rally holding up a large, creased poster which reads: “Mugabe is RIGHT”.  The tail of his shirt hangs out the back of his poor-man’s jacket as he tries to inch closer to his idol, Robert Mugabe.

This is the mental image I see when I close my eyes and listen to Mbeki speak at the press conference in London yesterday. “No, it’s time to wait,” said Mbeki, when asked if now was the time for the international community to intervene in order to prevent chaos in Zimbabwe. “Let’s see the outcome of the election results,” Mbeki stated stoically, as though it were perfectly natural to wait over a week for election results.

If Robert Mugabe is the type of man the leader of a country like South Africa looks up to and defends, then allow me to pack my bags while there is still room on the plane. If Thabo likes him so much, why doesn’t he go and live in Zimbabwe and walk a mile in the shoes of ordinary Zimbabweans – those that can actually afford shoes, that is…

In fact, I think he should take the decrepit octogenarian home with him to South Africa and make ol’ Bob South Africa’s Minister of Finance. Poor old Trevor Manuel just doesn’t understand that emulating the capitalist system of our colonial masters is very coconutty and he should be dragged out into the street and shot immediately for his own good before he infects others with his nasty strain of the Coconut virus.

Bob could indeed make some valuable contributions to the South African state. Our leaders have been doing remarkably well under his tutelage for the past few years but they still need to take a much bolder stance on land distribution, foreign-owned companies and re-inventing the rand. He also needs a good protégé on White/Briton/Westerner-bashing speeches – I’d personally recommend Zuma for this prestigious role.

South Africa and Zimbabwe are inextricably linked by the supporting role Zimbabweans played in the struggle against apartheid rule. However, a decade or so after the euphoria has faded, words like “democracy” and “the will of the people” hold as little weight as they did during the apartheid regime. The fact that the cat has got Mbeki’s toungue and hidden it under the couch in a situation where democracy and the well-being of an entire country are at stake is an indication of how ready we are for Bob to take the reins here in South Africa. Viva Mugabe, viva…

 

Save electricity now and you’ll pay for it later

Hajira Amla |31 March 2008

The Department of Minerals and Energy last week announced plans to implement new legislation that would enforce hefty fines on Eskom’s residential and business customers that did not make a 10% saving on their energy bills. The new law, which has already sailed through Parliament and is expected to be implemented by July, would see home owners and businesses required to make the reduction based on previous months’ energy usage.

Am I the only person asking the obvious question here? Let’s say I am a good and patriotic South African citizen who is concerned by the energy crisis and has been moved by the government and Eskoms heartfelt pleas to save as much energy as possible. I’d estimate that at least 60% of households in South Africa have already made some kind of effort to curb their power consumption, whether by switching their geysers off during the day, fitting energy-saving lightbulbs or just switching appliances and lights off when they are not needed. The South African public is collectively quite proud of their individual efforts and expects to be patted on the back by Eskom.

So I’ve cut my electricity consumption by as much as 15% and I’m happy about that. Then I hear that Eskom is hiking the price of electricity by roughly 50%, with another planned increase of 50% on the cards in 2009 (it’s just about the only thing that’s ever come out of Alec Irwin’s mouth that I believe) and now my little personal good Samaritan’s effort feels like a hollow, empty victory.

Then when the law is implemented in July, they will look at my reduced consumption in May and June and tell me I have to save another 10%! How should I do that? Should my family eat only raw foods? Take cold showers? What will their next step be - to make the possession and use of heaters illegal? In what forecasters are predicting to be one of our harshest winters in the past few years, do they seriously expect people to shiver in the dark?

Let’s have a look and see what alternatives to electricity the government has provided us with, shall we? Gas is astronomically priced and good luck to you if you can find any in the coming months. Illuminating paraffin is going up by R1.57 cents a litre on Wednesday, so it’s not really going to be very economical to run a paraffin stove or paraffin lamps. As for those who bought diesel generators for those long, dark winter nights, the price of diesel is set to increase by a shocking R1.30 per litre on Wednesday.

The only conclusion I can draw from all this is that the government couldn’t care less about providing us with a solution as long as they have the opportunity to line their pockets with our hard-earned money - by fining us for the terrible crime of caring enough to reduce our consumption before July and then being unable to reduce it any further.

The moral of the story? I’m unapologetically refusing to save electricity now so that I can avoid paying fines after July. Thank you to Eskom, the Department of Minerals and Energy and the government’s general ineptitude and lack of forward planning for making us do the crazy things we do.

Time Magazine’s Person of the Year (2006) is persona non grata in South Africa

Hajira Amla | 7 March 2008 

In 2006, you (the general public) were given Time Magazine’s Person of the Year award. Although I still stick to my guns and say the general public only won because the online poll put Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the clear favourite to win the award (and that wouldn’t have gone down well in Washington), one cannot help but admit that the world-wide web has put an astonishing amount of volume into the voices of the man on the street with something on his mind.

Between sites such as Wikipedia, YouTube, Myspace, FaceBook and the blog sections of international news networks, people across the world discuss topics such as the US elections, the war in Iraq, ancient maps, the pigeon conspiracy to take over the world, and to how to remove the stubborn stains in your toilet easily. Not all of it is worthy of serious consideration, but the percentage of people getting involved in web-based discussions and activities is higher than it has ever been, resulting in a higher number of people getting interested, educated and involved in current affairs around the world. 

South Africa is no exception to this trend, with bloggers literally coming out of the woodwork from all sections of our society. Our country indeed offers top quality commentary and analysis into the ways of the world, and it doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. Everybody has an opinion, everyone feels that his or her commentary is valid and important, and in a democratic society, so it should be valued as such. Unfortunately, in South Africa, any dissident voice against the government’s plan for the country is dismissed as a racist voice. Oh, and black dissident voices are labeled as “coconut” voices (black on the outside but really just white supremacist on the inside). Go figure. 

Freedom of speech is in such peril at this juncture that most of the non-parastatal newspapers, radio stations and television news teams suffer tenuous, mistrustful and dysfunctional relationships with government departments and ANC bigwigs. The state-owned South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has cut off all ties with the dissident media groups, rescinding its membership with the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF) and government has effectively put a halt to all advertising in the offending publications. At any given time there are at least two high-level members of the ANC trying to sue the Sunday Times for damning articles relating to allegations of corruption and lecherous behavior. 

Never before has public opinion taken such a turn against government spin, both locally and the world over, than it has in the past few years. Perhaps a mixture of disillusionment about government in general and the feeling that one has more or less total freedom of speech and a platform on which to stand and be heard on the internet has led to the sort of rebellious sarcasm and irreverent humour about government administrations and other current affairs that we see unfolding around us. 

The upswing in blogging has certainly done much to publicise the US primaries and the mud-slinging battles between former first lady Senator Hillary Clinton and the younger Senator Barack Obama, thereby generating massive amounts of interest the world over and in-depth commentary from the public, which is always useful for the campaign team to assess where they are going wrong. 

The African National Congress, sadly, does not seem to experience the same kind of lust for engaging in debate. One wonders if this is an indication of just how patriarchal and domineering our country’s decision-makers really are. The process of democracy seems to begin and end at the national elections once every four years. When concerns are raised, they are rubbished into the shadows. “No, there’s no crisis with regard to crime in South Africa”, “No, there is no division within the ANC”, “No, there is no tension between COSATU, the SACP and the ANC”, “No, I did not accept money from Schabir Shaik”. And it goes on and on… 

If you believed the ANC-led government, you would think all these things had been made up by pessimistic members of the media who have nothing better to do with their time than make up stories. By the way, that really is how the ANC explains it all away. Those in power today seem to be forging ahead with their own plans for the country without holding themselves accountable to the people that voted them into power. And the plans seem to be altogether less than altruistic, not to put too fine a point on it. Here are a few examples: 

·         The government is in the process of dissolving the elite crime-fighting unit called the Scorpions, South Africa’s answer to the rampant fraud and corruption problem plaguing the country’s government, and pushed the proposal through the two-thirds majority Parliament as though it was lubricated with the finest of oils. It may be worth mentioning that seven of the ANC’s National Executive Committee members have been found guilty of criminal offences in the past and six others are currently subjects of criminal investigations (statistics gleefully supplied by Helen Zille of the DA).  

·         The selection of the next president of the ANC is another distasteful case in point. Although the party enjoys such popularity among the citizens of the country as well as a comfortable two-thirds majority in Parliament, they did not feel the need to hold a public referendum on which person should become the next president of the organisation and, inevitably, the country. Just over 4000 ANC members voted to change the leadership that makes decisions for approximately 42 million South Africans (and about five or six million Zimbabweans).  

·          The five ANC Parliamentary whips found guilty of being involved in a wide-ranging travel scam which cost the taxpayer R17.2 million were given plea bargains and were not fired from Parliament last year. Around R9.4 million is owed by Members of Parliament and has yet to be recovered. It is astonishing to think that those who have pleaded guilty to corruption retain their jobs while those within the party who question the wisdom of their leaders are dismissed summarily, for example National Prosecuting Authority boss Vusi Pikoli, the deputy Health minister Nosiviwe Madlala-Routledge and former National Intelligence Agency boss Billy Masethla. 

·         Floor-crossing is another practice which many have argued is downright undemocratic. In a nutshell, every year for a certain period of time, Members of Parliament are allowed to “cross the floor” and join a different political party, but still retain their seats. This makes one wonder why on earth we voted at all to begin with when they can re-arrange themselves on the board as they please – and the floor crossing usually benefits only the bigger parties such as the ANC primarily and the Democratic Alliance to some extent. Smaller parties such as the Independent Democrats are all but crushed each year when they lose the seats they worked so hard for in the national elections. Due to vehement public outcry, floor crossing is set to be scrapped sometime within the next year – we think. But then again, the ANC has already benefitted in a huge way from it for quite a number of years, so it’s not a total loss for them.  

·         Dyantyi vs. Godzille – when the Democratic Alliance managed to wrest control of the City of Cape Town during the March 2006 local elections, the ANC proposed changing the executive mayoral system of government to an executive committee, which would put control of the Mother City back in the hands of the ANC. Following the unsuccessfulness of this bid, the formidable Helen Zille has been accused of many things by the ANC’s local government MEC Richard Dyantyi to try to topple her from her seat of power, including accusing her of the following: failing to implement affirmative action in the municipality (viz., employing white people), spying on non-DA Cape Town city councilors and having links to what the ANC claims is a vigilante group, PADLAC, to which end the mayor was publicly arrested on 9 September 2007. The charges were later thrown out of court.  

There seems to be an almost ironic parallel between Helen Zille and the Democratic Alliance today and Helen Suzman and her Progressive Party of yesteryear – a lone voice of reason in the political arena among a cacophony of zealous bigots trying to force the public to resign themselves to their sometimes radical policies. The South African government’s inclusion of the public in its decision-making processes seems to be inversely proportionate to the level at which the public are willing to become involved. And contrary to good PR practices, the more criticism is leveled at it, the more the ruling party seems to cower back into its shell and plot to gain more control, all the while alienating and intimidating South Africans even further. 

The ANC, and by inference, the government of South Africa, seems to have reached a point of no return as far as undoing the damage it has done is concerned. Those who wish to don rose-tinted glasses and call me negative are most welcome to do so, but through the eyes of one who has researched the fall of the apartheid regime, the new South African government seems to have followed in the doomed footsteps of their racist predecessors by implementing extremist and high-risk laws and policies which only serve to prolong existing tensions between certain groups and create enmity among sections of society which had never previously existed.  

Government has also failed to make good on its promises at election time for jobs, shelter, water and electricity to the poorest of the poor. The only people that seem to have benefited are the “newly elite” government crowd and their BEE protégés. This is a very small section of society, and they all seem to share common surnames, like the Zumas, the Skweyiyas, the Ngcukas, the Nqakulas, the Moleketis, and of course the Shaiks of this world. Funny, isn’t it?

Paying for the sins of other people’s forefathers

Hajira Amla | 4 March 2008

I came to South Africa in 1993 as an eleven-year-old, with South Africa teetering on the brink of political turmoil and change. I was born in the United Kingdom and lived in the Seychelles for two years prior to my arrival in South Africa. My mother is a Seychelloise and my father is, for want of a better word, English, but has lived in many countries throughout his life, including several African countries.

Now, having lived in black and Indian communities for most of my life, I am discriminated against in the New South Africa because of the colour of my skin. Although I did not benefit in any way from apartheid, it is nearly impossible for me to get a job because of the colour of my skin. Even though I am getting married to a “Historically Disadvantaged Individual” in a week’s time, I will still be penalised because of my European genes. My daughter will also be discriminated against when she grows up even though she was born in a Democratic South Africa from an English mother and a Scottish father.

Although I spend all my free time researching the injustices perpetrated against the non-white population in this country, from the time Jan van Riebeeck and the free burghers forced the Khoi-Khoi into slavery and submission right up to the 90-day detention law which swallowed the lives of many who struggled for freedom without a trace, my genes still make me an automatic racist.

This makes me think of the 1950s, when the apartheid regime enforced mandatory race classification. Families were torn apart because some were darker than others, and officials deemed a person “coloured” on the basis of whether a pencil stuck in their hair or not. Will we have to carry around identification documents which state our race? In a country where mixed marriages are becoming increasingly popular and commonplace, how will the next generation identify themselves then? Why should it even matter?

It’s not that I’m unsympathetic to the ideological desire to right old wrongs and correct the imbalance of power. It’s just that there’s this thing called the Constitution that our children are supposed to honour and uphold, that says there shall be no discrimination on the basis of race, gender or religious beliefs. Yet here we are… wondering when affirmative action will end. When will procurement and human resources stop looking at my skin and discarding my applications with upturned noses?

As a child growing up in the Seychelles, I lived in a society where I saw no colour. Whites, Indians and blacks have lived, worked and made babies with one other for decades. My maternal family is of African, French and Indian descent, yet we all love one another equally and make no distinctions among one another.

I do not for one second dismiss or try to diminish the importance of the struggle against apartheid, and I furthermore acknowlege that the solution is not a simple one. I apologise if my opinion doesn’t toe the ANC party line, but I am still entitled to put forth my argument - at least for the time being. Will whites in this country have to bear the burden of collective punishment twenty years from now? They will only continue to be resentful towards blacks and carry that bitterness and hatred over to the next generation. In the meantime the new black bourgeoisie keep the other 90% of the black population suffering in abject poverty distracted by blaming all their problems on the white man. This is certainly not the way to heal the rifts of the past. Going forward in the new South Africa was supposed to be about reconciliation, not the perpetuation of hatred on racial lines.

South Africa’s neutrality questionable over Iran sanctions vote

By Hajira Amla | 4 March 2008

South Africa voted on Monday in approval of a proposed third tier of United Nations sanctions on the beleaguered Islamic Republic of Iran despite their own representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s recommendations to the contrary.

The Department of Foreign Affairs’ Chief Director to the UN, Xolisa Mabhongo, said South Africa had not been pressurised by any major power into approving the sanctions, after France and Britain had postponed the vote to try to gain the support of four non-permanent Security Council members. French President Nicholas Sarkozy made an official visit to the country this week when the vote took place, sparking speculation that South Africa voted ‘yay’ to strengthen ties with the French president.

The vote may be seen to damage the credibility of South Africa’s self-claimed reputation for fairness and neutrality in the face of Iran’s co-operation with the IAEA. The South African representative of the IAEA, Abdul Samad Minty, had on Thursday told the UN Security Council that Iran had met all current requirements, and warned the Council not to implement further sanctions against Iran as negotiations were at a critical stage for Iran to sign further IAEA protocols. Minty said that the implementation of further sanctions could irreparably damage the delicate relationship between Iran and the IAEA.

The implications of this vote could be disastrous for South Africa’s diplomatic track record as Iran may - justifiably - refuse to accept South African mediation efforts should hostility between Iran and the United States escalate towards military aggression. There may not be many other countries that would be willing to intervene for the sake of peace and justice between the two most ideologically stubborn countries in the world.

High aspirations and national pride were paraded back and forth at the time South Africa was admitted as a non-permanent member of the United Nations’ Security Council. However, the toothless lion of the African savannah seems to have fallen asleep at the table and lost the plot.

Born free - only to perish on the streets of Delft

By Hajira Amla

21 February 2008

You have a one-year old baby in your arms and you have nowhere to sleep, no toilet facilities and no shelter. All your worldly possessions have been bulldozed as per the local government’s directives. What would you do when you realise that the government doesn’t care about you or your innocent child any more than the apartheid government did? Aren’t they the ones that talk about the forced removals of District Six and Sophiatown with haunted expressions on their faces? Why don’t they care about you, suffering here in the present?

Just by putting ourselves in the shoes of the mothers of the illegal settlers at the N2 Gateway housing project in Delft, Cape Town, we experience the kind of despair and anger these “invisible people” must be feeling. After being on a waiting list for housing for 12 years only to be usurped by others who had allegedly only recently put in applications, the disgruntled group of approximately 1 800 people took matters into their own hands and set up house in the long-unfinished Gateway housing complex.

Local charities and the public must now scramble to help these people who have been failed by the government. Don’t these people have a Constitutional right to shelter, clean water and human dignity? Will the children of this homeless crowd have to go to school and be compelled to recite a pledge to uphold the Constitution that their leaders are unable to stick to?

Although the rule of law certainly must be upheld, why was the question of equity left unanswered by the municipality and the judge who made the decision to turf out the poorest of the poor? The apartheid regime forcibly removed some 60 000 residents of District Six and relocated them to the Cape Flats about 28 kilometres away, uprooting families and making it difficult for former District Six residents to go to work and school. Here in this day and age, however, there is no relocation plan for the unsightly and indigent. The babies and the elderly are free to perish at their own leisure on the streets of Delft.

Yes, I’m a white Muslim convert. What gave me away?

By Hajira Amla

I am a white Muslim. In South Africa, this is not a common sight, so eyes bore into me wherever I go. Non-Muslims stare at me, Muslims stare at me. Hell, even animals stare at me. I’ve learned to ignore it over the years, but whenever I go out with friends, many of them can’t get over the daggers thrown at me from all directions. Many white / non-Muslim people resent me because they assume that I threw Christianity aside for the sake of a man. Muslims are suspicious of me because they assume the same thing.

For the record: I didn’t convert to Islam for any of the following reasons:

·         Because I was having an affair with a Muslim guy and I had to convert in order to get married

·         Because I was trying to impress anybody

·         Because I’m going through “a phase”

·         Because I hold “extremist views”

·         Because I don’t know enough about Our Lord Jesus

I like being a Muslim. I wear a scarf but I’m not oppressed. I’m not a terrorist. I’m not even slightly bothered by what others think. But I would like to explain to those who would like to know why I decided to follow Islam.

YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU WHEN YOU’RE GONE…

Although I went to a Roman Catholic school and church as a child, I have always been naturally inclined to question the nature of God. Many people have secular natures and feel that religion and philosophy is largely unimportant in their lives. I think that a large contributor to this is the amount of contradictions within Christianity. There are so many churches, denominations, so many versions of the Bibles, Jesus is God, no he’s the Son of God, no, he’s both. Aaargh. How do we sift out the truth from the jumble? Many people make a conscious choice that none of it is important and decide to try and live life ethically as far as possible. The problem with this choice is that human beings are not perfect. We constantly push the boundaries of what is acceptable; we always try to “justify” something we know is unethical or wrong because we want to do it so badly. Our desires are always at war with our conscience, and it’s all too often the desires that win out.

Man-made laws are always changing because of this very reason. We all think we know better, but the truth is that we are all flawed and have a myopic view of the world. We can’t always see the bigger picture and we want everything to be perfect for ourselves. In reality, we do not live in a perfect world. If someone asked me why we are here on this world, I would reply that we are here to learn. And just as in any school or university, we are going to be tested from time to time. Hopefully, we will come through those tests as better people. Life is temporary. Whether you believe in an afterlife or not, you’re still going to die and leave this place with nothing but a legacy (whether it’s good or bad is up to you).  There will always be suffering and there will always be hardships. Sometimes we have to make sacrifices for the good of others and at other times we have to be courageous and try to change things for the better. In light of this, going through life with the goals of getting the latest iPod or driving a Mercedes seems wimpy.

I accept that we all have different opinions – this is what makes us human. However, most of us are plainly arrogant and blinded by worldly comforts to realise our own mortality. In a world of six billion souls, how do we carry on being so greedy when there is not enough to go around?

THE JOURNEY

My father was completing a degree in Philosophy of Religion when I was attending my Catholic primary school. On one occasion, after attending a school church mass, I remember my father telling me to question my beliefs and apply logic to them. If people expect me to believe in something, he said, I should question that article of faith. If it seems illogical, I should continue to question until a logical solution presents itself. “There’s no logic to suggest that Jesus is the Son of God, for instance” I remember him saying.

I took the advice. I refused to perform my First Holy Communion because the teachers could not seem to even vaguely explain why one had to do it. Each time I read the Bible, I kept questioning and comparing it with other parts of the Bible. By the time I was ten, I knew for sure I wanted nothing to do with the Roman Catholic Church. I searched for anyone who could explain the Christian faith satisfactorily and logically as a whole. When I did Religious Studies for my “O” Levels, I had realized the following:

·         Jesus never said he was the Son Of God, or for that matter God Himself. He always referred to himself as the Son of Man.

·         Jesus was a Jew and never sought to establish a new faith that would reject the teachings of the previous Prophets. He observed the Shabat, Pesach and other Jewish holy days, but spoke out against the overzealous and complicated interpretations of the Law as practiced by the Pharisees and the greedy and corrupt practices of the Sadducees. Jesus never ate a morsel of food that was not kosher and conducted himself with humility, restraint and compassion at all times.

·         The four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were written by men who had never actually met Jesus –  written as much as 100 years after his death – and who all seemed to use anecdotal material from an unknown source named by scholars as “Q”. Aside from the common thread, many additional and often contradictory accounts of Jesus’ life seem to have been passed on by oral tradition and in many instances changed to suit the scribe’s whims as the gospels were translated from (possibly) Aramaic to New Testament Greek to Latin.

·         Paul of Tarsus was a Gentile with no background or true understanding of Judaism or monotheism. It has been argued by many critics that he saw an opportunity to be the architect of a new religion and changed whatever wouldn’t “fit” with the idol-worshipping Gentiles. Barnabas, the disciple and scribe of Jesus had such intense arguments with Paul over his interpretation of Jesus’ teachings and methods that the two eventually parted company. Paul went on to persuade his followers that the Law of Moses was unimportant. He built the foundation for the establishment of the early Church and wooed leaders of state to adopt what then became known as Christianity.

Having learnt all this, I became further disillusioned with Christianity as an institution and armed with the knowledge that Jesus was simply a messenger of God, I could not find any Christian denomination I was satisfied with.

In high school there were several Muslim children in my class whom I became friends with. These children and the families they came from were under no circumstances considered to be particularly pious within their communities, but I saw in them something that most other children didn’t have – belief in their religion. They would not touch haraam (unclean) foods, they went to mosque on Fridays and they were comfortable in their beliefs, as though Islam had grown up alongside them as a friend. Intrigued, I asked one of my friends to give me a copy of the Quran. She brought one for me covered in cloth with strict instructions not to touch it while in a state of uncleanliness (e.g. menstruation) out of respect for the book. This piqued my curiosity even further, as no such rules exist where handling the Bible is concerned.

The moment I opened the Quran life began to make sense to me. The verses flowed in a cascading torrent from my eyes to my heart, tumbling into little logically-shaped slots in my brain. Tears streamed down my face as question after question was answered for me.

BECOMING A MUSLIM

I knew from that moment on that I wanted to become a Muslim, but the road to that end proved to be a long and arduous one. I was too shy to tell any of my Muslim friends and I didn’t have access to a mosque or Muslim organization. My mother found out I was trying to fast during ramadaan and threatened me with unspeakable things if I didn’t cut it out. I was too young to make a life-changing decision of this nature and told myself that when the time was right, I would know. Four years later, married to a non-Muslim, I made the decision to embrace Islam as my way of life. I decided this the week of the World Trade Centre attacks in 2001. Before anyone leaps to any conclusions from a standing start, I must say that although 9/11 spurred me into a decision, it does not necessarily follow that I support the idea of people getting into planes and crashing them into buildings. I realised that the Muslim world would be painted with a heavy-handed brush and I couldn’t stand on the sidelines without declaring my beliefs.

I’m just as flawed as the next person, but I try to show others that Muslims are not a bunch of fanatics. I won’t get into the jihad issue in depth, but the meaning of the word “jihad” is literally “struggle” or “strife” and it means that wherever a Muslim is being oppressed, a neighbor should always strive to assist. It doesn’t mean he should chop the head off the offending person, it means that he should use whatever means at his disposal to assist. The political and religious leaders (who are often poorly educated) have given jihad a bad name for the sake of their own ulterior motives. A legitimate form of jihad in terms of politics or statehood is to declare war on the offending nation, but it has been expressly forbidden in Islam to harm civilians (most hated is the harming of innocent women or children) or even uproot trees during the battle.

When it is stated that every Muslim should engage in jihad, it means that we should struggle and make some sacrifices to help the less fortunate among us. For example, we should do whatever we can to assist those long-suffering civilians in Gaza – they have no power, no medicines, no way of getting out. They live in a massive concentration camp, when any day could be their last and we live lives of luxury with luxury cars, well-paying jobs and freedom of movement. Even if all I can do is raise awareness of this suffering, I must bear with those who point at me and say I am a threat to the “free world”. And I’m not an anti-Semitist by the way. “The God of my forefathers is the God of your forefathers” – we worship the same God and share the same Prophets. I respect Jewish people for retaining their belief in One God and not bringing others in as objects of worship. I have a problem with people of any religion killing, harming or oppressing innocent civilians, and this includes both the Israeli government and Palestinian fighters.

THE PROPHETS

The most important tenet of faith in Islam is that of tawheed, or Oneness of God. La illaha ilallah means literally, “no god but God” and this statement is repeated every day before sleeping. Muslims revere all the prophets revered by the Jews (and by inference, Christians). Adam, Abraham, Jonas, David, Solomon, Joseph, Moses, John the Baptist and Jesus are all messengers of God and given the same status and respect as the Prophet Muhammad. They are all regarded as very special men, free from greater sins and given messages from God for a particular people at a specific time. All of them preached the Oneness of God. So it is hardly conceivable to me that Jews and Muslims should look upon one another with mistrust and hatred when in fact we have so much in common.

THE ISLAMIC WAY OF LIFE

It took some time to fully realise the impact that embracing Islam would have on my life. As I was already married to a non-Muslim, things became a wee bit tense when I threw all the alcohol and pork products out of the house. A Muslim is supposed to pray five times a day. This is not just normal prayer where you throw out your hands and say any old thing that’s on your mind (we do that too). This is formal prayer, and you have to pray on a prayer mat in Arabic.

Learning the Arabic – not so easy. Persuading yourself to get up for the pre-dawn prayer – even more difficult. Seeing the look on your born-again in-laws’ faces when they see you walking past in a big black boorka – priceless!

Not ever drinking alcohol again was no big loss to me. Not ever eating bacon again, now that was more of a sacrifice. You also have to get used to wearing clothes that cover your entire body and a scarf to cover the head. It’s a big adjustment.

Then there’s the issue of tahara (cleanliness). You cannot offer formal prayers without ceremonial cleanliness. Any of the following actions render you in a greater state of impurity:

·         Having sexual intercourse

·         Menstruation

·         Discharge of semen accompanied by sexual lust

·         Bleeding and discharge after giving birth

This state of greater impurity can only be cleansed by taking a ritual bath (ghusl) during which you wet your entire body and the hair on the head.

Lesser impurity is caused by:

·         Urinating or passing stools

·         Passing wind

·         Blood flowing from any part of the body

·         Vomiting

·         Sleeping

·         Unconciousness

Attaining tahara after any of these things necessitates washing the hands, mouth, nostrils, arms and feet in a ritual called wudhu. After passing urine or stools, a Muslim must always wash his/her private parts with water immediately by pouring water from a jug and washing the private parts with the left hand. Failure to do this would render a person into a state of greater impurity and a ghusl bath would then be necessary.

The armpits and the groin must be clean-shaven each week, for males and females, for hygiene reasons. This can also be hard to adjust to, especially for men.

All these things are very difficult to get used to if you have not grown up doing them, but the difference it makes to your life is immense. The rewards from these simple (and some would say pointless) acts are innumerable. Apart from a greatly improved state of general cleanliness, it brings about an almost constant level of God-consciousness in the person. We learn to distance ourselves from our bodily desires and needs and remind ourselves at all times of God’s commands. We also learn a greater respect and fear for our Creator, as we bear in mind that we cannot offer worship to him without cleanliness, purity and modesty. A Muslim who offers prayer regularly cannot help but think of God, and this is why many of the more pious among us often seem sober and unapproachable to Westerners.

OUR WAY OF LIFE IS NOT BARBARIC!

Many people would say that Islam is a “backward” religion and it promotes the oppression of women. I do agree that in many countries where Islam is the main religion, women are treated appallingly, with arranged marriages, honour killings and female circumcision so commonplace it doesn’t even raise eyebrows. However, this is as a result of cultural practices and not Islamic beliefs. For instance, arranged marriages are permitted, but only if the girl gives her consent, enabling the parents who are older and wiser than her to give guidance as to whom she marries. In the days before the advent of Islam, the practice of burying daughters alive was commonplace until it was strictly forbidden by the Prophet Muhammad. Honour killings also have no place in the Muslim faith. All of these terrible and unjust travesties reflect on the culture of the people from whence they originated and the fact that those people cling to these mores despite having the enlightened values of Islam at their fingertips. Many so-called “muslim” countries are governed by mysognistic and barbaric men who twist Islam to keep women in their “place”.

Western culture should not be regarded as the only option for people on Earth. Each society, religion and culture has their own unique way of life and although the Earth is a crowded and troubled place, we need to recognise that everyone has a right to their own identity. I don’t try to convert anyone to Islam. If one person can see Islam in a slightly more positive light than they previously did, then I am doing my bit for world peace.

Political agenda behind church raids?

Hajira Amla31 January 2008 

In scenes reminiscent of apartheid-era raids, police stormed on the Central Methodist Church in downtown Johannesburg at midnight last night and detained scores of illegal Zimbabwean immigrants. It may be feasible to suggest that the sudden vigour on behalf of the South African government with regard to detaining these individuals could be a push to get anti-Mugabe Zimbabweans back in the country ahead of the general elections in March.  

The church is widely known among Zimbabweans as a place of sanctuary for those desperately trying to escape economic hardship and political turmoil in their own country. As the South African refuses to recognize these people as refugees, no plan exists to deal with the influx of an estimated 4,000 people coming across South Africa’s border from Zimbabwe towards Johannesburg. Few charities or non-governmental-organizations are willing to help Zimbabwean refugees specifically, because South African locals often feel resentful of the foreigners, as looking after the millions who have fled the faltering Zimbabwean economy is a huge drain on an already overburdened social welfare program. Zimbabweans are also often more than willing to work for less than the average South African would be prepared to work for, thus often denying South African citizens of essential jobs. 

The Central Methodist Church was one NGO that was willing to try to alleviate the plight of the Zimbabweans. Hundreds of homeless Zimbabwean men, women and children are sheltered at the church until they find some way of making an income and supporting themselves. Many South Africans say they don’t feel sorry for the Zimbabweans living in South Africa, but it makes a difference to know that the Central Methodist Church can keep some needy people off the streets. 

Bishop Paul Verryn, the church’s leader, claims he was manhandled by police officers and says he saw some detainees being assaulted while being put in police vehicles.  

Trying to force a lot of hungry and embittered people back to their country at election time to push a political agenda could have disastrous effects if violence should flare up. If these suspicions are founded, the South African government could have blood on their hands and a lot of explaining to do.

I smell a banana - reflections on South Africa in 2008

By Hajira Amla | 23 January 2008

Ever since the Mbeki vs. Zuma debacle began, South Africans have been watching on the sidelines as our country progresses from bad to “Days of Our Lives”.

Power struggles seem to abound everywhere you look these days, whether it’s within the African National Congress, between the police and the Scorpions, or between the state broadcaster and the Sunday newspapers. Many of these catfights and shady deals have brought an immense burden upon the man on the street.

The rift within the ANC that seems, regrettably, to have swung in favour of the corrupt and avaricious within the party, has brought despondency to many who had heretofore believed in the rule of law. The other day I asked my five-year-old daughter if she knew who made the laws of South Africa – and instead of replying “the Govender” (her rather cute way of saying the Government), she surprised me by telling me that the ANC made the laws of the country! A truer answer to that question could not have been found, I reflected ruefully.

After the National Executive Committee (two of whom are currently under investigation by the Scorpions) resolved to disband the Scorpions last weekend, it leaves little hope that graft within the government will ever come to an end. Helen Zille and co. can make as much noise as they like, but with a two-thirds majority in Parliament, the ANC can pretty much do as they like and we all know it.

Another example of incompetence from our leaders: the refusal by the Department of Minerals and Energy / Parliament a few years ago to allow state energy company Eskom to expand on the national power supply system. The result: ancient and badly maintained power stations, substations and infrastructure that is on its knees. “We didn’t forsee the extent of Johannesburg’s economic growth” whines Eskom’s CEO Jacob Maroga. Who on earth could have guessed that 5 million Zimbabweans would have chosen to stay in a place like Johannesburg and invited all their friends when they could have returned to Zimbabwe and made papier mache hats from Zim dollars?

Add to that the BreadGate scandal: Tiger Brands colluding with their cronies to fix the price of bread, defrauding the South African public of millions of rands. When they get caught? “Please pay R99m. Do not pass Go”. Did anyone ask who the philanderers actually paid the ninety-nine million Rand fine TO? Did it go back into the pockets of the public? No - that’s not the way “things” work over here.

Now Tiger Brands is – yet again – increasing the price of bread and all the other bakeries are likely to follow suit. Yawn.

To add insult to injury - the interest rate goes up for the umpteenth time because of inflation – viz. high food prices (thanks, Tiger Brands!).

Is it just me or is the South African air smelling slightly of bananas these days?

Growing old disgracefully

Hajira Amla

If you think your parents embarrassed you when you were a teenager, just wait until they get old and grey. Senility is the ultimate tool used by parents to repay children for the hard work they did “raising” us.

Every time I visit my parents these days, I marvel at the way they make me repeat every sentence I say at least thrice. My mother talks incessantly about her plants and spends about eighty percent of her day running outside to see if her ducks and chickens are ok. Then she calls my father outside to see the rat eating the ducks’ food and he spends twenty minutes myopically staring down the barrel of his air gun, engaged in geriatric pursuit. The rats must be sniggering in between mouthfuls of the ducks’ maize feed.

All of a sudden, the house seems to be full of Glomail and Verimark products. Everything seems to have a stamp on it that says “as seen on TV” – a sure sign of diminished capacity in my book. When I go shopping with them, they spend two hours in the supermarket filling two large trolleys as though they were chipmunks storing up for the winter – but if you think this is monthly grocery shopping, you’d be very wrong. They stockpile cooldrinks, potato crisps and milk as though they were selling them to the general pubic. They spend more money on their various animals than themselves – if they took the amount they spent on vet bills, vetinerary medicines and animal feed every month and donated it to a charitable cause, they could probably support a family of five here in South Africa (or a family of thirty-five in Zimbabwe).

My dad still smokes three packs a day and drinks like a fish but says he mixes his brandy with diet cola because “it’s healthier”. On the plus side, however, they do seem to be fighting much less these days, with only occasional spats of dour rhetoric emanating from the couch in the living room where my father sits.

On the whole, they are enjoying their slow journey to senility together and making others suffer – but I can’t say I’m totally undeserving. After all the nights I have kept my mother awake as a baby, all the nappies she had to change, all the times I got hurt and they wiped away my tears, soon it will be my turn to change their nappies and feed them. Eeew.

I’ve got to love them – after all, no-one else will.