Islam in South Africa

The Cape, 1652. The Dutch East India Company set up there. Then it brought enslaved people from the Indonesian islands, India, Sri Lanka, Madagascar and East Africa.

It exiled others there too: leaders who resisted Dutch rule in the East. Many of these people were Muslim.

Public practice of Islam was forbidden. So Muslims kept their faith in homes and quarters, and taught their children in secret.

Their descendants are often called Cape Malay, though their roots are far wider than Malaysia.

Forbidden to worship in public, Muslims at the Cape kept Islam alive in secret for generations.

Sheikh Yusuf al-Makassari was a Sufi scholar from Sulawesi. He fought the Dutch in Java, and he was captured.

He was exiled first to Sri Lanka. Then, in 1694, he was sent to the Cape, with his family and followers.

They were settled at Zandvliet, far from Cape Town, to keep them isolated. It did not work. Zandvliet became a refuge for runaway slaves and a centre of Muslim life.

He died in 1699. His kramat (shrine) at Macassar, named after his home, is still visited. Both South Africa and Indonesia honour him as a hero.

Sheikh Yusuf was exiled to be silenced. Instead, he founded a community.

Imam 'Abdullah ibn Qadi 'Abd al-Salam was a prince from Tidore in eastern Indonesia. He was exiled for resisting the Dutch. He is known as Tuan Guru, which means Mister Teacher.

He spent 1780 to 1793 on Robben Island. What did he do there? He wrote out copies of the Qur'an from memory, and a book of Islamic teaching.

After his release he opened a madrasah in Cape Town. It taught both freed and enslaved children.

In 1794 the community founded the Auwal Mosque in Dorp Street, Bo-Kaap. It was the first mosque in South Africa. It is still in use.

On Robben Island, Tuan Guru wrote out the Qur'an from memory.

The Cape was one root. Natal became another. From 1860 the British brought indentured labourers from India to work the sugar plantations of Natal. A minority of them were Muslim.

Traders followed them, many from Gujarat. They paid their own way.

They built mosques and madrasahs across Natal and the Transvaal. One was Durban's Juma Masjid on Grey Street, among the largest in the southern hemisphere.

Today South Africa's roughly one million Muslims include Cape, Indian, and growing Black African communities.

South African Islam has two roots, Cape and Indian, and one community.

Under apartheid, Muslims were split by racial classification. Some leaders stayed quiet. Others did not.

Imam Abdullah Haron of Claremont did not. He preached against apartheid and helped families of political prisoners.

In 1969 he was detained. After four months he died in police custody. The police claimed he fell down stairs.

Tens of thousands attended his funeral. In the 1980s Muslim organisations joined the United Democratic Front. Muslim activists served in the struggle, and in the first democratic government.

Imam Abdullah Haron spoke out against apartheid and died in police detention in 1969.