South Africa's Muslim Youth

The Identity Dilemma

Many Indian Muslim youth in Johannesburg spend their weekends in Fordsburg (Photo by Naeema Kharsany).

Oupa Mosikari remembers how a peaceful march turned brutal when the police opened fire on a group of Soweto school students. But, he also remembers how this act of bravery by the students triggered off an open struggle for freedom that had only been dreamt of until then. "We looted, burnt, and destroyed anything that belonged to the government in revenge of our comrades who were killed," he said.

Although Mosikare was only 16 years old at the time, he was well aware that his struggle was part of a greater resistance. "We fought against Afrikaans being a medium of instruction, but we also fought for the country."

Mosikare lost many friends in that march and during the "state of emergency" that followed. "Some of them were buried in one grave; some had to run away, some were in wheelchairs," he explained sadly.

But at 46 years old, Mosikare does not believe the struggle is over. He feels there are still many problems that the country has not been able to address despite the government's efforts. Mosikare talks of the free education system and quotes from the other nine points of the freedom charter as well, asking if they are being applied. For Mosikare, the memory of the struggle years is kept vivid by a freedom that has not been fully realized for all.

South Africa still grapples with a high unemployment, high crime, and high poverty rate. It also has the added pressure of dealing with the increasing HIV/AIDS infection rate in the country. These social and financial problems are remnants of the apartheid system that is proving more difficult to remove from the minds of people than to remove by the constitution.

But while the previous generation of youth rose to the occasion and lead the struggle to freedom in the country, it seems that South Africa has to fight to get youth involved in national activities. Mosikare explains that when the youth grow up, they won't want to see the country being run by their grandfathers.

Muslim youth are no exception. The Muslim community is divided along social, economic, and racial lines. But, while in the past Muslim youth lead the fight against injustices, many of the current Muslim youth have been swallowed in a flood of Western values of materialism and status.

Cassiem Khan, director of Islamic Relief in South Africa, argues that Muslim youth are experiencing the same pressures as non-Muslim youth in the country. "Young South African Muslims are trying to fit into a kind of homogenous interpretation of who they are," he explained; therefore, according to Khan, they are not in tune with the general frustrations of Muslims in most other parts of the world. He thinks that Muslim youth in South Africa are more concerned with materialism than spirituality. When young people approach Islamic Relief, he argues, they often display a narrow view of how they can assist the poor.

Once or twice a year, the Muslim youth organizations run collection drives of food and clothes which they distribute to the poor communities. This, Khan argues, is their interpretation of "get your hands dirty" work. He does not agree with this kind of volunteerism. "It displays an attitude of material is all they can share without deeply reflecting on what they can do," he explained.

He explained that he expects Muslim youth to be the pioneers of advocacy and to be creative in dealing with the problems of the poor. "But young people are not doing that, which I find worrying." Khan believes that Muslim youth are not playing the dominant role they played in the 1970s.

"They are not being critical enough or even being creative enough, which has been the hallmark of Muslim youth in this country," Khan said. Khan believes that they don't know how to deal with the problems facing society because they are not reading enough. "Many of them are reading Hassan Al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb, and al-Moududi for the first time." But Khan identifies another problem.

In South Africa, the uneven distribution of wealth enforced during the apartheid era still exists. Most Indian people were allowed to trade or at least traded under the guise of White-owned establishments, which enabled them to accumulate some wealth. Black people did not have this opportunity; therefore, when the African National Congress (ANC) adopted the democratic laws of 1994, most Indian Muslims had finances to draw from and to fund bigger businesses or to educate their children. Black people did not and this maintained the slanted wealth and education distribution in the country.

Thus, Khan explain that the financially privileged few in the Muslim community (Indians) are dominating the discussions about Islam, which invariably camouflages the diversity within the Muslim community. "Unfortunately, it is the different voices in Muslim youth that are not coming up. For example, Muslim youth in townships, Phoenix, or in the Cape Flats."

This, he said, is perpetuated by the youth organizations that lead these discussions. But for Khan, the greater danger is that these Muslim youth have also been earmarked as the future leaders of Islam in South Africa.

Fordsburg has become a place for showing off material wealth (Photo by Naeema Kharsany)

Ex-chairperson and long time executive member of the Union of Muslim Students Association (UMSA), a body that aims to unite Muslim university and high school students, Abdur-Rahman Laily, sees it a bit differently.

Referring to the mergers between the universities that were formerly racially and geographically divided in line with the education system of the preceding era, he explained that the recent changing infrastructure of educational institutions has created a platform for cross-cultural and racial integration for the UMSA. "It is promising … because, by default, they interact more with other students to such an extent that you see new UMSA's working quite well and making strides."

Laily identified three of the biggest problems facing young Muslims in South Africa. According to him, their lack of initiative to grasp opportunities remained one of the biggest problems. "There is so much opportunity in South Africa, but young Muslims are just content living in the current status quo," he argued. Laily explains how the ratio of non-White Muslims that have had an opportunity to study was relatively high in comparison to non-White non-Muslims. However, he pointed out that this is not necessarily indicative of their contribution to society.

Reiterating Khan's concerns, Laily makes the argument that the second problem was that young Muslims are slowly loosing touch with their Islamic history and origins and their legacy in South Africa. "If people appreciate the way that Islam came to this country, they would appreciate more," he explained.

Laily said that the third problem he witnessed was that young people were not interested in reading.

Such an interpretation of the Muslim youth's problems has left a stale taste in the mouths of Amani Ndobeni and Gregg Bissict, two Muslim reverts studying at the University of Witwatersrand.

Ndobeni is neither Indian nor Malay. She is a Black Muslim who found solace in the Qur'an. But she did not expect to be ostracized by the Muslim community. She explained how a borrowed perception from the apartheid years still prevails in the Muslim community. "To be Black for Indian people is to be poor, you don't have any status."

Ndobeni said that because of this perception, she was always cautious about asking for help. "You'll never ask for anything because you think they'll say, 'Oh! There she goes again.' Instead you feel more comfortable with a non-Muslim person," she said bitterly.

While Ndobeni was aware of the racial and financial undertones that exist in the Muslim community, she has never had to deal with it directly. Bissict was not that lucky. In his eighth month of being a Muslim, he was physically attacked by a group of Indian Muslims studying at the university. He is still not entirely sure why, but he has been told that it is because the boys felt that he — being a White Muslim revert — had only converted to Islam for the sake of his Muslim girlfriend.

It seems a strange thing to attack a person simply because they have chosen to be Muslim, regardless of their motive. But Bissict thinks the group was also jealous of his relationship because they felt that they were more worthy. A theory that points to Khan's observation of the increasing importance of Western values, such as status and rank, in the society. Bissict said that it also emphasizes a judgmental behavior in the community.

He explained that he researched Islam for eight months before converting. This is more than can be said for the average Muslim youth in South Africa who reads the Qur'an but does not even understand Arabic.

Bissict has read numerous guides to the Quran, finding the English translation too difficult to follow. He also consulted Muslim brothers in the mosque to help him but found that this often proved more confusing. Bissict said, "You have no idea how tough it is. Everyone's trying to tell you what to do but they don't know themselves."

Ndobeni described this as a case of the "blind leading the blind." She thinks that Muslims follow blindly and forget that even learned persons are human. "We don't do research but our duty is to seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave," she argued.

With some Muslim youth offering their support and guidance, perhaps there is hope that these two South Africans will be accepted into the community some day, but immigrant Muslim youth may never have that opportunity.

Khan said that many immigrant Muslims are not sufficiently integrated into the South African system. They are also excluded from the South African Muslim social and religious circles, he said.

Ndobeni said that African immigrants at the campus held a separate iftar (breaking the fast) from the South African Muslims in Ramadan. She said she was told that although some of the males had completed Islamic courses in their countries, they did not qualify to lead prayers according to leaders in the South African group.

But Laily limits his response to youth organizations, saying, "The cosmopolitan society is a sign for local people to adapt to changes and spark debate." He believes that South African organizations could benefit from the wealth of experience that these youth come with. "Because youth have been involved in liberation and community organizations there is a vast knowledge that these people come with."

Laily said that individuals within the organization have helped immigrant Muslims in South Africa by befriending them and helping them make a home away from home "by familiarizing them and helping them with the English language, which many come here to study and need knowledge of to study in South Africa."

There still remains an obvious vacuum where there are Muslim youth who haven't gone on to university. However, for now, it remains to be seen if South African Muslim youth can take the first step to understanding Islam and its values. That is, to come to the realization, in the words of Ndobeni, "that Islam is not inherited." Before they can truly call themselves Muslim, "They need to sit and visualize," she said.

Perhaps then, they will be able to readdress their own understanding of Islam and rise to the challenges that exist in South Africa. Or perhaps they will realize their Islamic responsibility only when they become the participants in another uprising.

Safeeyah Kharsany is a South African freelance journalist. She holds a BA in journalism from the University of Witwatersrand. She has written for several South African publications.