South African Muslims are moving targets

So South Africa’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Aziz Pahad, expressed concern about the fact that there might be more South Africans added to the US list of “terror suspects”. Recent developments, he said, could have “fundamental negative effects on individuals who are on the list”. Damn right!

He was responding to a statement by an unnamed US official who said on Monday that the Dockrats might not be the only South Africans to be placed on the list.

Well, of course the South African government should be concerned! No country should stand back while the very persons and dignity of its citizens are violated by a foreign government which doesn’t care to publicly provide any evidence. And to say, as US officials have said about the Dockrats, that there are “thousands of pages of evidence” is not enough! We want to see the evidence; we want to know that it exists; we want to be able to verify that it is true. Otherwise we should oppose any attempt to have our citizens attacked and demonised in this way.

Pahad also, a few days ago, expressed concern that a number of South African Muslims were being harassed, interrogated and even deported when they travel to various destinations around the world. The most famous recent example of this was the case of Professor Adam Habib of the state agency, the Human Sciences Research Council, when he attempted to gain entry to the US – for which he had a valid visa. Not only was he deported from JFK International Airport in New York City, his visa was subsequently revoked. Along with those of his wife and his two young children.

But Habib is not the only one. Over the past few years, a number of South Africans have been deported or otherwise harassed at airports in the US, Europe, United Arab Emirates and some African countries. Farhad Dockrat – who is now on the US list of “terror suspects” – was kidnapped and held incommunicado for about four days when he crossed the Gambian border in November 2005. To budget time for lengthy airport interrogations has become normal for South African Muslims travelling abroad. Students on holiday, clerics, academics, politicians… no one is spared.

Then there are those who are just not granted visas. I have been waiting for a US visa from 2003. In the two-year period starting June 2003, I repeatedly applied for a US visa. Twice it was to speak at United Nations conferences; once to speak at an academic conference; once as keynote speaker at another academic conference; once to take up a prestigious 3-month fellowship at Northwestern University. I was also due to speak at a church in Washington DC and teach classes at Duke University. Officials at the US embassy could not tell me why I was not being given a visa. I was simply told that my “status” on the Homeland Security Computer had been set to “Pending”. I now simply refuse invitations from the US – like one I received last week – on the basis that there is no chance I will get a visa.