In a first for the Durbanville area, the Durbanville Islamic Society displayed banners in support of Mandela Day and raising awareness of events in Palestine. It was our sincere intention to honour the honourable former statesman , Nelson Mandela. The aim was simple , use the words of Madiba but we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians to raise awareness for the people of Palestine. The intention was simply to honour the name of our beloved father of the nation in support of a humans rights cause for 67 minutes, along with millions of people across the world. As the signage would be temporary and only for Mandela day, we unfortunately did not apply through the appropriate channels for the requisite permission. We as an organisation do understand the need to respect the rules and regulations that are applied to such instances. We always strive to act within the confines of the legal constraints that are applicable. We must also however express our concern that the objections to such signage were misplaced and more indicative of a lack of understanding of the cause that we were promoting. To this extent we undertake to have education sessions within Durbanville area very soon on the Palestinian crisis. As far as our altercations with the DA ward counsellor, this was unfortunate. In our respectful opinion the manner in which she chose to deal with the situation could have been handled differently. We will be meeting with her next week in order to discuss the matter. While we are here to abide by the laws of the country we need to be accorded the mutual respect which we deserve as citizens of this country. However we do know that in this particular instance, Mandela day, the rule of exposing a banner to honour our beloved Madiba, would be relaxed. Our freedom to protest must not be undermined by selective application of the bye-laws. This is a freedom for which we have all fought and which we all deserve. We are bound by peace and sincerely hope to find an amicable solution to the injustice we were faced with on Friday. We only hope and pray that other societies around the world can resolve their differences in such a peaceful manner. Anwar Ismail Chairman Durbanville Islamic Society
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 05:13:41 +0000
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