Al Jamah Party gives reasons for its failure in elections - blames "organised " Ulama

[Shaffique]

 

     

_                                                                  ASSALAMU-ALAIKUM!     
 

Press Release – Al Jama-ah Community Party | 12 May 2014/12 Rajab 1435

 

The AL JAMA-AH Community Party wishes to place on record our sincere gratitude to

 the all the citizens who placed their trust and confidence in AL JAMA-AH and brought

 a total of 39 158 votes in our favour in the Western Cape Provincial and the

 National elections. Unfortunately we did not attain enough votes to secure a seat in

 either of the legislatures we were contesting. There are a number of reasons for our

 failure to secure any seats many of which we have to take full responsibility for

 such as:

 

· Our campaign strategy was flawed, we were under resourced, we were not visible

 enough, our website and social media presence was almost non-existent, we did not

 have the necessary infrastructure on the ground, we had no active branches, no

 members volunteering except for the few in Mitchell’s Plain and Hanover Park hardly

 enough to make a dent. Most of our posters went up 3 days before the election, we

 had too few public meetings,

 

The biggest lesson we learned through this exercise was how not to do it next time.

 Given these failures on our part it was quite remarkable that we beat most of the

 smaller parties and some big ones who were much better organised and resourced. We

 lost our opportunity to serve in Parliament by a mere 4000 votes

 

The most decisive factor in our failure to secure a seat in parliament was the

 deliberate sabotage by the various “Organised” Clergy in the Muslim community. It is

 our position that due to the vested interest held by some of the most prominent

 clergy formations in the country they abused their positions of trust to undermine

 and sabotage AL JAMA-AH’s efforts to secure a legitimate voice for Muslims in

 parliament.

 

In Gauteng many individual clerics embarked on a smear campaign even on public radio

 stating factually incorrect information such as that AL JAMA-AH was a Shia Party

 that was funded by Iranian Businessmen, that AL JAMA-AH was connected to one

 conservative group of Clergy called the Majlis who forbid women to participate in

 elections and that AL JAMA-AH held these same views, this was propagated on Radio

 Islam live as well as televised on ITV to over 300 000 Muslim viewers. AL JAMA-AH

 was even drawn into the SANHA halaal chicken debacle due to our supposed links to

 the Majlis in Port Elizabeth. Another blatant lie spread via social media in

 especially Gauteng was that AL JAMA-AH has links and was owned by Imam Rashid Omar

 of the Claremont Main Road Mosque, although we admire the work and many of the

 positions taken by the Claremont Main Road Mosque there is currently absolutely no

 link between our respective organisations.

 

In Cape Town AL JAMA-AH was at the receiving end of the Muslim Judicial Council’s

 endorsement of the ANC. AL JAMA-AH was denied access to most public gatherings

 organised by MJC aligned groups such as the Mawlid celebrations at Green Point, The

 Boland Festival in Paarl and the Annual Commemorations at the Faure Kramat. At all

 these functions the key note speakers were prominent ANC members who openly promoted

 the ANC as the preferred party for Muslims. MJC aligned functions were effective no

 go zones for AL JAMA-AH. At most MJC aligned mosques AL JAMA-AH was prevented from

 distributing pamphlets and where AL JAMA-AH had previously been afforded the

 opportunity to address the congregations inside mosques, none of the mosques

 approached for talking time obliged citing the general position of the MJC that no

 politics would be allowed inside mosques. Ironically prominent ANC leaders were

 allowed to address congregations at many MJC aligned mosques and at some even

 ridiculed the role of smaller Muslim parties like AL JAMA-AH. During the weeks

 leading up to the May 7 election many of the Friday sermons were dedicated to

 praising the ruling party for allowing Muslims freedom of religions and pro ANC

 pamphlets were widely distributed. At some mosques Imams openly advised congregants

 not to vote for small Muslim parties like AL JAMA-AH but to vote for the ANC

 instead.

 

A week before the elections amidst enormous fan fare prominent MJC members including

 its Secretary General and its Deputy President announced the legalisation of Muslim

 marriages. This was an obvious election ploy given the convenient timing and a

 blatant misrepresentation of the facts. No new legislation giving legal consequences

 to Muslim marriages were promulgated and the only difference to the previous

 dispensation was that civil marriages could now be performed inside the Mosque. We

 believe this election ploy was deliberately orchestrated to neutralise AL JAMA-AH’s

 very vocal position on the issue of Muslim Personal Law.

 

It is our position that the greatest obstacle to a Shariah based Muslim party in

 South Africa is the “Organised” Clergy. A Muslim party in parliament is a direct

 threat on their imposed hegemony and imposed dictatorship upon the Muslim community.

 The “Organised” Clergy has the most to lose if Muslims have a legitimate

 representative voice in Parliament because it removes from the Clergy their

 illegitimate representative status which they impose on Muslim citizens and the

 State. “Organised” Clergy have the most to gain by maintaining the status quo

 because it ensures that their license to sell their religion continues unabated and

 that their blatant profiteering off the sentiments and sensitivities of the Muslim

 community continues. A Muslim representative voice would immediately threaten the

 monopoly held by “Organised” Clergy to patronage of the state and access to special

 privileges.

 

The net result of Muslims not having a legitimate voice in Parliament will be that

 Muslim Citizens will continue to be exposed to the constant bickering, backstabbing,

 contradicting, sectarianism and power struggles amongst the various “Organised”

Clergy for another 5 years and to the extent that most ordinary Muslims will remain

 despondent and confused.

 

The various Halaal certification franchises owned by the “Organised” Clergy will

 continue to sell their religion and branding rights to the highest bidder. The

 integrity of the food Muslims eat will remain questionable because the competition

 amongst Halaal Certifying Franchisors to appease their clients will continue to

 allow for compromises to the same extent that we experienced in the Orion case where

 Muslims were fed Halaal Pork.

 

Muslim Hujaaj and Muta amireen (Pilgrims) will continue to be dictated to by an

 oppressive and illegitimate NGO called, SAHUC. This imposed SAHUC regime only

 benefits the vested interest of unscrupulous travel operators who in turn have an

 incestuous relationship with the “Organised Clergy”. Many members of the “Organised”

Clergy get all expenses paid annual pilgrimages under the guise of Spiritual Guides

 whilst the waiting list for prospective pilgrims remain at 16000 plus. Those

 wishing to embark on this sacred journey will be at the mercy of a corrupt self

 imposed dictatorship that continues to undermine the Constitutional rights of Muslim

 citizens whilst unscrupulous operators continue to fleece Pilgrims without any

 recourse or prospect to recover their losses.

 

AL JAMA-AH holds the view that the deliberate sabotage by the “Organised” Clergy of

 this much needed voice in parliament was short sighted and undermined the interest

 of the very constituency they claim to serve. We could not raise these concerns

 during our campaign for fear of a backlash from the “Organised” Clergy. Our

 restraint cost us the seat because the “Organised” Clergy attacked us anyway and we

 did not defend ourselves or even cry foul. AL JAMA-AH has learnt the hard way that

 appeasing the “Organised” Clergy is not in the interest of our constituency and that

 our focus must be to recruit individual Sheighs, Imams, Maulanas and Muallims to

 lead and guide our movement.

 

We are not anti ULEMA we are anti “ORGANISED” CLERGY which operates like the Mafia

 extorting and exposing our community to oppression, suffering and immorality whilst

 being concerned only with their own pockets.

 

AL JAMA-AH will continue our struggle for a voice for Muslims in Parliament because

 this is the most constructive way for us to engage, contribute and even assimilate

 into broader society. The role and responsibility we have to be the moral conscience

 of our community inside the corridors of powers is a positive and necessary

 responsibility.

                                                      
____________________________________________________________________________________________________                          
                                                                                                                 SHAFFIQUE  

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