Shutting mosques, burning Qur'an and putting restrictions on Islamic hijab,in Isal

Shutting mosques, burning Qur'an and putting restrictions on Islamic hijab, the Angolan government has come under criticism after human rights activists accused the Catholic southwest African country of targeting the Muslim minority.

"From what I have heard, Angola is the first country in the world that has decided to ban Islam," Elias Isaac, country director of the Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa (Osisa), told The Guardian.

"This is a crazy madness. The government is intolerant of any difference."

Angola has been widely accused of banning Islam following reports about Angolan minister of culture, Rosa Cruz, saying “the process of legalization of Islam has not been approved by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, their mosques would be closed until further notice.”
The reports sparked huge reactions from several Muslim organizations including Al-Azhar, the highest seat of learning in the Sunni Muslim world, who asked for dispatching a fact finding team to Angola to investigate the conditions of the Muslim minority.
The International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS) has also called on Angola to withdraw its decision, urging moves at the UN, African Union to condemn the unprecedented decision.
Officials in the largely Catholic southern African nation insist that worldwide media reports of a "ban" on Islam are exaggerated and no places of worship are being targeted.
Yet, it was found that Angola does not recognize Islam as an official religion, after the justice ministry rejected the applications of 194 organizations, including one from the Islamic community, last month.
Religious organizations are required to apply for legal recognition in Angola, which currently sanctions 83, all of them Christian.

Under Angolan law, a religious group needs more than 100,000 members and to be present in 12 of the 18 provinces to gain legal status, giving them the right to construct schools and places of worship.
Official estimate put the number of Muslims at 90,000, despite confirmations from Muslims of exceeding this number.

Muslim Persecution
Despite Angolan government denial of enforcing Islam ban, the Islamic Community of Angola (ICA) confirmed that eight mosques have been destroyed in the past two years.
"We can say that Islam has been banned in Angola. You need 100,000 to be recognized as a religion or officially you cannot pray,” David Já, president of the Islamic Community of Angola (ICA), said on Thursday.
There are 78 mosques in the country, according to the ICA, and all have been closed except those in the capital, Luanda, because they are technically unlicensed.
"The mosques in Luanda were supposed to be closed yesterday but because of an international furor about reports that Angola had banned Islam, the government decided not to," Já said.

"So, at the moment, mosques in Luanda are open and people are going for prayers."

The government started to target mosques in 2010 when it burnt down a mosque in Huambo province.
Another mosque was destroyed in Luanda earlier this month, Já said, and 120 copies of the Qur’an burned.
"A day after authorities had warned us that we should have not built the mosque where we had and that it had to be built somewhere else,” Já said.

“The government justified by saying that it was an invasion of Angolan culture and a threat to Christian values."

Muslims have been instructed to dismantle mosques themselves, Já added.
"They usually issue a legal request for us to destroy the building and give us 73 hours to do so. Failure to do so results in government authorities doing it themselves," he said

Hijab Too

The ICA official added that anyone who practices Islam, or dons Islamic veil, risks being found guilty of disobeying Angola's penal code.

"As things stand, most Muslim women are afraid to wear the veil. A woman was assaulted in hospital in Luanda for wearing a veil, and on another occasion, a young Muslim lady was beaten up and told to leave the country because she was wearing a veil,” Já said.

"Most recently, young girls were prohibited from wearing the veil in Catholic schools and, when we went there to confront the nuns, they simply said they couldn't allow it. Although there is not an explicit written law prohibiting the use of veil in Angola, government has prohibited the practice of the faith and women are afraid to express their faith in that sense."

The ICA's complaints were supported by Rafael Marques de Morais, a political activist and leading investigative journalist in Angola.

"I've seen an order that says Muslims must destroy the mosques themselves and clear away the debris, or they will be charged for the cost of the destruction."

He suggested the government was seeking to find a convenient diversion from growing public hostility towards Chinese and Portuguese workers in Angola.

"The government need to deflect attention. They are trying to find a scapegoat for economic pressures and saying Islam is not common to Angolan values and culture.

"They believe a blanket law against Islam will get the sympathy of both Angolans and those in the international community who equate Islam with terrorism."

Asked about the potential for Muslims to protest, Marques replied: "If the Muslims try to show any anger, they will be deported the following day.

Source: On Islam