Heritage Day seems an apt moment to reflect on the life of Imam Abdullah Haron, murdered by Apartheid police in 1969.

Mention the name Imam Haron in the Muslim community of Cape Town and one is bound to receive a nod of recognition of his service and sacrifice in the face of the Apartheid Goliath of the time. Yet, when he needed all the support while alive, it is unfortunate that not many publicly voiced their support for his efforts. Sadly, he was called the “kaffir imam” (nigger imam).

The imam’s grandson, Khalid Shamis, said in an interview that “Muslims became complacent in the 1950s and 1960s… Many of their foundational Islamic ideals were lost — Some people called the imam ‘the kafir imam’. People were narrow-minded and conservative. They really could have done more to rally support for him when he was in prison.”

Shamis produced a feature-length documentary on the life of the late imam tiled The Imam and I.

The Daily Maverick published a review of the book The Killing of the Imam, by Barney Desai and Cardiff Marney, in 2013:

The Killing of the Imam, by Barney Desai and Cardiff Marney, was originally published in 1978, and promptly banned by Apartheid censors. The new edition was brought out by the Imam Abdullah Haron Education Trust in 2012, with the idea to re-publish the work coming from a charity event two years ago where Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille donated her original copy to be auctioned. The trust realised that very few copies of the book were available in South Africa, and subsequently determined to bring out a new edition – with proceeds going to the trust’s early childhood development programme.

Haron’s name is not often heard today, but the imam was one of the most prominent Muslim clerics of his day, known for his political involvement at a time when many Muslim leaders were silent about Apartheid’s injustices. As the book’s preface notes, Muslim leaders did not make any public statement about Haron’s murder by the Security Branch: “they were, understandably, all extremely afraid”. But Haron never let his fears outweigh his integrity.

Read full article