Author: Farook Khan, Ndivhuwo Khangale
and Peter Fabricius
Publication: The Pretoria News
Date: November 24, 2003
URL: http://www.pretorianews.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=665&fArticleId=291329
American efforts to build bridges
with the South African Muslim community by inviting representatives to
dinner tonight have been met with outrage.
The "Iftaar Dinner", as it is being
called by the American government, was introduced at US missions worldwide
last year. It is part of a new White House initiative to get Muslims to
understand that the US is not anti-Islam. Iftaar is at sunset, when Muslims
break their daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan, which is expected
to end with the sighting of the new moon tomorrow.
But Muslims around South Africa
are mortified at the suggestion of breaking bread with Americans, whose
policies they find offensive, with some in Durban remarking they would
rather drink poison.
Muslim Youth Movement national president
Naeem Jeenah has called on all Muslims not to accept the Americans' invitation.
"This is simple a public relations
job and photo opportunities for Americans. We don't see how Muslims can
break the fast with the same people who oppressed them for years.
"In the light of the Americans'
aggression in Iraq, as well as their financing of the apartheid wall in
Palestine, we don't think we can sit and eat with them," Jeenah said.
Arabic Study Circle chairman Abdul
Aziz said there was no chance that Muslims would sit around a table with
Americans.
"We are not going to accept the
invitation. Muslims worldwide have declared war against the Americans.
They have caused us so much pain, so how can we eat from the same plate
with our enemies?" Aziz said.
Islamic Relief Fund director Soraya
Hassim said the invitation was a joke.
"After the killings of so many children
and sufferings of people in Iraq and Afghanistan, how can Muslims accept
the invitation?"
"I think no Muslim should attend
this supper," Hassim said.
University of Durban Westville academic
Suleman Dangor said he had turned down his invitation.
"This is an expression of the fact
that we Muslims find the US policy in Iraq and Palestine distasteful. This
must be seen as a symbol of protest against the United States occupying
Muslim countries and arming Israel, which is killing Muslims in Palestine,"
he said.
Dangor said that he would find it
difficult to attend the dinner and pretend that no killing was going on
in Palestine, Iraq or Afghanistan.
Rafeek Hassan, of the Islamic Propagation
Centre International, said he had also refused an invitation.
"The US needs to be told that their
policies in Muslim countries, especially in Palestine, are unacceptable.
I cannot see myself having dinner at their invitation when people are being
killed," said Hassan.
Durban's internationally acclaimed
Muslim caterer, Manjaras, was contacted to prepare tonight's meals. But
Haroon Mahomed Manjara said yesterday his father Solly had declined to
prepare the meal.
"The Americans approached us in
a very roundabout way. A woman telephoned but did not tell us that she
was ordering the food for the US government. The next thing we heard an
announcement on the Muslim radio station that we were supplying the food."
"The community is not going to be
impressed with us. Now we're not doing the cooking, no matter what."
Judy Moon, spokesman for the US
embassy in Pretoria, said she did not know what all the fuss was about.
She said the consul-general's dinner in Durban would go ahead.
Moon said the US ambassador in Pretoria
and US consuls-general in Johannesburg and Cape Town - the latter a Muslim
- had been holding similar dinners throughout Ramadan.
