A number of imams across South Africa have received death threats from the Islamic State (IS) to stop them from speaking out against the dreaded outfit.
Shabbier Ahmed Saloojee, Principal of the Zakarriya Park madrassa near here, is one such leader who has received the death threats.
Saloojee said he was undaunted by the threat and would continue to speak out against the IS, along with other clerics who, he said, had also been told to be careful and to watch their backs in anonymous calls and messages.
He said the ISIS had murdered or maimed the leading clerics in all areas that they took over, and saw the South African leaders who opposed their actions as "infidels".
Saloojee told media that despite the concern about a growing influence in South Africa, he did not believe that they would find any measure of success like they did in Iraq and Syria.
Despite the threats, imams at mosques across South Africa will decry the actions of the ISIS in their Friday sermons tomorrow.
Two of the country's biggest Muslim organisations - the Jamiatul Ulema and the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) - have advised the leaders of mosques to tell their congregations that the IS does not represent Islam and Muslims, as the organisation has repeatedly claimed to do.
The Cape Town-based MJC called a special meeting yesterday after a 15-year-old girl from the area was pulled off a plane whille she was allegedly trying to flee the country to join the militant outfit in Syria.
Both Muslim organisations expressed concern that the IS was using social media for propaganda which easily influenced the youth, although the South African government said there was no indication of large-scale recruitment in the county, as has happened in several European nations.
Ebrahim Bham, Secretary-General of the Jamiatul Ulema, said although he did not have any personal knowledge of the death threats, his organisation was not afraid of them and would not bow to pressure in opposing the IS.
