Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News, 2013-11-25

Angola officials at the Southwest African nation’s Washington embassy have refuted reports that the country has taken pre-emptive action and has become the first country in the world to ban Islam and Muslims and dismantled masaajids in a bold effort to stem the spread of Muslim extremism according to several newspaper reports.

The officials denied the reports as erroneous, asserting their country’s respect for all faiths..

“The Republic of Angola … it’s a country that does not interfere in religion,” an official at the Angolan Embassy in Washington, DC, who did not want to be identified discussing the sensitive matter, told International Business Times via telephone on Monday, November 25.

“We have a lot of religions there. It is freedom of religion. We have Catholic, Protestants, Baptists, Muslims and evangelical people.”

Though failing to confirm the authenticity of the report, a second official at the Angolan Embassy in the US reiterated that the diplomatic seat has not been made aware of any ban on Islam in the country.

“At the moment we don’t have any information about that,” the official told IBTimes via phone on Monday.

“We’re reading about it just like you on the Internet. We don’t have any notice that what you’re reading on the Internet is true.”

“The president has been out of the country for a week,” the first Angolan Embassy official added, contending that as such he could not have made the remarks as they were reported.

Many scholars have also refuted the claims and amongst those is the honourable Mufti Ismail Menk.

Mufti Menk said upon verification from Angolan scholars it was found that the story of Islam being banned in Angola is completely fabricated.

“Sadly, the demolition of all structures that were built without proper documentation, planning, procedure etc. was carried out. This happened to include some religious structures too, amongst them a Masjid.”

“It is important that Muslims only build Masaajid after proper approvals etc. to avoid this. It has happened in other countries before,” said Mufti Menk.

A source from Angola told a representative of Radio Islam, they are busy with the Minister of Interior and they are working on the matter with the government very closely.

According to the source, there were a few bad elements in the community who were collecting major funds for personal benefit using the names of the masaajids in Angola.

The source also said the government does not have anything against Islam; they are closing the masaajids because of the corruption of the foreign bad elements.  He said Allah knows best and they are requesting for dua’s (prayers).  

There are also reports that not all masaajids have been targeted but rather one masjid which was allegedly illegally built.

Meanwhile, Sister Khadija Patel a journalist with the Daily Maverick an online news publication told Radio Islam there have been many reports without substantiation.

“There have been or as I understand it over the last week several reports without much substantiation or proof that Islam has been banned in Angola and also that Muslims are not allowed there,” said Patel.

“Indeed very, very worrying reports. This also importantly came in the context of Angola actually being in the grip of some unrest in the last week,” added Patel

The first Angolan Embassy official was not able to verify comments attributed to Rosa Cruz e Silva, the Angolan Minister of Culture.

“I cannot confirm if the Minister of Culture said that. I cannot find that in our press,” the official said.

Silva was quoted by Agence Ecofin on Friday, November 22 as saying: "The process of legalization of Islam has not been approved by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, their mosques would be closed until further notice."

The minister called Islam a "sect" which would be banned as counter to Angolan customs and culture.

Silva’s comments were given during her visit last Tuesday to the 6th Commission of the National Assembly. She asserted that the decision was the latest is a series of efforts to ban ‘illegal’ religious sects.

The Angolan government would also be obliged to update the current national context as a way of fighting the rise of new religious congregations whose religious assemblies are contrary to “habits and customs to Angolan culture,” Silva added.

Aside from Islam, other religions that have not been legalized will face similar measures in Angola. The non-legalized religions on the list "published by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights in the Angolan newspaper 'Jornal de Angola' are prohibited to conduct worship, so they should keep their doors closed," said Silva.

“This is the final end of Islamic influence in our country,” President José Eduardo dos Santos was quoted by Osun Defender newspaper on Sunday, November 24.

In a physical extension of the officials' sentiments about Islam's place in Angola,Weekly French-language Moroccan newspaper La Nouvelle Tribune published an article that said a minaret of an Angolan masjid was dismantled last October, and that the city of Zango "has gone further by destroying the only masjid in the city."

The provincial governor of Luanda, Bento Bento was also believed to have said on the airwaves of a local radio that "radical Muslims are not welcome in Angola and the Angolan government is not ready for the legalization of mosques."

It is believed, along with Islam, 194 other "sects" have been outlawed.

According to the International Religious Freedom Report 2008, Islam in Angola a former Portuguese colony is a minority religion with 80,000 – 90,000 adherents, composed largely of migrants from West Africa and families of Lebanese origin.

The Muslims comprise between 2.5% to 3% of Angola’s overall population of 19 million people, most of them Christians. – OnIslam, Agence Ecofin, La Nouvelle Tribune, African Globe.

The Angolan Embassy in South Africa was unavailable for comment at the time of going to print.

(Twitter: @Faizie143 )