Historically, prophetic icons are celebrated for their distinctive qualities: Jesus for turning the other cheek and for reviving the dead; Moses for the Ten Commandments and wanting to see God; Vishnu for his pantheon of rebirth and Buddha for achieving nirvana, or spiritual perfection. And whilst there is often scant[…]

WITH the Syrian death toll (consisting mainly of civilians) rising to 60,000 according to the UN, the 21 month-old uprising – which started off as a peaceful protest against President Bashar al-Assad and his cronies – has become a complex case of Cold War meddling with little relief in sight.[…]

Muir Street and Aspeling Street mosques in the old District Six as south-east clouds pour over Table mountain and a cat and a pigeon enjoy each other’s company on the roof of the Azzawia. Photos copyright Shafiq Morton

“Don’t you people know that the mawlud is a bid’ah? Don’t you people know it’s haraam to celebrate birthdays!” blurted-out the man (whom I will call Bin ul-Faragh). We were at one of those social gatherings so typical of our community where we sit at hired trestle tables. We’d been[…]

Established in 1805, the Tana Baru (which means “new ground”) was South Africa’s first official Islamic burial site. For 200 years previously, Muslim burials had been “unofficial”. It was closed in 1886, not without protest, after the smallpox epidemic. Today the Tana Baru Trust administers the cemetery as a memorial[…]

ISRAEL’s Operation Pillar of Defence in Gaza may be over, but the biggest issue of all – the Palestinian-Israeli conflict – still remains unresolved. With the Oslo Accord’s promises of a two-state solution long dead, and Israeli settlement building insidiously eroding the Palestinian West Bank, there appears to be little[…]

DO Sufis worship the saints and prophets? Saudi Arabian scholars have thought so, as have Salafi-Wahhabis world-wide. Victims of oil-dollar da’wah, traditional Sunni communities have been seeded with doubt, propaganda and socio-political fitnah with regards to their classical beliefs. Response to my article (The Saudi Footprints, Muslim Views, September) has[…]

THE Innocence of Muslims, a not so innocent piece of Islamophobic theatre, has evoked a reaction that must have its Orientalist sponsors smiling from ear to ear. Once again, Islam – according to them a rising tide against contemporary civilisation – has shown exactly how violent and uncivilised it can[…]