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File image: Imam Muhsin Hendriks.
The South African Muslim Network (SAMNET) has condemned the murder of South Africa’s first openly gay Imam, Muhsin Hendriks.
Hendriks was gunned down over the weekend in Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape in what is believed to be a hate crime.
The Imam ran an LGBTQ+-friendly mosque in Cape Town.
He was believed to be in Gqeberha to preside over a same-sex marriage.
SAMNET Chairperson Dr. Faisal Suleman says while Islam does not endorse same-sex relations, it does not give anyone permission to kill those who are homosexual.
Suleman says, “We must be unequivocal and quite clear. This is murder, this is unacceptable. The perpetrators need to be found and face the full might of the law. Whatever the motive, whatever the reason, this is murder, there is no getting around it. It is unacceptable. It is against the religious beliefs of all major faith groups to take the law into your own hands.”
PODCAST: Interview with Suleman on Lotus FM’s Newsbreak programme regarding Hendrick’s murder.
Bias hate crime
The Deputy Minister of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Steve Letsike, has described Hendriks’ murder as bias hate crime.
Letsike who is also a member of the LGBTQI+ community says this was not the first attack on Hendricks’ life and added that the community isolated him because of his identity.
Letsike says, “I think we shouldn’t take away the fact that he was Muslim, he was practicing his Islamic faith and for the fact that he was also even isolated by the Islamic community and that is known, this is not a hidden fact. There has been an attack that has been released in the past against him. He was attacked, his mosque was attacked before. You can realize that this biased act of attack subsequently was building up and that for me shows an extreme intolerance in society, and that becomes a concern.”
PODCAST: SA FM’s First Take talks to Letsike on Hendriks:
