Intro
We estimate less than 50 Ahmadi’s in the entire country, there is only 1 Qadiani temple and 1 Qadiani murrabi (See in the below). The Lahori-Ahmadi’s seem to have gotten access to South Africa before their counterparts the Qadiani-Ahmadi’s. Ahmadi sources tell us that Khwaja Kamaluddin visited South Africa in 1926. By 1979, the Ahmadiyya Movement was claiming to have only 2 mission houses in the country.
By 1982, there was a court case against the Lahori-Ahmadi’s vs. Indian Muslims who were working in South Africa for the British government. This controversy prompted the Al-Azhar University to issue a Fatwa of Kufr vs. all groups of Ahmadi’s, Qadiani or otherwise. It should be noted that by 1982, the Qadiani-Ahmadi’s hadn’t penetrated South Africa, most likely because she wasn’t a British possession. Nevertheless, South Africa was a racist state wherein the 20% minority europeans wouldn’t allow native black people to own land. The Lahori-Ahmadi’s seem to have won the case in 1985 wherein they were declared as Muslim. The Muslims in that case didn’t even show up to court and called the entire proceedings as a farce.
In the 1990’s, it seems that the case was re-opened on appeal and Qadiani’s might have been declared as Non-Muslim (Abdul Rahman Bawa sahib was involved too). A series of articles is presented here relating to the outcome, in September 1995, of the appeal in the South Africa court case Sheikh Jassiem vs. Sheikh Nazim Mohamed and Muslim Judicial Council. This has been necessitated by the widespread propaganda and misrepresentation by various anti-Ahmadiyya organisations to the effect that this court judgment has recognised the authority of the so-called ulama to decide who is, and who is not, a Muslim, and that their declarations of Ahmadis as being non-Muslim have been accepted as legitimate by a secular court of law. It has even been claimed in press statements that “Ahmadis have been declared non-Muslim under South African law” (In this connection, to see the article go here).
By 2020, the Qadiani-Ahmadi’s did get access to South Africa and seem to own one temple in Cape Town and another.
Continue reading “The history of Ahmadiyya in South Africa” →