SINCE the Arab Spring, the Middle-East and North Africa have experienced tectonic political shifts. From Tunis to Sana people lost their fear and gathered in mass protest to shake off the rule of their long-standing despots. Tunisia’s Ben Ali left in a hurry for Saudi Arabia, his plane loaded with[…]

‘Eid ul-Adha, the festival of sacrifice which coincides with the Hajj, is an important and hugely symbolic event. For the Hujjaj, who’ve just come from ‘Arafah, Muzdalifah and Mina, there’s release from the ihram and that moment when the knife slides across the throat of the sacrificial animal. The ihram[…]

NO issue has more horrified, confused and divided the community than the Syrian crisis – in many ways a re-visiting of the dirty tricks era of the 1970’s Cold War due to US, Russian, Saudi Arabian, Chinese and Iranian interference. It has horrified with its ferocity and violence. Assaults on[…]

Shaikh Bin Baz calls Imam Shafi’i (ra) an innovator One of the truly annoying things about social media is what I call “cut-and-paste da’wah”, so-called propagation by the sweep and click of a mouse. These cyber missionaries – no doubt of good intent – take great umbrage when their unedited[…]

When Muslims around the globe begin to fast this Ramadan upon sighting the crescent of the moon, it will be the 1,434th consecutive year that the community has honoured this sacred lunar month. Ramadan is one of the five pillars of the Islamic faith, and commemorates the revelation of the[…]

When President George W Bush II shuffled off centre stage, dragging his dangling participles and poor grammar behind him, he was a pathetic, crumpled figure. Even his customary Texas bravado was muted, and the contrived spring in his step was tired. Historically the US’s worst president, he departed the Oval[…]

Plain and simple, it’s one frequency – all day, every day, Cape Metropolitan area with a five times more powerful signal. Voice of the Cape has come alive – at last. The dream deferred now becomes the dream fulfilled. No longer will listener figures be compromised because of a shared[…]

“Those who claim that the greater jihad is the jihad of the self are apologists,” said one of the many fear-wagon websites pronouncing a pox on the house of Islam after the Boston Marathon bombings. This sound Prophetic tradition, which records the Prophet (SAW) saying after a battle that the[…]

Twenty-five years ago the community of Leliesfontein in Namaqualand won their birthright back after a successful court claim. To celebrate they had a church service and and showed the media their ancestral land taken from them at the height of apartheid by the Dutch Reformed Church. What is so striking,[…]

One of the most established traditions in the South African Muslim community has been the sighting of the new crescent to herald the Islamic lunar months. This is a tradition that was born over 350 years ago in Cape Town. Sixty-seven years ago this community function was formalised with the[…]