President Jose Eduardo dos Santos
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has expressed shock and dismay over media reports of the Angolan Government’s decision to ban Islam in Angola and to demolish mosques in the country, The OIC spokesman said yesterday in a statement.
He said that the reported Angolan Government’s decision is outrageous and calls for condemnation in the strongest terms.
He called on the United Nations, the African Union, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), and on the international community to take a firm position against the reported decision of the Angolan Government which stands in blatant contravention of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms codified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The OIC spokesman further called on the Angolan Government, as a member of the United Nations, to clarify its position on the media reports. The OIC expects the Angolan authorities to take immediate action to reverse the reported decision as a sign of respect to culture of peace and tolerance including religious tolerance.
The government in Angola has reportedly started to demolish mosques in the country after announcing that practicing Islam is illegal in the country. On Friday, several newspapers in the South African country quoted the Angolan Minister of Culture, Rosa Cruz e Silva, as saying that “the process of legalisation of Islam has not been approved by the Ministry of Justice and Human rights... Mosques would therefore be closed until further notice.”
For its part, Al-Azhar Al-Sharif strongly condemned Angola preventing Muslims from practicing their religion, and expressed grave concern that what had been reported in the media about the Angolan authorities decision to ban Islam on its territory, and also that it has recently demolished the mosque in the municipality of Vianazhango in the Angolan capital Luanda.
Al-Azhar Al-Sharif called on the Angolan Government to clarify the matter and determine its position clearly , and deal with the situation rationally, far from the reactions that further complicate the matter, calling on Muslims in Angola to be advocates of peace, security and brotherhood.
Al-Azhar Al-Sharif also urged Islamic organisations, especially the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to send a committee to investigate the facts and circumstances of Muslims there and informed the Angolan Government on the fact that the Islamic religion calls for peaceful coexistence, tolerance and renunciation of violence and extremism.
Al-Azhar Al-Sharif and expressed the hope that what was reported about this would not be true because it is incompatible with religious freedom, basic human rights and the principles of tolerance and peaceful coexistence.
Angolan authorities deployed anti-riot police, helicopters and water cannon yesterday to block hundreds of opposition members from marching to the funeral of an activist shot dead by security forces at the weekend.
Manuel Ganga, a member of Angola’s second-biggest opposition party, CASA-CE, was killed after being detained for putting up posters about the kidnap and suspected murder of two activists in May 2012. Police said Ganga had tried to flee.
The killing came just hours before police used teargas to disperse the biggest demonstration against long-serving President Jose Eduardo dos Santos.
“There was total intolerance. It is unacceptable, as we had yesterday coordinated with police that we would hold a peaceful funeral march, but it was the police who blocked us,” CASA-CE leader Abel Chivukuvuku told reporters.
Several hundred people started the march from central Luanda to the Santana cemetery a few kilometres away, wearing T-shirts printed with a photograph of the victim and the slogan “We demand justice”.
They soon came across the police road-block, resulting in a tense standoff for an hour before marchers got on to buses to proceed to the cemetery.
The funeral passed off largely without incident, although a television crew from the state-owned TPA station, widely seen as a dos Santos propaganda machine, was forced to leave when dozens of people started shouting “TPA out, TPA out”.