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| Africa: Subsaharan |
| Muslim clerics arrested in Gambia |
| 2005-10-18 |
| The Gambian security forces are reported to have arrested two South African Muslim clerics last week, according to South Africa's Pretoria News. No reason has been given for the arrest of a Pretoria father and son both of who are religious leaders in the South African Muslim community. Their country's Department of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday confirmed that Moulanas (clerics) Farhaad Ahmed Dockrat and his son Muaaz had been detained in The Gambia. The department, however, would not say when or why they were arrested. Members of the Muslim Community in South Africa were earlier requested in mosques to pray for the Erasmia pair's release, shortly after they failed to return to South Africa on October 4. According to Pretoria News, Farhaad Dockrat, in his mid-40s, has been the principal of the Darus Salaam Islamic College in Laudium for the past 20 years. His son, in his 20s, is a lecturer at the school. Family member Ashraf Dockrat was reporting as saying on Tuesday that the two men left South Africa for Senegal on September 27. "A Gambian student, Hafiz Omar Saikou Wally, who studied at the college where the two Moulanas taught, accompanied them. Mr. Wally would have taken them from Senegal to Gambia in a vehicle to show them the teaching methods used in the Islamic centres in that region," said Dockrat, speaking on behalf of the family. "However, the father and son did not return home as planned. When they failed to arrive, the family contacted a person in Dakar, Senegal. This person followed their trail to a lodge, but there the trail went cold. They had no contact with anyone in South Africa since they left." "It was also confirmed that Mr. Wally had no contact with his family in The Gambia and they haven't received the parcel of textbooks Mr. Wally was supposed to give them," Dockrat said. Pretoria News stated that the men's worried family contacted the South African Department of Foreign Affairs the same day they failed to return home. It added that on Tuesday, the Foreign Affairs department informed them that the three travellers were being held by The Gambian security services. A prominent scholar of the Tshwane Muslim School, who according to Pretoria News preferred to remain anonymous, said the family and the South African Muslim Community feared that the CIA might be involved, claiming that any travelling Muslim is regarded as a terrorist. A local businessman, the report added expressed the same sentiment, adding that Muslims were intimidated and victimised everywhere, including South Africa. He claimed all Muslims were being blamed for the recent bombings in England and Bali. Another community member alleged that the Dockrats were arrested because one of Farhaad Dockrat's students Ismail Zoubair was also arrested in Pakistan last year for allegedly having links with al-Qaeda. He was later released along with another South African, Feroze Ganchi without being charged. Zoubair had studied under Farhaad Dockrat in Laudium prior to his arrest in Pakistan during a raid on a house in which firearms; ammunition, explosive vests and maps were allegedly found. South Africa's Foreign Affairs spokesman Nomfanelo Kota confirmed that the department's officials had met with the family on Tuesday. "We would keep in contact with the family and inform them of any news about their faith." However, frantic efforts made to solicit clarifications from Gambian authorities proved futile. The permanent secretary at the Department of State for Foreign Affairs, Ebou Taal described the story as news to him. "The department is yet to be in the picture." The Department of State for Interior, according an official who identified himself as the deputy permanent secretary is also not in the picture. The Director General of the NIA, Daba Marena could not be reach for comment. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |