The Call To Bigotry

The ongoing enabling of racism and bigotry that the The City Of Cape Town has now normalised as an approach for less-savoury Capetonians to find themselves heartened by, has finally manifest in a by-law that allows them to come rub their spite in your face. It is impossible to imagine that there was a lack of consideration for what it means to literally categorise an established religious practice as a ‘nuisance’, so one would have to accept that the passing of this bylaw is confirmation of its questionable origin - why have a bylaw for something that is intrinsically part of a community, of a place, of a history? How are you supposed to feel about one of the key expressions of your faith being encouraged to be controlled and stipulated to. I refuse to write essays about how Mosques were an essential part of our existence here in Cape Town, and how vitally uplifting the Athaan has been during this time of a pandemic and lockdowns - I have come to the conclusion that the callous disregard The City Of Cape Town shows for its Indigenous People, the Muslim Community, and anything that doesn’t fit their vision for Cape Town (A huge building for Amazon on Ancestral land) is not through ignorance, but wilful endeavour. I’ll just mention the White woman who moved into The District here last year - yes, White, it’s the First Nation Returnees that they just can’t manage to sort -moved in near to the mosque, and promptly complained about The Athaan being too loud so early in the morning. In District Six. The disgust kicks in when the Mosque then has to get written consent from all the neighbours, mostly Muslim people, and Returnees, and hand it over to the City. The City insists, because - as they always point out in instances like this - they have to ‘follow up on every complaint’ (This is laughable it’s so much nothing)This consent is communicated to the complainant - by all accounts a reasonable White woman since apparently it’s completely acceptable to move into an area and immediately demand for consideration for how a communal event impacts on you. The alarm is around The City’s approach to this. Why should they now have the ability to come tell a mosque to turn down The Athaan like asking noisy neighbours to turn the music down at a party? And then, should the Athaan exceed what they find acceptable, be able to ‘fine’ the mosque? So our friend The White Lady can now complain again, and not be told she’s the only person in a community that she’s just moved into who’s complaining, The City can give her better feedback. They can insist that the mosque turn down the volume, or pay up. The City is by no means unaware of the kind of twisted privilege they’re encouraging here. They’ve literally made The Athaan a target for every version of Islamophobia imaginable and showed their disregard by backing it up with a law. ‘Don’t like it? Come complain. We’ll sort it for you’ Sies