Dr Taj Hargey
Cape Town - Surely, to God we belong and to God we return” (Q2:156). This is the customary Qur’anic invocation that Muslims say whenever someone has died. This exact same respect should certainly be accorded to Muhsin Hendricks, who was brazenly assassinated in Port Elizabeth on Saturday.
Although the full details of this despicable murder are yet to emerge, it is apparent that this professional hit is the direct consequence of mindless theological fanaticism and relentless religious indoctrination that is contaminating the Muslim community.
As long as the orthodox Islamic clergy, (which is embodied by self-appointed and unaccountable groups like the discredited Muslim Judicial Council), unilaterally take it upon themselves to act as judge, jury and executioner, then they are defying pristine Qur’anic jurisprudence.
It is this ghastly priestly-generated propaganda that has created and sustained ideological intolerance in Cape Town, producing a veritable climate of fear, intimidation and threats targeting any and all free-thinking and independent-minded followers of Islam.
Muhsin Hendricks paid the ultimate price for his personal beliefs and actions. The contemptible thugs who snuffed out his life were undeniably egged on by the bigoted Muslim priesthood urging them to liquidate this dissident with the fictitious prospect of receiving a heavenly reward of 72 virgins! Already social media is replete with praise for these supposed “soldiers of Allah” who perpetrated this dastardly deed.
This bizarre fabricated theology is advanced by a rapacious Islamic orthodoxy to maintain its monopoly grip on power. It is this same sick rationale that prompted Muslim hoodlums to firebomb the Open Mosque several times immediately after its inception in 2014 under the gravely mistaken notion that it was also a homosexual hub.
Nothing can be further from the truth. In fact, the Open Mosque is decidedly Qur’an-centric by faithfully implementing all explicit scriptural directives, including the formal rejection of all same-sex unions while simultaneously welcoming everyone regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, etc.
However, the duplicitous MJC and its slavish supporters peddled and swallowed the groundless myth that the Open Mosque automatically endorsed homosexuality simply because it used to be situated in the next street from where Muhsin Hendricks was located.
Just how absurd and irrational is this deliberate falsehood?
While few people within the Muslim community, including myself, agreed with Imam Hendricks’s self-declared homosexuality and his promotion of same-sex relationships, no one has the right to extinguish his life or that of anyone else.
Indeed, this is in total contravention of the Holy Qur’an that makes it plain that if you save one person it is as if you have saved all humanity, and if you kill one person without due process, it is as you have killed all humanity (Q5:32).
It is utterly reprehensible that so many Muslims are celebrating the horrendous death of Muhsin Hendricks.
This is not only un-Qur’anic (Q109:6) but completely inhumane. No one, whatever their crimes or proclivities deserve to be shot like a dog. Some Muslims are even spouting nauseating insinuations that he should have been subjected to shari’ah law to be thrown off a mountain instead of being gunned down. This incredulous belief stems from the reputed and contrived hadith sayings of the Prophet Muhammad.
Yes, the late Imam wrongly championed homosexuality. This is in blatant contradiction not only of Islam’s sacred scripture but also of the conspicuous commandments within the Torah and New Testament. Most Muslims have been correctly informed that Islam’s transcendent text unequivocally condemns homosexuality but few have been told that the Qur’an does not actually mandate any specific punishment for this tendency. Indeed, the sacred scripture categorically states:
“Leave me alone to deal with the one I created” (Q74:11).
Since Islam’s paramount text does not prescribe any earthly penalty for homosexuality, no secondary source or latter-day interpretations can countermand this intentional divine omission.
It is undoubtedly not the preserve of any non-transparent clergy organisation or their blind camp followers to take the law into their own hands and inflict the ultimate retribution on another human being, however offensive their inclinations might be.
The Holy Qur’an is emphatic that judgement is God’s alone and no one, no human agency or individual is entitled to usurp this exclusive divine prerogative. Muslims need to enlighten and empower themselves as to what the Qur’an really expects of them and not to unthinkingly heed the belligerent and bigoted rantings of a largely ill-educated clergy that masquerades as the unquestioned arbiters and implementers of the faith.
Indeed, Islam’s supreme scripture warns Muslims not to make the same mistakes that had befallen Jews and Christians by transforming their religious leaders (shaykhs, imams and moulanas) into little gods to defy solitary divine authority. When thinking Muslims realise that they have been misguided and deceived by an irresponsible clergy, this will be the first step in creating a truly tolerant society that is in accordance with the Qur’an’s original teachings.
The calculated elimination of the late Imam Muhsin Hendricks must be denounced not only by all right minded Muslims but also by other people of God. It is imperative that this religious lawlessness does not take root and escalate in South Africa. All Muslims, regardless of their sectarian affiliations, must unreservedly condemn the premediated death of a gay man who did not harm or kill anyone.
Can we expect the MJC to lead the way and offer genuine condolences at the wilful executioner of someone who self- identified as Muslim? Clearly, no one has the right to brand any Muslim as a heretic or apostate irrespective of their malevolent opinions or predilections. That is the Almighty’s exclusive domain, whatever the MJC might claim.
*Dr Taj Hargey is an Oxford-educated historian and theologian specialising in African, Islamic and Middle East Studies