Ao vivo Clique aqui para pesquisar Inscreva-se NotíciasOnline reação anti-musulmana colide com uma realidade diferente na África do Sul retórica anti-musulmana online está crescendo, mas a vida no terreno conta uma história mais complicada.
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Hundreds of family and community members gathered for his funeral in Nquthu, a rural part of northern KwaZulu-Natal where Christianity and traditional African beliefs are dominant and Muslims are a tiny minority.
Ngubane had converted to Islam late in life after observing the faith of his young grandson.
Mas não foi uma controvérsia. Essa distinção tem se tornado cada vez mais importante na África do Sul.
In recent months, anti-Muslim rhetoric has become more visible online, intersecting with a heated national debate about immigration and anti-migrant movements. Posts have accused Muslims of attempting to take over South Africa, questioned their belonging in the country and accused Muslim organisations of using charity and poverty to convert Black South Africans to Islam.
One social media post complained that humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers had been “getting on our nerves with their insistence on pushing their Muslim beliefs in South Africa”.
Outro alegou: “A maioria dos estrangeiros na África do Sul são muçulmanos e, se você observar, a maioria dos países em guerra são países muçulmanos, não cristãos.” Outros acusaram os muçulmanos de “visar comunidades carentes e convertê‑las ao Islã”.
But in the rolling hills and villages of Nquthu, the picture is different.
Para Samukelisiwe Ngubane, seus primeiros encontros com muçulmanos vieram através de lojistas indianos em uma cidade próxima. “We have never had a problem. Some people are curious about what they [Muslims] do, but there have been no problems,” ela disse à Al Jazeera.
Quando seu irmão, Khethukuthula Dlame, converteu-se ao Islam em 2012, ainda adolescente, não era quase um problema. Dlame, agora com 26 anos e um dos poucos muçulmanos conhecidos em sua aldeia, é familiar o bastante para os vizinhos que sua roupa islâmica é motivo de provocações em vez de hostilidade.
One neighbour jokes that he wears a dress.
The contrast raises a question: is South Africa experiencing a rise in Islamophobia, or is social media making a marginal phenomenon appear much larger than it is.
Muslims make up a small minority in South Africa. The country’s 2022 census counted less than one million Muslims, or approximately 1. 6 percent of the population.
South African Muslim leaders give higher estimates, with some putting the country’s Muslim population at between two million and five million people.
Mas a presença do Islã na África do Sul se estende por séculos. Os muçulmanos chegaram ao Cabo por várias rotas, incluindo escravidão e exílio político, vindos de partes da Ásia e do mundo do Oceano Índico sob o domínio colonial holandês a partir do século XVII.
Muslims were already present at the Cape before the arrival in 1694 of Shaykh Yusuf of Macassar, a Muslim scholar and political exile.
Today, the community includes descendants of enslaved Muslims brought to the Cape centuries ago, South Africans of Indian ancestry whose families have lived in the country for generations, Black African Muslims, converts and more recent migrants.
Dlame believes attempts to mobilise people against Muslims are not primarily emerging from rural communities.
A África do Sul tem repetidamente vivido surtos de violência xenofóbica desde o fim do apartheid, com migrantes de outras partes do continente africano frequentemente sofrendo as consequências.
The question is whether some of that anti-migrant rhetoric is also being directed at Muslims.
Thembisa Fakude, a South African political analyst and journalist who is Muslim, told Al Jazeera that fears of widespread Islamophobia are being overstated.
He acknowledges anti-Muslim rhetoric online, but argues that it should not automatically be interpreted as evidence that South African society itself has become Islamophobic.
Fakude também argumenta que as comunidades muçulmanas precisam enfrentar alegações de racismo e práticas trabalhistas exploratórias dentro de suas próprias fileiras, em vez de caracterizar toda crítica como preconceito religioso.
What starts online does not always stay there.
Muslim religious leader Moulana Sulaiman Ravat told Al Jazeera that, while ordinary South Africans are largely not Islamophobic, he is more cautious about what could happen next.
Mas Ravat alerta que a retórica online pode influenciar atitudes ao longo do tempo.
Ravat argues that Muslim identity is sometimes being presented as evidence that a person is somehow less South African. For him, the premise is false.
De volta a Nquthu, Islam não chega por meio de um algoritmo de mídia social. Ele chega por meio de um vizinho, onde a mãe de Dlame cozinha uma refeição halal para este repórter e outros convidados.
Earlier, at a community meeting, Dlame explained that Muslims, too, believe that Jesus was a prophet of God. Ordinary villagers listened attentively and joined in Zulu melodies in praise of God.
For now, the distance between the online conversation and life in communities such as Nquthu remains significant. But Ravat says that does not mean the possibility of deeper hostility should be dismissed.
