By Yaseen Kippie

The Rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in South Africa was the topic of discussion at IPSA’s 7th Annual Wasatiyyah symposium this past Saturday. The symposium took place at the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town. With the emphasis on the root causes behind people joining the group, ISIS-based ideologies in South Africa and the hysteria of the media, the call was for Muslims to have honest conversations about the issue of extremism, as manifested by ISIS, in order to find a middle way in between the two opposing narratives of denial on the one hand, and misrepresentation of the threat on the other.

Papers were presented by a host of academics, Islamic scholars and journalists, including Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool, Shaykh Siraj Hendricks, Naeem Jeenah, Imam Rashid Omar and Police Minister Fikile Mbalula.

Despite the increase of attraction to ISIS in the world since the group’s claim of caliphate, there have just been a few cases in South Africa. The main stories highlighted in the media include the arrest of four in the Gauteng province, on charges relating to planning acts of terror on South African soil, in support of ISIS. There has also been a small number of cases relating to attempts to of travelling to Syria to join the group, including a 15 year-old girl from Kenwyn, Cape Town.

However few the number of the cases may be in South Africa, the significance of the issue lies at addressing its root causes. Raeesah Cachalia of the Institute of State Security highlighted some of the institute’s findings about the political, social and economic factors prompting mainly “young males” to join ISIS.

“What is so powerful in pulling young people to extremism, and towards violent extremism in particular? Research suggests that when political spaces remain close, and do not allow for youth engagement in order for them to voice their discontent, they choose to voice their frustrations through other means,” she said.

There is also the psychology of a romantic attachment to ISIS that underpins some people’s affiliation with the group. The illusion of the strength of ISIS fighters, who are upholding a caliphate that has been rejected by the overwhelming majority of scholars, is a great attraction for marginalised youth.

One of the main points highlighted by all at the symposium was that of extremist ideologies. It is doltish to deny the presence of ISIS and ISIS-based ideologies in the world.

Dr Andrea Brigaglia of the Centre for Contemporary Islam at UCT spoke of a letter written by Mufti Rashid Moosagie, who had left for Syria to join ISIS in 2015. In the letter, he calls on the Muslims of South Africa to join the group through detailing the ideological reasons behind the necessity to support the so called ‘caliphate’.

“We think that these issues are clearly answerable, but they are real arguments we need to deal with,” Dr Brigaglia said.

With the increase of the global connectivity, ISIS has found a strong hold in the spheres of political and religious discussion on social media. However, reporting on ISIS in the mainstream South African press has been one of hysteria and bigotry.

Khadija Patel, the editor of the Mail and Guardian highlighted this hysteria.

“One of the biggest failings in South Africa as part of this global mass media machine is our collective inability to unpack what is happening with actual specifics. This is why I received an op-ed from a researcher who has been spending a lot of time analysing issues of radicalisation and speaking to people who have sympathies for the IS group. The op-ed started off with saying that South Africa is the centre for funneling terror-related funds in the whole world. From one point of view, this is very interesting and worth publication for ratings, but when I looked at the basis of the research, it was a mere eight interviews on Twitter!” she exclaimed.

She continued highlighting the misrepresentation of the real issues.

“There have been great weaknesses with regards to the treatment of ISIS sympathy in South Africa. South African newsrooms have taken on this topic by mimicking Western news media around the world in that it seeks to emphasis the brutalised westerner instead of actually looking at the reality of the Iraqi and Syrian victims of the situation.”

Police Minister Fikile Mbalula also spoke at the symposium, highlighting his support and acknowledgement of what he terms ‘jihadist movements’ that spoil the name of Islam. While the Minister talked about the crisis, he mentioned nothing about the Western Cape as a source of extremism, contrary to reports by certain media agencies that the Minister had said so. In fact, the minister stressed that tackling gangsterism was top of its agenda in the province.

“We believe in persuasion over meaningless arrests. We are not alarmists, we have been handling things very well,” he said.

“South Africa is not flooded with extremism. The fact is that people are urged by their own social circumstances, troubled by what’s happening in Syria and Iraq, against the very stupid George Bushian attitude. We believe in the power of our people to work with them to overcome any problems we’ve got,” he said.

One of the resounding calls at the conference was that the South African government must deal with the issue of extremism through “persuasion and not prosecution”. There was praise for how state security authorities dealt with the group of 11 people from Roshnee in Vereeniging, who travelled to Syria two years ago allegedly for humanitarian reasons and returned back home in September 2015.

The treatment of the issue of ISIS lies in being open to the reality of the situation, without falling into the two extremes of denial and misrepresentation. Imam Rashid Omar from the Claremont Main Road Masjid was unequivocal in his position that Muslims should not be denialists on the issue of ISIS.

“We have to acknowledge that extremism is gripping South Africa and it would be irresponsible if we remained silent,” he said.

There needs to be an openness about the ideologies at play, both in violent and non-violent extremism, in order to sift out any potential threats to the tenets of mercy, justice and preservation of life that Islam calls for.  VOC