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Times of Israel
December 3, 2013
Angola has denied recent claims it “banned” the practice of Islam soon after the country allegedly shut down most mosques and led a campaign against veiled Muslim women, according to human rights activists.
On Monday, the Angolan Embassy in Washington issued a statement refuting the claims. “The Republic of Angola… it’s a country that does not interfere in religion. We have a lot of religions there. It is freedom of religion. We have Catholic, Protestants, Baptists, Muslims and evangelical people,” read the statement.
However, the Guardian reported that, under Angolan law, Islam has yet to receive legal recognition, explaining that in order to qualify, a religious organization needs 100,000 members, whereas Muslim Angolans number 90,000 (out of about 18 million). According to the report, the Angolan justice ministry last month “rejected the applications of 194 organisations, including one from the Islamic community.”
The Islamic Community of Angola claimed that the country’s considerations stem from discrimination and religious intolerance; of the 78 mosques in the country, according to the organization, all have been shut over the past few years, except for those in the capital, and persons who practice Islam risk being found guilty of violating the law.
“From what I have heard, Angola is the first country in the world that has decided to ban Islam,” the Guardian quoted Elias Isaac, the country director of the Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa (Osisa), as saying. “This is a crazy madness. The government is intolerant of any difference.”
The paper further quoted David Já, the president of the ICA, as saying: “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.”
But the reports remain conflicting as to whether indeed the country banned the religion or had shut the mosques due to violations of building permits, as South Africa’s website Daily Maverick suggested.
Earlier in the week, Angola’s minister of culture, Rosa Cruz e Silva, was quoted by Britain’s Daily Mail as conceding that “the legalization of Islam has not been approved by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights,” adding that as a result the mosques would be closed until further notice.
