A group of men have attempted to assault renowned Zimbabwean scholar, Mufti Ismail Menk. The incident took place at the Overport City Shopping Centre in KwaZulu-Natal on Monday evening, 18th August. According to a source, Mufti Menk was at the shopping centre and as he was about to leave, a man who is reportedly a Moulana approached his car and asked his son “Is this Ismail Menk”?

The “Moulana” motioned for Mufti Menk to get out of his car and told his accomplices in Urdu: “This is the guy.” The group of men than approached both sides of Mufti Menk’s car. Under the impression they wanted to greet him, Mufti Menk lowered the window of the car and said “As-Salaam-U-Alaikum.”

Mufti Menk also offered his hand to extend the greeting to the “Moulana” but he became abusive, extremely vulgar and started swearing and hurling profanities saying Mufti Menk was a “gustaag e Rasool (someone who’s disrespectful to the Prophet [PBUH]) and that they would behead him like Umar (ra) use to behead (those disrespectful to the Prophet [PBUH]).

Accomplices of the ‘Moulana” then rushed forward in a posse and started banging and hitting the car. Mufti Menk then sped away from the attackers who continued to run after the fleeing car, to no avail. A witness to the incident told Radio Islam the men drew their guns in an attempt to stop the fleeing car.

“They took out some guns and they said they’ll put eleven bullets into that guy if they find him. These guys are not interested in the case. All they want to do is trace Mufti Menk and they want to harm and kill him.” – said the witness in a video recording, in the possession of Radio Islam.

The gang of men also allegedly coerced the witness to lie and report a false case at the Berea Police Station and say that he was a victim in a hit and run case by Mufti Menk.

“They said to me I should help them talk up a false incident that a black car knocked me and it wasn’t true. They said they’ll offer me some money – a R200 reward if I help them to lie to get a case opened against another guy.” (Sic)

“They took me to Berea Police Station. They said I should open an incident with a false case and they never had a number plate, so we went the first time. We came back, they left me. I was supposed to open some cases. They went back the second time with the real number plate and they opened the case themselves.” (Sic)

It is alleged that a group is calling for the cold blooded murder of Mufti Menk, even posting videos on You Tube and in some instances using children in these videos, as they deem him a “Ghustaag e Rasool” (one who is disrespectful to the Prophet Muhammad [PBUH]) due to ideological differences.

There are also reports that the group have allegedly distributed thousands of DVD’s in KwaZulu-Natal saying that Mufti Menk is a kaafir and must be killed.

The source told Radio Islam that people need to be conscientised that these are the sort of people that want to lead the ummah to become violent.

Fortunately, Mufti Menk and his son were unharmed in the shocking incident. He is currently in a place of safety and although perturbed, the source said he would continue with his schedule of speaking engagements locally and internationally.

Calls to Mufti Menk went unanswered over the weekend. However, on Saturday, Mufti Menk posted on Facebook: “We will always have differences of opinion and understanding among ourselves, but that should never lead us to becoming violent or abusive.” Radio Islam (Faizel Patel)