The Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) and the Media Review Network (MRN) have asked Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils to intervene in the detention of two South African Islamic relief workers in Uganda.
Mufti Hussain Bhayat and Haroon Saley were detained at Uganda’s Entebbe Airport earlier this week and efforts were being made on Friday by family members and the South African Department of Foreign Affairs to find out why.
A report in Uganda’s New Vision Online said they were held by the Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force at 2am on Monday on a stopover in Uganda after a visit to Kenya ”to help with investigations”.
The reason for their detention was not immediately known, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Yousha Tayob, a spokesperson for the families, initially said they were taken in because they were with people who had been subjected to terror-related questioning before.
Later on Friday, Tayob said it appeared they were suspected of being Pakistani nationals travelling on South African passports, and they were currently transmitting personal documents of the two, including matric certificates, to verify their South African nationality.
The MRN was also preparing to send its chairman Iqbal Jassat to accompany Zahid Asmal of Channel Islam International to Uganda to assess the case.
The MRN and MJC said they were outraged ”that Muslims of undeniable integrity and a track record of poverty alleviation have been profiled as ‘terrorists’.
”This feeds into the orchestrated frenzy of Islamophobia that can only be detrimental to the harmonious relationship currently enjoyed by our people on the continent.”
The two do work for Crescent of Hope, a relief organisation that helps facilitate the Islamic obligation of charitable and humanitarian works. — Sapa