Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News, 2015-02-25
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Recent reports of an 18-year-old man from Johannesburg including members of an Eastern Cape family who recently sold their house to move to Syria to fight for Islamic State militants or ISIS have raised many questions.
While there may be speculation that such reports may be false, disproportionate or propagandas, Muslims in particular in South Africa cannot ignore that there may be some element of truth in the country becoming a target for ISIS recruiting a few Muslims.
In the Daily Maverick article, Exclusive: Is this the first South African fighting for the ISIS, the man thought to be the first South African jihadi in Syria, Abu Hurayra, a name that’s believed to be a pseudonym and the one he uses for his Tumblr and Twitter accounts expressly guides other would-be jihadis from South Africa who wish to join him.
In an interview with Radio Islam on Tuesday, journalist Simon Allison who wrote the article in the Daily Maverick said while he has been investigating ISIS for some time, he does not think that South Africa is fertile ground for such groups to recruit because South African Muslims by and large are so-called moderate and they are tolerated in the country.
“There is no tension in this country between Muslims and the government, Muslims and non-Muslims.”
If Abu Hurayra is recruiting South African Muslims to join ISIS than people should not be naïve to the fact that many Muslims are becoming disillusioned and totally despondent with regards to what is happening to Muslims across the globe falling victim to what they believe is a genuine Khilafah, a genuine fight against oppression and those that are invading and looting the resources of Muslims.
Moulana Sulaimaan Ravat and Islamic scholar and orator says the time has come where Muslims need to be frank and speak out when it comes to ISIS.
“We need to start talking about why some people within our ranks may be inclined towards believing that ISIS is legitimate, that ISIS is fighting the good fight. But believing that is one thing, and actually wanting to join them is another thing all together.”
“It’s about time the leadership now in the Muslim community stand up and start unpacking issues like what does Khilafah mean, can anyone proclaim Khilafah, are you duty bound to go and pledge allegiance and what does Jihad mean, said Moulana Ravat.
Moulana Ravat also reiterated that Muslim leadership should also educate Muslims about the complexities of ISIS and how they should react to the group. “Within the community there is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding. How many times people are asking: ‘but what’s this ISIS thing all about?’”
Whilst there is condemnation of the exaggeration that every Muslim is contemplating joining ISIS and that ISIS finds South Africa to be fertile recruitment ground, people cannot continue to defiantlly believe that it’s impossible for any person or any family or any group of people as miniscule as they maybe to be lured or into joining ISIS.
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