A week ago, Sheik Ismael Keraan, of Al Azhar Masjid District 6 in Cape Town, received a bomb threat via text against his mosque. The message was in Arabic, but was traced to a source in Florida, USA. A case has been opened by South African Security authorities.
Sheik Keraan is native to District Six in Cape Town, which suffered forced removals in the 1960’s of its vibrant peoples and their cultures. The pain of this “ethnic cleansing” under apartheid continues to this day and underscores the horror felt by many at the atrocities being committed in Gaza and the West Bank, and in other places across the world as well.
On Friday 9th May, 2025 in Cape Town, he delivered a khutbah (sermon) to a packed house. What he had to say was not merely to his faithful, but resonated far beyond, articulating the leadership required by people of faith in these times.
Here are a few excerpts from his timely message:
This act of terrorism that has been targeted at this religious institution, symbolizes and actualizes in fact that religious institutions in Our beloved country have been attacked.
We are in a place where we know what it means to be ethnically cleansed. We know what it means to drive or walk past and say, “This is where our house was”. This is where I grew up before we were forcibly removed, and this threat has come into this area. Where the social structure and order was that the streets of District Six were the passages and the houses were the rooms.
That was the cohesion, and we extend to you the perpetrator, in the name of peace to try and bring yourself to a level, to regain and take your proper place as a human being on this dunya (this world).
For the rest of your life, try and add value and whoever you are and wherever you are, to build communities where the safeness and the empathy and compassion lie. That is our message from District Six.
