A Cape Town Muslim community’s powerful Christmas missive has been met with acclaim by Christians – offering the hope that democratic South Africa may still show a divided world how to achieve reconciliation.
The Claremont Main Road Mosque published a Christmas message as part of its renewed efforts to nurture interfaith relationships based on respect, honour and knowledge of the other.
And its message, which also criticised Muslim extremist organisations Boko Haram and ISIS, has resounded positively with Muslims and Christians in the city and further afield.
The mosque’s Christmas message was read out during midnight mass on Christmas Eve at St George’s cathedral by the dean, the Very Reverend Michael Weeder.
The message of “peace and love” wished the Christian community a blessed Christmas and a prosperous New Year and was received with applause by a packed congregation in the cathedral at the top of Adderley Street.
Leading worshippers from around the city and the world attending the service was the head of the Anglican Church in Southern Africa, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba. And the leader of the Claremont mosque, Imam Rashied Omar, also attended the service with his family.
In a city where divisions across race, class and religion often are starkly noticeable, the mosque’s outreach to Christians was an emphatic affirmation of multiculturalism.
Omar has said that the Claremont Main Road mosque embraces pluralism and co-existence, regarding “human diversity not as incidental and negative but rather as representing a God-willed, basic factor of human existence”.
In their message to Christians, the mosque community said people of different faiths should get to know one another “beyond mere toleration”.
Committing to redoubling their efforts to “nurture and sustain meaningful interfaith dialogue and relationships based on respect, honour and getting to know one another”, Omar’s congregation said the past year had been a difficult and strained one for Muslim-Christian relations globally.
“Extremist Muslim groups such as Boko Haram and the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have targeted Christians in Nigeria, Iraq and Syria because of their religious beliefs. Moreover, the relations between Christians and Muslims in the Central African Republic reached an all-time low.
“All of these tragic events have evoked ubiquitous and sensationalist media exposure and have provoked unprecedented global outrage.
“It has resulted in a negative effect on Christian-Muslim relations and perceptions of Islam.
“We express gratitude to the dedicated Christians and Muslims who work to establish and maintain dialogue and reconciliation between our two faith communities.
“During this hallowed time, we pray that the grace of God be with us, and that we establish even greater just and peaceful relations between Muslims and Christians in the New Year.
“We pray that the New Year (will) bring healing and peace to our suffering world and that we continue to strive towards the ideals of truth, justice and equality,” the community said, adding: “May the peace and joy of this season be with you always.”
Weeder said this week that the Christmas message from the Claremont mosque had been well-received by worshippers at St George’s.
He described the sentiments of the mosque community as “a gift to us in identifying our common ground” as Christian and Muslim communities.
Comments on the mosque’s Facebook page from Muslims and Christians alike lauded the message, calling it “beautiful”, a “wonderful gesture” and “a stellar example for all denominations”, bringing “a tear of joy and happiness”.
One person wrote: “Thank you Claremont Main Road Mosque. May you be heard far and wide”, while another said: “You have made my Christmas Day complete with this wonderful message.”
The progressive mosque has a long tradition of working in support of justice.
More recently and under Omar, it has revitalised a political consciousness within the community, with Omar’s sermons at Friday prayers focusing four-square on current issues, including the outbreak of ebola, the horrific shootings of school children in Pakistan, and local social justice struggles.
In this, Omar has followed a tradition established in the 1960s at another mosque in Claremont by activist cleric Imam Abdullah Haron, before he was killed in detention by his security branch captors.
For, its part, St George’s Cathedral annually participates in the interfaith walk on Reconciliation Day , December 16, with members of the city’s religious communities walking through the CBD, stopping at the cathedral, the Boorhanol Mosque, Gardens Synagogue and the Dutch Reformed Church’s Groote Kerk.
Known as “the people’s cathedral”, St George’s was a rallying point for anti-apartheid demonstrations.
Ray Hartle is a senior journalist at the Dispatch
Mosque's gesture revives tradition of reconciliation
The Claremont Main Road Mosque published a Christmas message as part of its renewed efforts to nurture interfaith relationships based on respect, honour and knowledge of the other.
And its message, which also criticised Muslim extremist organisations Boko Haram and ISIS, has resounded positively with Muslims and Christians in the city and further afield.
The mosque’s Christmas message was read out during midnight mass on Christmas Eve at St George’s cathedral by the dean, the Very Reverend Michael Weeder.
The message of “peace and love” wished the Christian community a blessed Christmas and a prosperous New Year and was received with applause by a packed congregation in the cathedral at the top of Adderley Street.
Leading worshippers from around the city and the world attending the service was the head of the Anglican Church in Southern Africa, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba. And the leader of the Claremont mosque, Imam Rashied Omar, also attended the service with his family.
In a city where divisions across race, class and religion often are starkly noticeable, the mosque’s outreach to Christians was an emphatic affirmation of multiculturalism.
Omar has said that the Claremont Main Road mosque embraces pluralism and co-existence, regarding “human diversity not as incidental and negative but rather as representing a God-willed, basic factor of human existence”.
In their message to Christians, the mosque community said people of different faiths should get to know one another “beyond mere toleration”.
Committing to redoubling their efforts to “nurture and sustain meaningful interfaith dialogue and relationships based on respect, honour and getting to know one another”, Omar’s congregation said the past year had been a difficult and strained one for Muslim-Christian relations globally.
“Extremist Muslim groups such as Boko Haram and the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have targeted Christians in Nigeria, Iraq and Syria because of their religious beliefs. Moreover, the relations between Christians and Muslims in the Central African Republic reached an all-time low.
“All of these tragic events have evoked ubiquitous and sensationalist media exposure and have provoked unprecedented global outrage.
“It has resulted in a negative effect on Christian-Muslim relations and perceptions of Islam.
“We express gratitude to the dedicated Christians and Muslims who work to establish and maintain dialogue and reconciliation between our two faith communities.
“During this hallowed time, we pray that the grace of God be with us, and that we establish even greater just and peaceful relations between Muslims and Christians in the New Year.
“We pray that the New Year (will) bring healing and peace to our suffering world and that we continue to strive towards the ideals of truth, justice and equality,” the community said, adding: “May the peace and joy of this season be with you always.”
Weeder said this week that the Christmas message from the Claremont mosque had been well-received by worshippers at St George’s.
He described the sentiments of the mosque community as “a gift to us in identifying our common ground” as Christian and Muslim communities.
Comments on the mosque’s Facebook page from Muslims and Christians alike lauded the message, calling it “beautiful”, a “wonderful gesture” and “a stellar example for all denominations”, bringing “a tear of joy and happiness”.
One person wrote: “Thank you Claremont Main Road Mosque. May you be heard far and wide”, while another said: “You have made my Christmas Day complete with this wonderful message.”
The progressive mosque has a long tradition of working in support of justice.
More recently and under Omar, it has revitalised a political consciousness within the community, with Omar’s sermons at Friday prayers focusing four-square on current issues, including the outbreak of ebola, the horrific shootings of school children in Pakistan, and local social justice struggles.
In this, Omar has followed a tradition established in the 1960s at another mosque in Claremont by activist cleric Imam Abdullah Haron, before he was killed in detention by his security branch captors.
For, its part, St George’s Cathedral annually participates in the interfaith walk on Reconciliation Day , December 16, with members of the city’s religious communities walking through the CBD, stopping at the cathedral, the Boorhanol Mosque, Gardens Synagogue and the Dutch Reformed Church’s Groote Kerk.
Known as “the people’s cathedral”, St George’s was a rallying point for anti-apartheid demonstrations.
Ray Hartle is a senior journalist at the Dispatch
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