Munadia Karaan

Die volgende voorlegging is gedoen by die ATKV aangaande Islam & Afrikaans op 27 Februarie 2010

Daar is ‘n allemintige groot debat aan die gang op hoofsaaklik akedemiese vlak aangaande die stand van Afrikaans vandag en die bedreigde voortbestaan van die taal in ‘n nuwe, diverse Suid-Afrika waar Engels oor die afgelope 15 jaar die algemene voertaal geword het vir die meeste Suid-Afrikaners. Maar hoewel Apartheid nou ‘n onding van die verlede is, is daar nog baie mense in ons gemeenskap wat Afrikaans nogsteeds nie kan ontkoppel van sy politieke rol as die “taal van die onderdrukker nie”. 

Wat dit verder makliker maak vir ons gemeenskap - en nou praat ek bloot uit my ervaring met ons VOC luisteraars wat tussen 200,000 en 250,000 in die Wes Kaap beraam word - om Afrikaans vandag steeds op ‘n afstand te hou, is die feit dat die Afrikaanse debat nogsteeds gesien word as ‘n stryd wat baie nou verband hou met die Afrikaner identiteit. En daarom laat die debat die gewone man op die straat, veral in die Moslem gemeenskap, heeltemal koud.

Dis iets wat opnuuts vir my bevestig is tydens verskeie gesprekke wat ek die afgelope week met ons luisteraars en leiers in ons gemeenskap gehad het om peil te trek op presies waar die debat in Moslem geledere lê. Die slotsom is dat daar geen debat in die Moslem gemeenskap oor Afrikaans is nie. Dis nie omdat ons nie omgee vir die taal nie - allermins - maar juis omdat dit steeds deel is van ons daaglike lewe, sien ons geen rede om byna tot Jihad - of ‘n heilige oorlog - oor te gaan om die voortbestaan van die taal te verseker nie.

Om die woorde van Prof Aslam Fataar te gebruik: “Dis nogal nie ‘n vraag wat in die Moslem gemeenskap voorkom nie. Ons praat Afrikaans, dit leef op ons tong en daar sal dit voort bly leef, maar daar is nie ‘n verpolitisering van Afrikaans in die Moslem gemeenskap nie.” En as ek dit platter kan uitdruk in die woorde van een van ons luisteraars: “Dis ons taal en basta met al die ‘debates’!”

Vir die Kaapse Moslem gemeenskap is die taal nog ‘n inherente deel van ons daaglikse lewe. Al lees ons baie minder in Afrikaans, al word ons kinders deesdae hoofsaaklik in Engels geskool, en al praat ons by uitstek eintlik net Engels in die werkplek, ag baie van ons die taal steeds as ‘n moedertaal. En daarom is daar geen rede om jou hande stompies af te baklei om die taal behoue te laat bly nie, want dit bestaan steeds volwaardiglik…maar dit het ‘n ewolusie ondergaan en daarmee het ons vrede gemaak.

En dis daardie ewolusie binne my gemeenskap waaroor ek vandag namens ons luisteraars wil praat. “Omkom van die boom”, om ‘n lekker Kaapse Afrikaanse term te gebruik, vandag se saamtrek is nie vir my ‘n debat oor Afrikaans se voortbestaan nie. Dis ‘n gesprek waar ek as die gewone mens ‘n bydra kan maak uit my ervaring, eerder as ‘n akedemiese bespreking oor die toekoms van Afrikaans - met alle respek aan ons akedemiese kollegas wat vandag teenwoordig is.

Die Afrikaanse ewolusie  

Die verandering wat ons oor die afgelope 15 jaar gesien het onder ons luisteraars ten opsigte van Afrikaans het baie te doen met ‘n nuwe gemaklikheid wat daar in die Moslem gemeente is oor ons plek in dié land. 15 jaar gelede was ons nie seker wat demokrasie sou beteken vir ons eiesoortige kultuur en geloof nie. Ons het verwag dat dit bedreig sou word en verlore sou gaan in die nuwe Suid Afrika.

Vandag weet ons hoeveel ons baatvind by die aanvaarding van diversiteit in die land. Dit het daartoe gely dat Moslems - alhoewel ons net 2% van die land se bevolking is - van die meeste vryhede geniet vergelyke met ander Moslem minderhede in ontwikkelde lande. Waar ander Moslem minderhede, veral in Europa en Amerika, vandag gebuk gaan onder die ergste vorm van Islamafobia, word Suid Afrikaanse Moslems gerespekteer; nie net vir ons uniekheid nie - soos wat elke ander kultuurgroep uniek is in die Reenboog Nasie - maar ons bydrae word erken op die hoogste vlak. En ons in die Moslem media laat nie ‘n oomblik verbygaan om ons luisteraars hiervan bewus te maak nie.

So kan ek byvoorbeeld noem die herriese debat tans in Europe waar van die wereld se grootste demokrasië nou ‘n Moslem vrou se reg om ‘n doek te dra ignoreer en die hijab verbied; waar selfs minarette van moskees verbode is; waar die swanger ma van ‘n jong seuntjie verlede jaar in ‘n Duitse hof voor haar man, kind en hofpersoneel moordadiglik 18 keer met ‘n mes gesteek is as gevolg van ‘n Russiese immigrant se wrewelrige haat teenoor haar as Moslem immigrant in Europa.

In vergelyking daarmee sien ons hoe Moslems in Suid-Afrika ten volle aanvaar word en hoe daar op die hoogste vlak ingrypings gemaak word wat ons unieke behoeftes respekteer. So het ons verlede week by monde van die Minister van Finansies, Pravin Gordhan, gehoor dat hulle nou stappe neem om belasting kortings te skep vir Islamitiese finansies en bankwese waar rente verbode is. Daar word verder hard gewerk om formele erkenning te verleen aan Moslem huwelike onder die voorgenome Wet op Moslem Huwelike…En so kan ek aangaan.

Stappe soos dié laat mense ontspan en as ek die verandering in ons luisteraars moet analiseer, sou ek sê dat dit ‘n groot rol speel het in die nuwe waardering wat daar is ook vir Afrikaans. Die opinie is ‘n paar maande gelede gestaaf toe 64% van ons aanlyn luisteraars in ‘n meningspeiling met my saamgestem het oor die nuwe “gemaklikheid” oor Afrikaans. 16% het ietwet saamgestem, 12% het glad nie saamgestem nie en 8% was onseker. 80% van mense wat in ‘n meerdere of mindere mate sê ons is gemaklik om Afrikaans te eien en op ons eie unieke manier te praat, is nie te versmaai nie.

Dis dinge wat ons vandag as algemeen aanvaar, maar waaroor ons nooit in ons skooldae geleer het nie. Vir ‘n groot deel van ons gemeenskap is dit nog baie duister oor presies hoe ons tot die taal bygedra het. Gesprekke soos dié wat ons vandag voer, lig dus net soveel vir ons gemeenskap die sluier as wat dit vir ander Afrikaanssprekendes inlig oor die rol wat Moslems gespeel het in die ontwikkeling van dié taal.

En hoe meer ons hieroor leer, hoe meer begin ons dit eien as deel van ons erfenis en hoe minder word die skuld gevoelens oor die rol van Afrikaans in die Apartheidstryd. Maar dié bewustheid is nog in ‘n vroëe stadium. Ons het nog ‘n hele entjie om te loop.

Verlede week ter voorbereiding van vandag se saamtrek het ek weereens ‘n meningspeiling op ons webruimte gedoen by www.vocfm.co.za om uit te vind hoeveel belangstelling daar in vandag se gesprek. 74.4% van die respondente was van mening dat dit ‘n kwessie is waarin hulle baie belangstel omdat hulle dit as deel van ons Kaapse Moslem erfenis beskou. 17.9% het nie saamgestem nie en 7.7% het ietwat saamgestem.

Wat egter vir my baie meer insiggewend is is die feit dat die aantal mense wat aan die meningspeiling deelgeneem het, 50% minder was as dié wat gewoonlik aan ons daaglikse kitspeilings deelneem. Dit is ‘n tendens wat ons gereeld optel rondom die Afrikaanse kwessie. Weereens is dit vir my ‘n bevestiging van die feit dat baie van ons luisteraars nogsteeds ontuis voel om die Afrikaanse debat enigsins aan te roer.

Maar daarteenoor het ons die interessante verskynsel dat behalwe vir die internet, saai ons ook op vier verskillende frekwensies uit en drie daarvan is buite die Kaapse metropool. Veral ons luisteraars in die Boland dring daarop aan dat hulle meer Afrikaans wil hoor en druk hulself ook baie beter in Afrikaans uit. Maar bewaar jou siel as jy dit sou durf waag om hulle nét in Afrikaans toe te spreek. Dan neem hulle baie vinnig aanstoot want “wat dink julle dan ons kan nie Engels praat nie?”

Maar die aanvraag vir meer Afrikaans in plattelandse dorpe is ook aan die verminder want plekke soos die Strand, Stellenbosch en Paarl waar mense daagliks inry stad toe om te werk, lei tot verdere “verengelsing”. Dus is daar ‘n groter deel van ons luisteraars wat heel gemaklik is met meer Engels as primere voertaal op die lug.

Maar dan is daar ook die Suid Afrikaners - sowat ‘n derde van ons 35,500 maandlikse besoekers by ons webtuiste - wat oorsee sit en met ‘n seer hart daagliks via die internet by ons inluister…net sodat hulle na ‘n bietjie Afrikaans en nuus van huis af kan luister. Hierdie is baie spesiale behoeftes wat ons nie durf afskeep nie. Daarom het ons die afgelope jaar daadwerklik daaraan begin werk het om meer Afrikaans op die lug te praat nadat 80% van ons luisteraars in meningspeilings oor die afgelope twee jaar daarvoor gevra het.

As ons egter die taal op die lug moet praat, in die geskrewe media of in boekvorm moet neerpen of onself of akedemiese vlak moet uitdruk, dan is die verwagting dat jy die taal “reg” moet praat. Gn niks van ‘n “Cape Flats twist” nie en “is kla warrit soe is!”

En vir ons omroepers is dit ‘n taai tameletjie want as jy “Gam” praat, laat die intelligente mense jou mooi verstaand dat jy eintlik onopgevoed is. Maar suiwer Engels en suiwer Afrikaans is net so onvanpas, want waar jy dit met groot gemak met blanke Afrikaners kan praat, voel jy onmiddellik vals as jy daardie vlak van Afrikaans met jou eie mense praat. Iewers op ‘n kol gaan iemand vir jou sê: “Naai man my broer, what kind dan nou?”

Dus moes ons die goue middeweg vind wat daarop neergekom het dat jy ‘n semi-formele, maar nie akademiese vorm van beide Engels en Afrikans moet praat wat jy aanpas na gelang van die persoon met wie jy praat. As jy met ‘n akedemikus gesels, is jou taal formeel en as jy met ‘n deurstee luisteraar praat moet jy “jawap” (antwoord) in die trant wat daar met jou gepraat word, sonder om platvoers te word.

Boeke 

Nog ‘n verandering wat ek die afgelope week waargeneem het ter voorbereiding van dié gesprek vandag is die feit dat daar al hoe minder boeke of kitabs wat te make het met Islam as godsdiens deesdae in Afrikaans gedruk word. Dit is ‘n totale ommekeer van vroëer jare toe die eerste Afrikaanse boek met Arabiese letters gedruk is; toe ons imams hul “koples” boeke waar gewone mense oor Islam geleer het in ‘n unieke vorm van Afrikaans gedruk was; waar elke khutba in die moskee in hoofsaaklik Afrikaans gedoen was.

Vandag is die gesig van Islam net so divers as ons bevolking. Dit is lank nie meer net Kaapse Maleiers of Indiers wat Moslems is nie. Daar is nou Moslems in die townships, uit die sogenaamde blanke gemeenskap en vanaf Afrika lande. As sulks kan ons moskees, boeke, geskrifte en media nie meer bekostig om net in Afrikaans met Moslems te praat nie. Weereens het Engels die hooftaal geword.

‘n Paar vinnige navrae - en dit is iets wat ‘n dieper studie benodig - het aan die lig gebring dat daar deesdae eintlik net drie Afrikaanse kitabs is wat steeds te kry is by plaaslike boekwinkels wat hoofsaaklik Islamitiese materiaal verkoop. Een daarvan is die Fiqh boek, Al Mufeeda van Sheik Amien Fakier wat steeds baie gewild is onder nuwe Moslems. Maar ‘n groot boekwinkel met wie ek gesels het, het dié week bevestig dat 80% van die mense wat die boek koop, die Engelse weergawe verkies. Selfs Sheik Amien skryf deesdae glad nie meer boeke in Afrikaans nie omdat die aanvraag daarvoor drasties verminder het.

Die tweede boek wat steeds verkoop word is die Afrikaanse vertaling van die Quran. Dit is oorspronklik in die 1960’s vertaal deur Imam Baker en sederdien het verskeie mense dit oorvertaal. Maar nou is daar mense soos Sa’ad Bekker, wat drie jaar gelede Islam aanvaar het, wat tans besig is om die Quran weereens te vertaal in wat hy noem “‘n heerlike, vars 2010 weergawe van Afrikaans” omdat hy as Afrikaner nie aanklank kon vind by die ou Kaapse Afrikaans nie. Hy het dit selfs ‘n stappie verder geneem deur nou ‘n webtuiste - www.koraninafrikaans.com - te skep waar Afrikaans sprekendes tuis sal voel.

‘n Derde Afrikaanse kitab wat die afgelope 20 steeds gewild is ‘n sak-grootte handleiding wat die pelgrim daagliks kan gebruik om sy haj te voltooi wat deur my pa in semi-formele Afrikaans geskryf is. Maar selfs die boekie moes in Engels vertaal word. Omdat ‘n Afrikaanse weergawe van ‘n haj handleiding egter so skaars is, bly die Afrikaanse weergawe meer gewild onder Afrikaans sprekende mense wat die pelgrimsreis onderneem.

Ons weet reeds dat die Kaapse Maleise gemeenskap oor die jare heen Afrikaans as moedertaal praat. Maar anders as in Johannesburg of Durban, het Indiers wat hulle in die Kaap kom vestig het - en hier is die Kokni Indiers in die meerderheid - praat hulle hoofsaaklik Afrikaans tuis. Volgens Shanaaz is die Kokni gemeenskap so tuis in Afrikaans dat haar skoonma byvoorbeel nooit haar oorlede man op sy geboorte naam aangespreek het nie. As sy iets ernstig vir hom wou sê het sy doodeenvoudig die gesprek begin deur te sê: “hoor hiesa!”

Dus, sê sy, wanneer die ouer geslag van Kokni Indiers onderling met mekaar praat, doen hulle dit in Afrikaans. As hulle wil skinder praat hulle Kokni en as hulle met die kinders praat, skakel hulle oor na Engels. Toe bel daar ‘n Indiese luisteraar in Donderdag en hy vat dit ‘n stappe verder deur te sê as hulle terug keer Kokhan toe, dan praat hulle Kokhan met hul mense, maar as hulle wil skinder, dan doen hulle dit daar in Afrikaans want niemand anders kan verstaan nie.

Maar om terug te keer tot die Engels, vind ons dat beide Maleier en Indier ouers deesdae oorskakel na Engels, veral wanneer hul kinders verder gaan studeer het. Daarteenoor kan hierdie einste vooruitstrewende, Engels opgeleide geslag - nie meer die Afrikaanse taal formeel praat nie.

En dan bring dit ons 360 grade terug by my vorige waarneming dat hulle dus die taal informeel onder mekaar sal praat, maar wanneer hulle wil hê dat jy hulle ernstig moet opneem, dan verkies hulle eerder om hulself in Engels uit te druk. Baie van hulle deel dieselfde liefde vir die taal maar voel dat as hulle die taal ‘n oneer doen as hulle dit nie “reg” kan praat nie dan is dit beter om liewer Engels te praat.

Daar is egter wel vooruitgang in die gemaklikheid wat ingetree het oor ons plek in Afrikaans. Dit sê dat ons dit eien as deel van ons herkoms en ons is dankbaar vir gesprekke soos dié wat uiteintlik erkenning daaraan verleen. Maar die mees verblydende faktor is die feit dat mense nou nie meer skaam is om Afrikaans op ons eie unieke vorm te praat nie en om hardop te vra dat meer Afrikaans gepraat moet word nie, sonder die nodigheid om dit ‘n politieke speelbal te maak.

Dit sê vir my dat die taal nog hard en duidelik weerklink as hartstaal in die Kaapse Moslem gemeenskap, maar dit staan vandag sy aan sy met Engels wat die brugbouer geword het vir diverse kulture in ‘n land wat moet plek maak vir 12 amptelike tale. Ek dink terug na ‘n paar jaar gelede toe Suid Afrika aansoek gedoen het om die Olimpiese Spele aan te bied. Ons aanbod het die stof gebyt en dié groot wereld sport geleentheid is deur Athene in Griekeland gewen.

In reaksie op dié nasionale teleurstelling het Zapiro ‘n spotprent geteken met ‘n bedremmelde Kaapse bergie wat oor die Parade loop en mompel het. Sy woorde was “Athense se ma se **??” Dit mag kru wees, maar vir solank as wat die taal ‘n sielkundige impak op jou het, solank as wat ek my tot Afrikaans wend as ek diep geroer word oor is, is Afrikaans heel veilig.

•  Monday 1 March: Community Builder, sport administrator and chairman of the Jive 10km Big Walk organising committee, Dawood Essack (Repeat)
• Tuesday 2 March: Muslims & Afrikaans 2 - the VOC experience and Afrikaans as part of Muslim identity today.
• Wednesday 3 March: Muslims & Afrikaans 3 - Former SARU chief, Ebrahim Patel explains the relationship between Muslims and Afrikaans
• Thursday 4 March: Matrics: trauma of choosing a career - a panel discussion with young students
• Monday 8 March: Muslims & Afrikaans 4 - Dr Micheal le Cordeur looks at the contribution Muslims made
• Tuesday 9 March: Meet Community Builder and former activist, Aunty Bibi Dawood (82), a Rivonia treason trailist on her remarkable story.
• Wednesday 10 March: Meet Community Builder - Farouk Abrahams
• Thursday 11 March: Motivational Speakers & Therapists: are we getting sucked in by pop psychology?

It has been three years since VOC was awarded the 90.7 and 90.9fm frequencies in the Two Oceans area which extends from Houtbay to Mitchells Plain and Gordon’s Bay. It was at the same time that we also began broadcasting via the internet on audio-stream. Added to that is the fact that we have been broadcasting on 100.4 in the Cape Metropole and 95.8fm in the Boland for the last 15 years.

Yet for some reason, most of our listeners still don’t know that we do, in fact, have a 24 hour operation, seven days a week. More disturbingly, they have no clue what the intricacies of such an operation is. In essence, it calls for the management of four frequencies and the internet - during a recession - with the income generated mainly from your main frequency. But this blog is not about money. It is more about perceptions and meeting listener demand.

Brand

The first perception I have to deal with is the so-called “off days”. Folks, there is no such thing! For those who don’t know, VOC shares the 100.4fm frequency which broadcasts to the Cape metropolitan area every alternate day with Radio 786. If you are a regular VOC listener, you are used to this situation which has persisted for the last 15 years.

But we pick up new listeners every day and there are many more casual listeners who pop in occasionally. Imagine how confusing it becomes for them when they tuned into a program on a specific day and time and want to follow the series. However, when they return the next week at the same time, there is not only another program, but a completely different radio station!

The one thing that makes people come back is quality and that, in turn, is strongly linked to brand. What’s the point if you’ve done the hard work to get the listener interested, only to lose him/her again to another brand on that same dial? Besides that, have you ever considered how to do a jingle that has four different frequencies and a website address on it? I’ll be on pension by the time you get through all of it! So I’m very keen to see if any other radio station has had this challenge.

Revenue

The second perception relates to revenue. Advertisers have a tough time understanding how this sharing of frequencies work - more so during a recession when every penny is faithfully counted. Although the non 100.4fm audience has never been surveyed professionally, it is geographically much bigger, but we estimate that it has about 50% of the listenership.

That means a lot to an advertiser who sees no reason why he should advertise on the rural frequencies when he can get wider coverage on the “100.4fm day”. Add to that the fact that the two radio stations who share 100.4fm have different advertising rates, and you find that advertisers will go for the cheaper option all the time, without considering that the operations are completely different, as is the coverage and editorial approach.

Managing a 24 hour operation on four different frequencies along with a website is vastly different to managing a station where you operate only for 15 days of the month. Before anyone goes biting off my head, this is no slur against Radio 786 or any other radio station. It simply is our reality and does not in any way mean they do not have the right to exist.

Participation

Now let’s deal with the thorny issue of listener participation. The latest survey released by the South African Advertising Research Forum (Saarf) indicates that between February 2009 and February 2010, our listenership over the seven day period on all four frequencies have ranged between 145,000 and 220,000. The same statistic is quoted for Radio 786, even though it includes 90.7, 90.9 and 95.8fm.

However, the non 100.4fm frequencies are not surveyed separately on a non-100.4fm day. (Are you confused yet?)  We estimate that we have at the very least an audience of between 100,000 - 150,000 on the non-100.4fm frequencies. This includes an average of 35,000 online visitors on our website every month, a third of whom audio-stream daily. So the non-100.4fm audience is not to be scoffed it, if you consider that there are some commercial stations who don’t even have 100,000 listeners.

But the non-100.fm audience is very different in that they are far less vocal. One of our Boland presenters has - out of sheer frustration - made a point of saying on air that the only way he will be able to raise a riot and get people to phone in from the Boland is if he was to report that the imam was drunk on the mimbar. We know that our Boland listeners don’t miss a trick, but they prefer to remain silent listeners.

The Two Oceans listeners are still largely strange to VOC and we don’t hear much from them. More regional visits to create brand awareness is one way to change that. Winning a coveted award as Best Refreshment Station of the Year for 2009 at the prestigious Two Oceans Marathon on Monday evening was certainly a step in the right direction.

But a large chunk of the Pelican Park, Mitchells Plain, even Athlone areas as far as the Strand and Gordon’s Bay pick up the 90.7 and 90.9fm frequencies as well. However, they either don’t know it or need stronger transmitters to pick it up. For example, I pick up 90.9fm every day in the Strand, but only in my car, not at home.

So how do you create brand awareness on a frequency many cannot logistically pick up? There are staunch VOC listeners who call on a weekly basis to find out if we have found a solution to this matter yet. Sadly, we have not.  The audio-streaming option also only works for those who have internet access and at present that applies to a minority of our listeners.

As for the onliners, God bless them, they are vocal, regardless of which frequency you are on. Tools like the Shoutbox and SMS line has made it possible for them to participate in shows. Open Lines does very well in this regard, alhamdulilah, but then the question is, how do you do call in shows on non-100.4fm days? Very creatively! You find ways around it, by setting up content that does not rely on listeners to call in, but include them when it comes through - be it in the form of calls, smses or in the Shoutbox.

Playback

However, the price you pay is that guests don’t really like that. Radio is about the listeners and if the listeners don’t call in, nine times out of 10, guests will choose not to come on air on a non-100.4fm day. Alternatively, you have to find ways to play that program back so that you 100.4fm audience is included.

And this is another tricky point. Half of your listenership hear you every day and the last thing they want is to listen to a repeat. So how do you play back a good program - which you have to slog on twice as hard for a non-100.4fm day - on 100.4fm? If I had a rand for every time that was asked by a producer or presenter, I would be a millionaire and so would my hairdresser who has to cover up all the grey hair it gives me.

So here’s the deal. This year, VOC’s station management has taken a very strong stance on the frequency issue. The situation - although not of our making - is what it is. We have to deal with it until Icasa can be compelled in some way to find an alternate solution - from our lips to God’s ears! But that is a whole different issue.

Making a difference

In a fast developing media world, we are seeing that people no longer tune in to only one radio station all day. Those who are really interested in media will play hopscotch on their radio dial, switching from one radio station to another. I am one of them. You only stay at a radio station if it offers you something different.

The number of VOC listeners who kept their dial unchanged on 100.4fm are part of our older listenership, but they too will fade with time and those who take over from them don’t show the same commitment. You have to compete with everyone else to win their attention and you only succeed when you offer them something no one else has.

The clearest sign of this is Ramadan when our audience goes through the roof, only to normalise after that. This creates a major challenge to find the content that will keep them coming back, especially the younger generations. Alhamdulilah, we have found that some of our programs have made this transition very successfully like Q & A, Open Lines, Being a Real Man among others. In these cases, you can clearly see how people - both online and on air - tune in specifically for a certain program and then disappear again afterwards.

On the operational side, our instruction to our staff is clear - we will give our best shot in every show that we do, regardless of the frequency, because we owe it to our listeners. You see this kind of equality in our news and actuality shows every day. But we also need our listeners - who grow ever more demanding every day - to open their eyes and start seeing what we have to deal with for their sake.

There are so many instances when on a non-100.4fm day our teams do terrific, news-breaking work without the same recognition. The only way to keep you chin up is to have fortitude and to continue believing that it is a training ground. Allah SWT will not let us get to that unshared, stronger frequency with a more powerful signal distribution until we are good and ready. Until then we need to continue improving and keep up the good fight. Change will come, insha Allah.

On Air

Meanwhile, this week, you can stay tuned for the following content on Open Lines:

• Monday 15 Feb: Spousal Abuse (repeat)
• Tuesday 16 Feb: Community Builder - physiotherapist turned restauranteur Hafiza Essack
• Wednesday 17 Feb: How does a woman’s aurat relate to radio vs internet? This after a fatwa in the UAE banned Facebook and an onliner in the Shoutbox indicated that female shoutboxers are sharing this virtual space without a mahram.
• Thursday 18 Feb: Community Builder - activist Farahnees Hassiem
• Monday 22 Feb: Funding for heritage projects from the National Heritage Council (repeat)
• Tuesday 23 Feb: Tax Breaks for Islamic Finance
• Wednesday 24 Feb: In Part 7 of our Community Builder series, we meet community activist and sports administrator, Dawood Essack
• Thursday 25 Feb: Islam & Afrikaans in focus at ATKV seminar

What a ride! The last two weeks has generated incredible debate and in at least four stories that I worked on this week alone culture for some reason was the dominant issue to a more or lesser degree. In a way, it’s a good thing because while - 20 years after Nelson Mandela walked free from prison and 15 years after democracy - we have all adopted our Rainbow Nation, these debates have highlighted the fact that we all still have problems understanding what true multi-culturalism means.

The biggest question is does accepting someone else’s culture mean that I have to give up on my own culture? And if I should choose to celebrate what makes my culture unique and I do so among my people, am I being exclusivist or racist? I don’t believe so, but it is obvious that we need much more discussion around this point.

Super 8

That is why the biggest storm on the cultural front in the last two weeks undoubtedly was the Jive Super 8 inter-village cricket tournament which ended last weekend. Dr Rafiq Khan seriously rattled some cages when he raised the issue of inherent racism in the Indian community. His claims are not without merit. As someone who grew up with an Indian mother and Malay father, I was only too aware of the mutual suspicion about each other from the two sides of my family.

The one accused the other of being exclusivist, only looking after their own, being snobbish…whatever. To this day I get a really nasty bug up my you-know-what if someone asks me “yes, but what jaat are you?” And the usual response would be “what does that have to do with anything?”

As one gentleman explained to me, “the exclusivity comes in when I opt to give someone preference because we come from the same gow. Being proud of your culture is one thing, but we will only stop being racist when we are able to give everyone a fair chance regardless of which family, village, race or culture they come from.”

At the same time, the bond that allows us to take care of our own first is natural in every community. Die Broederbond did it for the Afrikaners, Stellenbosch University does it for all those who regard it as their alma mater, the kids do it in their netball or rugby team…bonding inspires loyalty and that helps these groups to survive. So why the big deal?

I had real difficulty with understanding why people got so hot under the collar about the Super 8 tournament - an event which had the very noble motive to bring families together and offer the youth an alternative. In as much as I support their right to do so, I must agree with Prof Suleman Dangor that the organisers will continue to court controversy if they stick to ethnicity.

Why not keep the tournament’s link to the villages - if that is their preference - but open it up like the Indian Premier League by taking on players from every part of the world based on ability (and money). Why can Muhammad from Bonteheuwel or Sipho from Khayelitsha who are excellent cricketers not be drafted to play for the Latvan Lions? The ethnicity lies in the roots of the event and its names, not the players themselves.

While I applaud the organisers for coming up with an initiative that will offer an alternative to the youth, it’s also a fact that there is a dire need for more events like these. That is why people have been jumping onto this issue and the insistence that it expands its original horizon. The alternative is of course that others can follow suit and host similar tournaments of their own. But we know how much easier it is for peopel to jump on a bandwagon rather than start their own band.

Why can the Surtis, Khanamyas and everyone else not have their own tournaments that can all culminate in one big final for everyone? I would personally lead the cheering section for the “halfnaatjies” (pardon the expression), those of us who are a bit of everything! On a more serious note, what I do think we should quit doing is to shout down a good initiative without offering an alternative.  That is just being contrary or “dwars van die regering en wes van die maan”, as my Malay auntie would say.

Zuma

Now on to our infamous President Jacob Zuma, his 20 kids and the seven women who gave birth to them. Look, I know what my faith says about promiscuity and I hold firm views on it, but I also don’t believe one should judge others by your standards. I had to think twice about covering this story this week because it smacked too much of sensational tabloid reporting - something I can’t abide.

But there was an angle that had impact beyond the HIV/Aids issue. The first was Mr Zuma’s argument that he was living out his Zulu culture and second was his right as an African man to polygyny. On the first point, it was very interesting for me to hear more than one expert on the Zulu or Nguni culture say that while their culture allowed a man to take more than one wife, it was no excuse for having affairs with an indiscriminate number of women.

In fact, according to former VOC reporter, Phiri Cawe, their culture dictates that a man can only have two wives and then too he must be able to afford them. He goes further to explain that in his culture sadly, the voice of the community has been dampened. Previously if there was a domestic problem, the community would call a meeting to set the perpetrator straight. This no longer happens and therefore Zuma is able to hide his promiscuity behind his culture.

The second point was the fact that his marriage last month to his third wife - excluding the wife who died and the one whom he is divorced from - also cast the spotlight on polygyny as a practice. Suddenly people who don’t understand how it works were asking questions and trying to draw parallels between the practice in Islam vs the practice in terms of African Traditional Religions.

From this we are reminded by the ulema that one reason why polygyny was allowed in Islam was specifically to prevent promiscuity - when you give in to your selfish desires, have illicit affairs resulting in illegitimate children. In fact, we have done numerous programs that explained how illegitimacy pans out - like the ripples caused by a stone tossed into a pond - and leads to deepening corruption in society. It is a corruption that perpetuates itself from the one generation to the other.

So there are strict guidelines for how polygyny should be done - including the fact that a man is restricted from taking more than four wives at the same time, that he is compelled to ensure the haq (just due) of each wife, must maintain each wife and child etc. In as much as this is something worth knowing in the non-Muslim community, it is a point that often escapes even Muslim men who ardently fight for their right to take more than one wife, only to forget the responsibilities that come with it.

Schools transformation

Then there was the disturbing story this week that revealed that all our schools have yet to transform effectively so that it provides a welcoming environment for children of all cultures. Because they are better equipped, well funded and ably resourced, the former “white” schools came in for a lot of stick. Under the banner of a new South Africa, they have been able to stick a liberal label on them by allowing others in while building on the excellent educational programs and infrastructure that they had set up over generations.

But research shows that their school culture has hardly changed. In fact, it is left to an increasing number of learners from well outside their traditional community to show creativity and flexibility to adapt to their new environment, often putting their own culture in peril. What further irks these parents is that they pay exorbitant amounts of money to send their kids there, only to be confronted with racial bullying in various degrees, isolation and being ostracized if you don’t take on a “ja baas” mentality, they tell me.

But before we go pointing too many fingers to the former Model C schools, let’s not forget to look at our own schools where white, black, pink and blue are now also taking up seats. And it does not seem that we are any more ready than the “white” schools on transformation. Times they are a changing, as Bob Dillan said, but how long will it take for these schools to adapt in order to allow other cultures in?

Perhaps some NGO’s have the right idea in thinking that we need a public debate in the form of seminars or workshops on culture within a diverse society in all its dimensions. It is only too apparant that we all have a lot to learn in this regard.

On Air

I will be starting a new series on the non 100.4fm days entitled Community Builders which will profile individuals in our community who are doing innovative things to develop our community. This week I will speak to two of them. 100.4fm listeners will have to wait a bit longer for this series to play back.

I’ve already profiled the first two in January - Afrikaner revert, Sa’ad Bekker who was a huge hit with listeners, and Aunty Bibi Khan of Women United in Islam, a phenomenal lady of unquenchable spirit. This has yet to play back on 100.4fm. (Remind me to do my next blog on the intricacies of programming on four different frequencies, the battle over repeats and listener participation!)

Meanwhile, as we head into the new week, here is what you can stay tuned for on Open Lines:

• Monday 8 Feb: Community Builder: Kader Miller
• Tuesday 9 Feb: Zuma, Culture and Polygyny (repeat)
• Wednesday 10 Feb: Community Builder: Igsaan Higgins
• Thursday 11 Feb: Q & A on Family Responsibilities Part 3

Watching the two-step being danced around the issue of an alleged terror threat on the 2010 Soccer World Cup has been absorbing, if not downright dangerous. If you got caught on the wrong side of the debate, you would get shot out of the water on a matter that we all know that Muslims are very sensitive about. Given the rise of Islamaphobia in many parts of the world -  thankfully not South Africa - such vehement reactions is justifiable.

I know I’m once again heading into dangerous territory, but it has to be said. When we stand up - as well we should - to defend Muslims against claims of being involved in terror, let us not be dishonest about the facts. If, in an effort to clear our name, we dismiss the likelihood of any terror being committed by Muslims at all, then we are being untruthful.

If however, we were to acknowledge that extremism is present in Muslim society - as it is in every other society; that the majority of Muslims do not condone it; and as such will not involve itself in terror, we are being more honest. By the same token, that would mean that when people like Hoosain Solomon and the South African Institute for Race Relations start raising the alarm that there is a possibility that extremists could target the World Cup, we cannot throw the baby out with the bath water without considering the facts.

I think Frans Cronje, deputy CEO of the SAIIR, was the fairest in his assessment when he said that terror may indeed pose a threat to the World Cup, but this does not mean that SA Muslims were complicit in such threats. In fact, he pointed out, that because of the secretive nature of such operations, foreign operatives may very well be living amongst us and we will never know about them, because they will hardly come out in the Friday jumuah to tell us what their intentions are.

Western targets

I don’t like the sound of this any more than you do, but what research over the last few years has shown is that extremists like attacking Western targets. The more prominent, the better; hence the Twin Towers in New York on 9/11. Cronje believes that the World Cup threat revolves around the possibility that an Al Qaeda aligned movement may use the tournament as a platform upon which to launch a massive strike against a Western target in South Africa. It has nothing at all to do with the SA government and even less with SA Muslims.

According to Cronje, there is much evidence that the difficulty in attacking Westerners in Western countries has seen Al Qaeda adopt the strategy of rather attacking Westerners in ‘third party’ countries. Other than the bombings of the London underground in 2005, and train bombings in Spain in 2004, most terror attacks of the past decade have been conducted on Western targets outside of Western Europe and the United States. Perusing the news headlines, we see that this includes:

• The 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings that killed over 200 people.
• Bombings in Morocco in 2003 that were targeted at Westerners and Jews and killed over 40 people.
• Suicide bomb attacks on a Western compound in Saudi Arabia in 2003 that killed over 30 people.
• Bomb attacks on western occupied hotels in Jordan in 2005 that killed over 50 people.
• Truck bomb attacks on the British Consulate and HSBC bank in Turkey in 2003 that killed over 60 people.

SA borders

What is more reason for concern is the fact that South Africa’s borders are not the tightest in the world and given all the problems and corruption at Home Affairs, it is not too difficult to sneak in under false pretences, he points out. This is something that we have all complained about, reported on or read about. Add to that the fact that our intelligence community has been drawn into so many petty political bickering that they have given foreign intelligence agencies free reign to operate in South Africa. Again, this is something we are very aware of. So Cronje’s concern is not without merit.

However, on the positive side, he points out that South Africa has very successfully hosted major sporting events. While the terror risk facing South Africa’s World Cup does not originate from small and isolated rebel and political groups, South Africa’s security forces have proven themselves to be very adept at securing these major events from petty crimes or other amateur security threats, he said.

While following up on the extremism threat a few months ago, VOC was informed that members of the Somali militant group, Al Shabab, had migrated to South Africa and were living what looked like normal lives here. However, this was not something that the Somali community was eager to expose and our reporter was literally threatened with his life if he highlighted this. But this claim was backed up last month when the intelligence unit of the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) released a list of Al-Shabab’s top foreign fighters and funders. It included two names of people who had spent some time in South Africa.

Intelligence

Intelligence sources claim Ahmed Abdi Godane, the alleged al-Qaeda graduate from Afghanistan, together with Sheikh Mohammed Ibrahim Bilal, chairperson of Amal Islam, is reported to have briefly stayed in South Africa. Sheikh Mohammed Ibrahim Bilal, is reported to have fled from Somalia to Cape Town in 2007 after Ethiopian troops invaded the country, but later returned after the Ethiopians left.

Then in late December, a Somali news site reported that at least two officials are under investigation for passing on “sensitive information” to the South African Secret Service (SASS) and the United States Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA). The report claims that the African Union is probing the activities of an intelligence analyst from an East African country and a Somali-Tanzanian who works for the United Nations Support Office for Amisom (UNSOA) in Nairobi.

Confidential e-mail communications and pictures of the DIA and SASS handlers had been shown to the news site. Mo Shaik, head of the South African Secret Service told the Sunday Times: “All I can say is that we will neither confirm nor deny any of these allegations.”

Six months ago, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton warned that Somali extremists were on a recruitment drive in South Africa. After meeting South African foreign minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, Clinton said: “Right now we are focused on supporting the transition of federal government in Somalia against the threat of radical, violent extremists al-Shabab and their allies. The minister and I are well aware that al-Shabab is recruiting young Somalis from South Africa, Australia and the United States to become suicide bombers, to participate in their efforts to turn Somalia into a safe haven for terrorism, which the United States believes would not just threaten the Horn of Africa, but all of Africa and beyond.”

SA Muslims

According to Cronje, threat detection and mitigation cannot be left to foreign agencies. In part their interest in the country may arise from the concept of an African ‘terror belt’ that extends southwards from Yemen across the Gulf of Aden to Somalia and then down the east coast of Africa through Kenya and Tanzania before ending up in Cape Town. The strong Islamic influence that runs through this coastal belt probably provides ample opportunity for the concealment of terror cells.

However, Cronje hasted to add that this does not suggest that Muslim communities in Cape Town or elsewhere in Africa “are actively complicit in such terrorist activities. Rather that terror cells are by their nature secretive and operate as clandestine minorities of the communities they penetrate.” 

And this is the part that is optimistic and I am not the only one to pick up on it. 28.2% of those we polled online last week thought the SAIRR’s assessment was quite fair given the fact that SA has been able to handle big events successfully. While it was not impossible that such terror cells existed in SA as Al Qaeda off shoots, the fact that that the institute did not think local Muslims had anything to do with it, scored the most points.

However, 50.7% did not think this was a fair assessment, 16.9% was unsure and 4.2% thought it might be somewhat fair. And those are the ones we have to convince to be more on the alert and not to fall prey to blind loyalty.

Muslim victims

And while we chew on that, consider an article filed on Islam-Online this month stating that Muslims living in Muslim countries make up the majority of victims from Al Qaeda attacks. That is according to a study by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, an academic institution at the US Military Academy. The researchers studied Al-Qaeda-claimed attacks from 2004 to 2008 and found that some 85 percent of the 3,010 fatalities were Muslims.

“The figures….show that the Muslims they claim to protect are much more likely to be the targets of Al- Qaeda violence than the Western powers they claim to fight.” The study found that victims came largely from Muslim countries, mainly Iraq, Algeria and Pakistan. “Only 15 percent of the fatalities resulting from Al-Qaeda attacks between 2004 and 2008 were Westerners.” The percentage of Muslim victims skyrocketed during the last two years of the study to 98 percent, and only 2 percent were from the West.

“During this period, a person of non-Western origin was 54 times more likely to die in an Al-Qaeda attack than an individual from the West.” Analysts have often remarked that Muslims are “the real victims” of terrorism, but never before has that assertion been supported by hard data. The findings of the American researchers refute claims made in 2007 by Al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, Ayman al Zawahiri.

In response to questions posted on an online forum, Zawahiri claimed Al-Qaeda has not killed innocent Muslims and downplayed any “incidental” Muslim fatalities. The study asserted that Al-Qaeda is losing sympathy in the broad Muslim world over discomfort about the association of Islam with violence and the indiscriminate civilian killings. It noted that many scholars, even those considered by some as conservative, are increasingly questioning the use of violence and the targeting of innocents.

Stay alert

There are those who say I have been harping on this issue and that VOC “is indoctrinated by the US”. If it makes you happy to think so, be my guest. But my conscience will not allow me to think that all Muslims are innocent. I agree with the Media Review Network that we have to defend the Muslim name against anything and everything that stands to besmirch it. But I don’t believe we should dismiss those who raise the issue as anti-Muslim hate mongerers.

I cannot close my eyes to the fact that Muslim extremism is a reality and we have to acknowledge it if we are to be on the alert when it dares to raise its head in our midst. By all means, we have to defend our good name, but that does not mean covering up when there are Muslims that act contrary to the “middle path” that Islam advocates and take lives as if it was nothing.

We have to remain on the alert and maintain our loyalty to the purity of this deen; not to those who profess to act in the interest of the deen, but employ un-Islamic methods. So let us not stand ready to crucify those who point out where trouble may lie, but take the time to verify if there truly is reason for their concern. And if there is, let’s ensure that everyone knows the majority of Muslims do not concur with such sentiments. This is the time to keep our eyes and ears open. Wakker slaap!

On Air

Coming up in Open Lines this week at 12pm:

• Monday 25 January: Matric 2009 - we take the live results of schools from underprivileged areas which were excluded from the matric result announcement at Leeuwenhof two weeks ago.
• Tuesday 26 January: SA and the infiltration of terror - should we worry after the arrest of Muhamad Alli Harrath of Islam Channel on Sunday at OR Tambo?
• Wednesday 27 January: What research surveys reveal about social networking
• Thursday 28 January: Focus Q & A: Family responsibilities with regard to unattached females
• Monday 1 February: Meet activist Soraya Bibi Khan (Repeat)

News rooms are expected to be the guardians of truth and objectivity, allowing equal access and fair coverage. But true objectivity in a newsroom is a myth and agenda-setting is entrenched in every media house. However, it becomes a serious issue of concern when allegations are made of journalists being paid to write favourable articles about a particular individual or organisation. While such allegations are serious offences, “bought influence” is far more common than direct bribes to journalists or news editors. This is something that affects all media, from community and Muslim media to mainstream.

On Monday I took a closer look at the issue of corruption in newsrooms on Open Lines after Western Cape Premier, Helen Zille, last week reiterated to Breakfast Beat her concern that journalists at the Cape Argus were paid by former Premier Ebrahim Rasool to write favourable articles about him. Although these allegations go back to 2005 and surfaced when former ANC MPL Max Ozinsky - in the Mcebisi Skwatcha camp - made the allegation against Rasool who was in a different ANC camp - a smoking gun has yet to be found. Let’s also not forget that this story surfaced amid the ANC’s very ugly and very public split in the Western Cape. Since then both Ozinsky and Rasool have been suspended by the ANC.

Now however, there is a tape that may shed light on the alleged news corruption matter, but it is in the possession of former Premier Lynne Brown who has refused to make it available either to the Cape Argus or Zille. Neither has the ANC or Ozinsky ever come forward with proof of the latter’s claim, despite numerous appeals, challenges and editorials, says Cape Argus executive editor, Gasant Abarder.

This issue poses serious questions about how newsrooms are run, and more particularly, if journalists or editors can be bought or influenced in some fashion. Four news managers I spoke to agree that the claims were disturbing, but also admitted that it was not completely without merit. So it seems from former news editor at the Star and Business Report, Al Ameen Templeton, Gasant Abarder of the Cape Argus, Yusuf Abramjee of Primedia and VOC’s Shanaaz Ebrahim that all newsrooms are vulnerable to corruption in some form.

In fact, Abramjee said, there can never be enough safeguards in place to keep a newsroom free of such bought influence or of journalists getting too close to a source to such an extent that they could “finesse” a story that may be negative to that source. Despite a code of conduct and journalistic ethics, there was still room for more checks and balances to be implemented in newsrooms.  

Arms deal

Said Templeton: “I know of a few instances where it would appear that journalists were bought. There have been times when people have approached me in a morally compromised situation. Probably the most high profile case is that of (former Sunday Times journalist) Ranjeni Moonsamy who was suddenly driving around in a BMW roadster,” Templeton said.

Moonsamy and former City Press editor Vusi Mona fell from grace seven years ago after they were exposed for publishing a baseless story accusing the then prosecutions boss Bulelani Ngcuka of being an apartheid spy. Moonsamy passed on the spy story to Mona after the then Sunday Times editor Mathatha Tsedu had rejected it. During the Hefer Commission, established by former president Thabo Mbeki to investigate the allegations, Mona was also exposed as having acted unethically by publishing the contents of an off-the-record briefing of senior black journalists by Ngcuka.

While the saga impacted negatively on the pair’s journalistic profile, the Sowetan reported last year that politically it enhanced their profiles because the allegations against Ngcuka were linked to his investigations into allegations of corruption against the then deputy president Jacob Zuma. As individuals acting against Ngcuka, the two were seen as allies by the Zuma camp. Moonsamy is now working in the office of one of Zuma’s key supporters, Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande, as a media specialist. Mona is now acting deputy director of communications in the Presidency.

Templeton said real questions had to be asked on why the media swarmed to cover the claims of R2m of fraud related to Jacob Zuma, which amounted to small fry within the bigger picture surrounding the arms deal. “R13m of fraud was being investigated by the Office of Serious Offences in Britain, but no mention was ever made of that in South Africa. Zuma was investigated over R2m, but the Jacob Zuma Family Trust paid back R40m worth of Commonwealth shares in an out of court deal with the Scorpions, as did the two former chief executive officers of Armscor. That is R120m worth of bribes that was handed back because of pressure bought by the Scorpions, but no focus was put on those stories.”

Shooting the Messenger

So there is no denying that newsrooms can be infiltrated. But one reason I was so interested in this story is because so often people make assumptions about how we cover news at VOC and unfairly attach an ideological motive to it without knowing the first thing about how things work on the ground. Why bother to do that when it is so much easier to shoot the messenger when that media reports on something or presents a view you personally disagree with?

With the introduction of new social media tools on our website, people have much more freedom to post comments. On numerous occasions over recent months some onliners have literally attacked and ripped to shreds VOC, myself or our journalists without having the gumption to identify themselves. We have been accused of everything - from censoring stories, being too close to some sources, silencing others, to being indoctrinated by US policies. The next thing you know, we probably had something to do with killing your cat too.

Par for the course, right? Maybe that is the consequence of being a successful, competitive media. You don’t do that without being noticed and as the Afrikaner says “die hoogste bome vang die meeste wind”. But people often don’t know that we have hardly the same resources as other media. So let me put you in the picture. At present, we have six qualified journalists at VOC. Two are presenters, while the remaining four are responsible for both online and on air news and actuality coverage. Out of these four, two are also in management - which has its own responsibilities.

At the same time, there are 12 daily news bulletins that must be compiled, an average of six hours of actuality programs that has to be managed and at least eight fresh VOC stories that must be written for the website on a daily basis. You survive by building networks with people in order to cover key areas of interest for your listenership like religious, haj or halaal matters for instance.

Networking

You cannot get stories from people if they refuse to speak to you. And you can forget about getting answers from those in authority if you rub them up the wrong way. So of necessity you must have a healthy working relationship with bodies like the Muslim Judicial Council and the South African Haj and Umrah Council. But that does not mean that we are unable to criticize them when they get things wrong. At the same time, you cannot be so critical that you throw the baby out with the bath water. It’s a delicate balancing act and people don’t always want to know that.

On numerous occasions people have been so furious with Sahuc, for instance, that they are open to nothing else. Now how does it help the haji who is packing his bag to leave for haj within days when we shut the door for that same regulator - legitimate or not - to share any pertinent information? Does that mean we are biased? I don’t believe so. I believe that there is a time for ideological debate and differences and then there are times when you need straightforward information. When you mix the two up, you only confuse those who have the biggest need for the information.

Secondly, you ease the load and increasing demand to cover issues that other media don’t necessarily look at by broadcasting selected programs done by other partners like Voice of America or Democracy Now or carrying articles under open copyright laws on areas you are unable to cover - in the main international matters. And here we are grateful that we are allowed to use aritcles from Arab News, IslamOnline, Al Jazeera and Counterpunch. It is never the ideal to use the work of others, but the alternative is not to cover something at all that our listeners are interested in.

Being 1st where it matters

One of the good things of being in business since 1995 is that we now have a very good idea of what our niche area is and we are able to focus on it quite extensively in our news coverage and programming. Therefore we can proudly say when South African activists took part on 31 December in an illegal protest in Cairo in lieu of the planned Gaza Freedom March and led the way in drafting the Cairo Declaration for Gaza, we were one of the only South African media who covered it live.

Most mainstream media only picked up on the story four days later since most of the world was too busy with New Year celebrations. I would much rather that VOC is the first to cover stories that impact most on our listenership - and uses the material of other partners to cover the areas we can’t reach - then try to do everything for everyone. Because when you lead in your niche area, others come to you. That is a much better trade off.

So I would agree with the panel of news managers when they said that no newsroom is immune to being influenced from outside. The best way to deal with it is by monitoring it on a daily basis and constantly remaining in conversation with our news staff to keep us honest about why we cover stories as we do and the agendas behind it. And I can promise you that this is done with all due diligence.

We may not always get it right, but we always have our Code of Conduct, journalistic ethics and our Islamic conscience to keep us on the straight and narrow. So bring on the criticism by all means, but please, make an attempt to be fair the next time you decide to have a go at us.

On Air

Meanwhile, you can stay tuned in the next week for the following content on Open Lines at 12pm:

• Tuesday 12 January: The da’wah efforsts of revert Sa’ad Bekker (repeat)
• Wednesday 13 January: When in-laws become outlaws
• Thursday 14 January: Retracing the history of the Tana Baru
• Monday 18 January: Bought influence in newsrooms (repeat)

The following is part of a talk delivered at the Habibiya Soofie Masjid’s Muharram Festival on Saturday 26 December 2009.

I have been asked to look at challenges facing women in a secular society and I must admit that it is a little hard to tell the complete story for two reasons. Firstly, in order to make a comparison, you need to know what it is like to live in a totally Muslim society. Having been able to travel to such countries and spending brief periods there, does not really give one an adequate understanding of what it is like to live in such an environment. Thus, I can only really speak from the perspective of one who has grown up in a secular society.

Secondly, Muslims in South Africa find ourselves in a unique position that is far, far better than those in other countries, including in some so-called Muslim countries where tradition has held back many women, comparatively speaking. On the other side, Muslim minorities especially those living in Europe, face other challenges. We have seen this year that Islamaphobia has reached new heights on issues like the banning of the hijab which spread all over Europe this year.

The worse incident of Islamaphobia was when a pregnant Egyptian mother was literally slaughtered this year in a German court because she was a Muslim. But despite the furore raised by the Marwa al Sherbini murder and the latest minaret ban in Switzerland, early indications are that Islamaphobia will get worse next year, given the increase in the ranks of the far right ultra conservatives.

Integration

This is one reason why former premier Ebrahim Rasool earlier this year formally launched his World for All Foundation, which is intent upon promoting the example set by SA Muslims on integration to the rest of the world. I believe that we are now beginning to reach a stage in our evolution where the acceptance of diversity in our Rainbow Nation has allowed us to integrate so well into this country that we no longer have to defend our unique heritage, culture, religion or traditions.

We are now on a level playing field and in instances that we feel we are not getting a fair hearing, we need only raise our voices for the country to take note. This is a huge blessing, alhamdulillah, compared to the years before. 30 years ago when I went to high school I found myself persecuted because I wore a scarf.

Even though we had freedom of religion in this country, educators did not consider it a problem to publicly embarrass you in front of the entire school by demanding that you remove your scarf. Things have progressed so much today that when earlier in the year three workers at Mr Price complained that they were asked to remove their scarves, immediate steps could be taken by our community.

But here is the best part - it was no longer necessary to call a march or a protest demonstration to raise our dismay. The alarm was raised in the media; Muslim leadership engaged with the company in a civil fashion and an agreement was reached to amend their dress code. This to me is progress, because it says that we are now at the stage where we are able to use a more intellectual approach to resolve our differences.

But the same constitution that allows you and I the right to wear our scarves, also allows my sister the right to choose not to wear her scarf. The way we handle our internal debates like Muslim Personal Law, halaal or haj matters, or even the debate on music, remains a challenge. We still find it too easy to demonise and insult those with whom we differ. But that is a different story and a challenge all of us face as Muslims, not just as women.

So our successful integration into the wider South African community has well and truly made us a part of the SA landscape. Therefore when I look at us as SA Muslim women, I see a different challenge - one that is focused primarily on the relationship between the genders. However, this is a challenge faced not just by the wider South African female population, but by women in all parts of the world.

Gender issues

This year has allowed me to highlight  the changing relationship between men and women as a major challenge, but in that way, we are no different to the rest of the world. Many of us have opportunities today our parents could only have dreamt of. But in stepping out of the home to realise our fullest potential as human beings, it has compelled a change in our relationships with the men in our lives.

Once men were expected to procreate, provide and protect. Today, you can procreate with artificial insemination. You can provide for yourself because more women now work and often earn more than their men. And you can invest in mace or a stun gun to protect yourself. So what then becomes the role of men today?

This is a question that is as baffling to women as it is to men, but what makes it worse for men, is that they don’t have the inherent ability to speak about it to their peers. Cowboys don’t cry, after all. As a result we see our relationships falling into chaos. Because men no longer know what is expected of them and empowered women are themselves uncertain of how to share the space with their men, we end up with acrimony - women who step on their men and demean them for not earning enough or not being enough of a man.

On the other hand, men who feel demeaned hit back - literally - in other ways. The sense of male rage has deepened with every year as seen in one horrific incident upon the other. Numerous cases of men who have turned to violence by beating, raping and abusing those closest to them. An increase in infidelity and more men taking another spouse when they can barely provide for the first one…. Very often it is out of vengeance and a need to win back some “esteem” for themselves.

Others who were raised by empowered women have been trained to give women their space, but bend so far backwards that they become invisible. In all of this, we have as a modern society, lost the plot. Feminism swung the pendulum from a patriarchal society to what is fast becoming a matriarchal society and neither of this is healthy.

Gender Equity

Yet, while we battle to find our way around these issues, we forget that we have the best of examples in our beloved Prophet SAW who came as a beacon for all times. At the age of 25 he married a woman 15 years older than himself. She was his employer, an established businesswoman in her own right. Never once did we learn that she had to demean him in order to feel like a woman, or that he had to step on her to show her what her place was and feel more of a man.

Instead we learn that our Prophet was a man who behaved with utmost honour and respect to all; a man who was named the trustworthy for the way he dealt with people, kept his word and honoured his commitments; a man who did not hesitate to pick up a broom to assist in his home and was an active, compassionate parent who listened. So then why are we in a crisis?

These are all lessons we need to revert to because it is based on the fundamental Islamic principle of wasatiyyah - the middle path, away from the extremes to find the balance in between. Unless we find our way back to this prophetic example the gender crisis we now face will never be averted and yet another generation will come into this world without any clue of whether they are Arthur or Martha.

On Air

Meanwhile, coming up in Open Lines this week at 12pm, you can join in the following talk shows:

• Monday 28 Dec: Previewing community issues in 2010
• Tuesday 29 Dec: MJC review of 2009 and preview of 2010
• Wednesday 30 Dec: Review 2009 - haj & halaal (Repeat)
• Thursday 31 Dec: Covering the Gaza Freedom March (live)
• Monday 4 Jan: Previewing community issues in 2010 (Repeat)
• Tuesday 5 Jan: Review gender issues 2009 and challenges facing Muslim women in secular society
• Wednesday 6 Jan: Facebook - what is the big deal? (Repeat)
• Thursday 7 Jan: Meet new Afrikaner revert, Saad Bekker

There is sweet with the sour at this time of the year. On the sour side, it is the time of the year when everyone takes a break and if you work in news, you have to work that much harder because most people don’t want to be reached for comment or public debate at this time. (Not that you have the energy yourself to be confrontational!)

But on the sweet side, this creates the space for you to look back at the year that was and assess how you fared. It is particularly meaningful since this week Muslims also enter the Islamic new year of 1431 - a time best used for reflection and spiritual rejuvenation rather than the boisterous celebrations that goes with the 1^st of January.

In looking back at issues VOC covered in this year, there was no shortage of debates. Ironically, as much as the one who reports needs to stay out of the debate, VOC found itself in the middle of the issues on more than one occasion. More than that, on several instances, what were essentially Muslim debates extended far beyond the Muslim media to reach the wider South African public with mixed responses. So join me as we start our annual walk down memory lane to look at the issues that got us all talking.

Gaza War

The year began with the war on Gaza which raised wide interest across the globe, including among South African Muslims who rallied to support it in various ways. It dominated news coverage from the last week in December until well into February with all sorts of initiatives implemented - such as laying criminal charges against SA citizens involved in the war, the Goldstone report and the latest Palestinian Kairos documents. In January VOC was dragged into Israeli boycott saga. Amid calls for the boycott of Israeli goods shortly after the war in Gaza, the station’s advertising policy became the target of pro-boycotters both in a pamphlet printed by the fringe group, Muslims Against Illegitimate Leaders (MAIL). In its pamphlet MAIL called on the public to boycott Coke and Pick n Pay for allegedly supporting Israel. The pamphlet concluded by demanding to know how much money VOC made from these two advertisers to “defend Zionism”.

Radio debate

 Then in late January the Muslim radio debate caught fire in mainly the Muslim Views with various academics and senior journalists adding their voices to the debate over the last year. It saw a debate that has largely been conducted in muted tones since the establishment of two Muslim radio stations in the Western Cape, break wide open - and about time too, given the fact that most people were shy to address the matter in the media for fear of creating Muslim “disunity”.

SAZF

Then in a column which appeared in the March edition of the SA Jewish Report, VOC and Channel Islam International were accused of “vicious attacks” in the wake of the war in Gaza in January. The column was written by South Africa Zionist Federation (SAZF) chairman, Avron Krengel and entitled Anti-Semitism: the canary in the mindshaft of evil. But in the very next edition, the SAZF apologised for mentioning VOC in the column, saying that it was a case of “mistaken identity”. Talk about a turnaround, but a welcome one which showed that although we often differed with the SAZF and SAJBD, there was no reason that one could not be courteous or fair.

Muslims and the ANC

Then as the elections approached, VOC increased its election coverage. Key among the debates were various interrogative programs probing the deteriorating relationship between Cape Muslims and the ANC. In response to a VOC editorial calling on the ANC to set aside its internal differences and to speaki directly to the people of the Cape, the national spokesperson of the party, Jessie Duarte came on board on more than one occasion to answer questions posed directly by senior Muslim journalists and VOC listeners. But it was too little too late and the majority Muslim vote still went to the DA because Helen Zille had built a better relationship with this community than the ANC or COPE. Later in November Ebrahim Rasool broke a year of silence and candidly spoke out in an exclusive interview on VOC on life after being the premier. This interview is my personal highlight of the year.

Elections

The Muslim election debate extended further when VOC acted as media partner for various seminars hosted by the International Peace University of South Africa throughout the year - from considering why Muslims should vote for certain parties in March, to analysing the Muslim vote result in June and unpacking the phenomenon of Muslim extremism in October. These conferences were all extended from an academic platform to the wider VOC audience.

Extremism

It also came after Prof Hussein Solomon raised new fears of an extremist threat on the 2010 World Cup. This saw vehement condemnation from Muslim leaders around the country. Then as that storm began to subside after the IPSA conference, VOC got caught in another storm when information it received expressed fears that Somali mosques could become the doorway for extremism into this country. Subsequent reports from international media showed that Al Qaeda was moving towards countries like Somali due to a clampdown in countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan and some leaders of Al Shabbab, its affiliate group in Somalia, had spent time in SA. Indeed an uncomfortable story that was covered more to raise the alarm for all Muslims to be on the alert, rather than joining the Solomon bandwagon.

Muslim Personal Law

The issue on Muslim Personal Law had been close to VOC’s heart from the beginning and in 2009 we placed a special focus on it after the precedent-setting Hassam ruling and various others. It include the legal action by the Women’s Legal Centre Trust in the Constitutional Court in an effort to compel government to pass legislation within 18 months to recognise Muslim marriages. VOC became a media partner in the advocacy process on this matter in a move that has been fiercely criticised by theose opposed to the Draft Bill on Muslim Marriages. The debate is a long way from being over, but has now entered the public domain in a big way and various roleplayers have given recognition to it not only in legal and academic circles, but also in the media where VOC won the Vodacom Journalist of the Year award in Community Media for its coverage on this issue. Despite continuing differences, this is a healthy development.

Halaal war

Then in August the halaal warfare that had begun in the north between Sanha and Scholars of the Truth travelled south with the MJC and the Majlis being dragged into an ugly feud that headed for the courts. It saw vicious pamphlet peddling with attacks and counter attacks, ulema slamming each other and making takfir in one of the ugliest displays in recent times. During the battle, the link between the Majlis and Scholars of the Truth became apparent while history was made when staunch adversaries, Sanha and the MJC, for the first time join forces against them in the legal battle.

Muslims & Afrikaans

 An easier debate was the one on Muslims and Afrikaans which came to the fore in September at the University of Western Cape’s conference, Roots, where a VOC paper earned coverage in the mainstream media for its analysis of the fact that Cape Muslims were becoming more comfortable with Afrikaans. Feedback from VOC’s listeners and online visitors showed that Muslims were not only more ready to accept their historic right to the language but were increasingly also comfortable speaking or writing their own version of the language even on the internet.

Haj

Throughout the year, the haj issue remained the centre of debate, but the debate became particularly critical when South Africa received an additional quota at a very late stage. It sowed large scale havoc for hundreds who had registered but could then not accept accreditation because it came too late. In response, when those on the waiting list was unable to fill the total quota of 5,000 Sahuc lost ground badly among the public for tossing all its rules out in order to allow anyone ready to go and willing to pay the chance to fill the quota. But haj ended on a positive note without any incidents in the Kingdom.

Music

Then by mid-year an ugly storm around Desert Rose began to brew, leading to a huge debate on Muslims and music and the role that fatawa played. The debate dominated particularly in the last quarter of the year, making it into the mainstream media where again VOC was dragged in after its religious panel backed an MJC fatwa that stated that the Fatiha and the Lord’s Prayer could not recited in the same line. The matter remains under discussion after the MJC stood by the fatwa, but unbanned the remainder of the tracks on the Awakening CD.

Gender Issues

As the 16 Days of Activism against the abuse of women and children arrived by late November, VOC recapped a year during which it focused hugely on gender issues. From probing why the changing role of men causes such deep seated fury among them, leading to horrific statistics on domestic violence and violence on children; the debate led to the launch of a program to reassert what it meant to be a real man. At the same time, we looked equally at the abuse of women and children by men and exposed the fact that growing numbers of men and children were being abused by women.

Conclusion

The debates were fierce - at times horrifically ugly and un-Islamic - but for the most part healthy. It presented two key challenges - for us as a media to cover the issues as fairly as we possibly could, no matter the flack, our own opinions or internal battles. It also challenges our audience to show more maturity to tackle issues which once would never have been able to discuss in a public forum. We did not always get it right, but for the most part I think we did okay and the thrill was being in the middle of the biggest stories that affect our community.

However, in the words of Maya Angelou “Now that you know better, you will do better.” That is my mantra for 2010, insha Allah. Muharram Mubarak.

On Air

Meanwhile, stay tuned to Open Lines at 12pm this week when I look at the following issues:

• Thursday 17 Dec - 2009 Review: How did SA fare on the political front?
• Monday 21 Dec - Metrosexuals: where do you draw the line? (Repeat)
• Tuesday 22 Dec - 2009 Review: What were the biggest SA news stories?
• Wednesday 23 Dec - 2009 Review: What were the biggest Muslim issues?
• Thursday 24 Dec - 2009 Review: What were the biggest international Muslim issues?

It is the time of the year when we all feel the strain of the past 11 months. Chasing deadlines to complete the tasks you were unable to do, one looks forward eagerly to the holiday like the fasting person looks forward to iftar. Yet at this time of the year when you are supposed to take a break to celebrate the end of the Gregorian year, to relax with family and friends, enjoying the fruits of your labour, recovering from the year’s stress and prepare to enter a new year, too many are left at their most vulnerable.

The silly season marked by deplorable excesses is upon us - alcohol abuse, drug abuse, road carnage, partying…all in the name of “chilling out”. But worse than that is the alarming hike in gender violence over this period, the disturbing rise in suicides and the increasing parental negligence which sees more children disappearing than at any other time of the year. It is the greatest irony that at this time of the year when we long to leave work behind to spend time with our loved ones, many families face the greatest danger from their own kin.

This has been brought sharply to our attention during the 16 days of Activism campaign against the abuse of women and children which began on 25 November. The Muslim Judicial Council extended its awareness campaign beyond the 16 days to cover a period of 40 days during which the focus is on all the excesses and social evils that show up in techni-colour at this time of the year - alcohol abuse, road deaths, HIV Aids and gender violence among others.

Awareness

Even before this awareness campaign got underway we began early in November to look at the issue of violence on women within the Muslim community and we have continued with our coverage on a daily basis from our actuality shows to programs that deal with social issues. We found that Muslims are no less susceptible to this social ill than any other community and no more eager to talk about it. Late Night Live presenter, Aisha Mouneimne had her hands in her hair - unable to understand why something that so clearly is evident in our community - is not confronted by callers.

People chose to address it anonymously in the Shoutbox or by SMS rather that speak out loud. My advice to her was learnt over 20 years of serving this community - when the calls dry up on a sensitive subject, it hits too close to home. That does not mean you stop talking about it. You just find other ways to address it and give those who have the guts to speak out more anonymous space within which to step forward.

More disturbing was the discovery that old attitudes fuel continuing violence against women. Research found that the following beliefs are widespread among communities in the province:

• It is okay to beat or be beaten by your partner because it is a sign of love.
• A man should have sex whenever he wants it.
• A woman who is seen or heard to be beaten by her partner must have done something to deserve it.
• Friends and family members should not do anything about a man who is known to be violent towards his partner.
• Women entice men and that is why they are raped.
• It is accepted that leaders in our communities remain silent about physical and sexual violence against women.

Other abuse

But it is not just men who abuse women. The stereotypical belief that sex abuse is a male crime was shattered last month by an astonishing report from ChildLine UK which revealed that the number of children reporting sexual abuse by women has doubled over the past year. The latest figures from the children’s telephone helpline show a 132% rise in complaints of female sexual assaults. Where the children specified the gender of their abuser, nearly a quarter of all calls involved women assailants and the majority of those involved the callers’ own mothers. I was unable to lay my hand on South African statistics of this phenomenon.

And then more disturbingly, we also learnt that women were increasingly beginning to abuse men. It has been more difficult to obtain local statistics that specifically look at the phenomenon of women who abuse their husbands. But researchers have found that this hidden secret is one that cuts across race, country, wealth or rank. Research done by a European Union funded project in Uganda to prevent gender-based violence revealed that many men are being abused by their partners. However, these men fail to report the abuse to the police because they fear being stigmatised.

Women are far more likely to report such crimes. By contrast, most men harbour the traditional belief and cultural pride in men being “powerful”. Therefore, they cannot be deemed to “lose a fight to a woman”. If they were to report such crimes, they would be perceived to be “lesser men”. As a result, experts say, they silently suffer the psychological, financial and even physical torture inflicted upon them by their partners, to the extent that some of them are even killed at the hands of their partners.

Dealing with abuse

We then took matters one step further by finding out how family and the ulema in particular coped with abuse. We learnt that there was a very close link between HIV/Aids and Gender Based Violence where one is often the cause of the other and vice versa. These two issues - which enjoy high prominence in during the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence - have been labeled by activists as two silent epidemics that claim thousands of lives every day. But it was now time for the Muslims, lead by the ulema to stop the double speak on these issues.

According to Rosieda Shaboodien, a commissioner on the Commission for Gender Equality, the intersecting area around religion, tradition, culture and gender justice has been cause for huge debate among all religious communities, the Muslim community included. Speaking at a dinner hosted by Islamic Relief on World Aids Day, she said religious authorities play a critical role in stemming the tide of gender base violence and the spread of HIV/Aids. But this cannot be done until Muslims were prepared to be brutally honest about what is fast becoming a crisis.

Statistics show that women who experience violence are at a higher risk of HIV infection, mainly because forced or coerced sex limits their ability to protect themselves against infection. Those who are infected or perceived to be infected may face violence and/or abandonment. Fear of violence and stigma can also prevent women from seeking information on HIV/Aids, getting tested, disclosing their status, and seeking treatment or counseling.

Sheik Ebrahim Abrahams of the Muslim Judicial Council largely agreed with Rosieda, saying that a bigger effort needs to be made to educate people about the true nature of abuse. This includes hosting workshops for the ulema so that they may respond appropriately, rather than patronizingly.

At the same time, you can preach the law or the Shariah until you are blue in the face, but until the abusive person him/herself develops a conscience and is prepared to acknowledge their abusive behaviour, very little will change.

But it also starts with the abused themselves taking that first step not to remain the victim of another. There is help available. All it takes is action. Failure to take action means you are turning the abuse into self abuse. Worse yet, by remaining there, you are teaching your children that such behaviour is normal.

Help

So after all of this coverage over the last month, imagine my surprise when on Saturday morning one female listener called into the entertainment show, Saturday Live, to berate us for talking about everything but the important issues. How dare we tackle lighthearted issues when people like her and her children were cast out of their homes and living in a shelter, she asked.

I cannot blame this lady for being upset. She was obviously traumatized by her circumstances and feeling isolated. At a time like that, many turn to the radio as a companion and one could hardly expect her to have been listening to all of our programs. Had she done so, she would have known how big the focus was on gender based violence over the last month and continues to be over the holidays.

But when you find yourself destitute, cast out on the street with your children, running from a man who had pledged to respect, honour and care for you, very little else matter except survival. So I cannot be dismissive of her complaint. At least she had the courage to pack up and leave. How many others are unable to do so and become one of hundreds of women in this country to die at the hands of their partner?

I pray that those women, children or men who find themselves in such dire circumstances have the wisdom to recognize that if Allah created you, He knew you had value. So why should you allow someone else to demean you? Please get help from the following places for Allah helps the one who helps himself:

• SAPS at 10 111
• SAPS Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit head office at 012 393 2363
• SAPS Crime Stop on 18600 10111
• Women Abuse Helpline on 1800 055 555
• Childline on 0800 055 555

On Air

Meanwhile, stay tuned to Open Lines at 12pm this week when I look at the following issues:

• Monday 7 Dec - IPSA Extremism Conference Part 6 : Profile of an extremist
• Tuesday 8 Dec - The other side of Islamaphobia - when do Muslims over react
• Wednesday 9 Dec - IPSA Extremism Conference Final: Shia xperience on extremism - from the Harejite to Al Qaeda Movement
• Thursday 10 Dec - Metrosexuals - who and what on earth are they?
• Monday 14 Dec - Getting your license - what to do? (repeat)
• Tuesday 15 Dec - The other side of Islamaphobia - when do Muslims over react? (repeat)
• Wednesday 16 Dec - Plastic surgery - halaal or haraam? (repeat)
• Thursday 17 Dec - 2009 in review - how did the ANC, DA and COPE do? (live)

There is a swell of emotion that goes with the issue of haj that is rather difficult to explain to a non-Muslim. It is easy enough to understand that performing the pilgrimage when you are an adult and can afford it is the 5^th pillar of Islam. But how does one explain the yearning in the heart of the faithful to fulfill that pillar?

How does one explain that where most people wish to travel the world, for a Muslim that means performing your haj the first chance you get? To that end, there is hardly a Muslim home on the globe that does not house some kind of reflection of the blessed Kaaba in the Masjidul Haram in Makkah or the green dome of Masjidun Nabawi in Madina.

So it stands to reason that issues around haj are undoubtedly the single biggest issue that holds the interest of Muslims. If you have not been on haj before then you plan to go in future. I have seldom met a Muslim that does not have an opinion to express about haj matters. Small wonder that it is the one issue we have had to cover most consistently on VOC. It is also the one issue that I have found myself explaining to my colleagues at the mainstream press who often battle to comprehend the vastness of the subject, but feel compelled to cover the issue because of its news value to Muslims.

Expectations

The reason I am ruminating on this subject is because much as I understand and appreciate the vast interest there is in haj, sometimes people have rather unrealistic expectations and can demand too much without considering all the issues at stake. On Wednesday evening as I tuned in for the nightly haj link-up, I received a sms from a friend complaining because the program that was on air at that time did not deal with haj. Why did we not make use of another radio station whom we frequently partner with in order to get more live haj coverage, he asked.

I know my friend well enough to know that he did not mean this maliciously, but had a genuine query. There are many others whose heart burn to be with the hujjaj at this time as they approach the climax of this year’s haj and they have an insatiable hunger for as much haj coverage as they can get. But many of them also work and that means that when they get home and don’t have a satellite dish to turn to, they want to absorb as much of haj as they can get via radio. And that is commendable.

At the same time, when you’re the program manager and must consider the impact of haj on your program content, you cannot simply look at the time when most people are home from work. You need to keep in mind the fact that you broadcast 24 hours a day on four different frequencies, in addition to audio-streaming on the internet. You do not have the luxury of dedicating certain programs only to evening slots when our stats show that the highest listenership tune in during the morning anyway.

Overall Coverage

So we worked out a broadcast strategy for this year haj - that’s excluding all the many hours of haj coverage the rest of the year in our news and actuality shows. It came down to 18 - 20 hours of coverage on this year’s haj in various link ups, including in our actuality shows. This year we had the added benefit of Muhamad Zain’s blog which has circulated far and wide.

This coverage was spread over a month and throughout the day. It also excludes the various naseega programs that were conducted separately to focus on the month of Thil Hijjah, Eidul Adha and Qurbani. That easily amounted to another 15 - 20 hours over the same period. On a day like Wednesday when my friend complained about our lack of haj coverage we had a link up as a lead story at 7.10am; again at 4.30pm in hard news slots; it ran in all our news bulletins and on our website before we did our nightly haj link up. On the same day there were also 2 separate naseega programs at 11am and at 6pm which dealt with Thil Hijja and Qurbani. This was not enough?

On the day of Arafat our Breakfast and Drivetime shows will again keep the focus on haj. We will take the Arafat khutbah live with translations by Maulana Igsaan Hendricks and Sheik Igsaan Taliep between 10.30am and Thuhr. After 2pm we take the dua live from Arafat from one of our SA groups and then open the lines so that listeners can share their Arafat experiences. Then at 6pm we look a the significance of the first 10 days of Thil Hijja with Sheik Ebrahim Gabriels before we link up with all our staff at Arafat to find out how the day went. Indeed a full line up.

Scheduling

But more than anything else, what this highlighted was the fact that few people have a clue how complicated it is to share a frequency or to manouvre around four frequencies when your largest audiences have to skip a day in between. Our 90.7, 90.9 and 95.8fm listeners who pick us up everyday and those who can afford to audio-stream are fortunate.

Often they hear something first, but then they have to tolerate us repeating that same program for the benefit of the 100.4fm listeners. That could get irritating and then they get stroppy with me for repeating programs. Ironically, those same listeners not too many moons ago moaned religiously that they could not pick VOC up every day and missed out.

But not everyone gets snooty. I have a lovely fan in Paarl, a truly dear, non Muslim “omie” who is closer to 80 than 70. He religiously calls me up to ask what I have on the menu for the day, so that he knows when to take a break when I play back a recording. I don’t blame him. By the same token, if you do a really excellent program on the non 100.4fm frequency, do you deprive the largest percentage of your listenership of it?

Juggling Act

And then there are those guests who refuse to come on air when they cannot be on 100.4fm and my instruction to my staff is quite clear - we don’t tolerate that. The situation regarding our frequencies is not of our making. It is what it is and we have to live with it until we can get ICASA to change it. Until then, we have a station to run on all four frequencies and those who don’t want to come on board on our non-100.4fm frequencies…well, bully for them.

At the same time, this juggling of frequencies has made us really creative in our production. For one, we would never dare to do an interactive program on the non 100.4fm frequencies before because you did not get the same response from callers. Now, with the introduction of our social media tools and the ability to promote a show well in advance, our younger presenter have proven that you can be just as effective with a talk show on a non 100.4fm day as on a 100.4 day. God bless the Shoutbox, sms line and article comment boxes on our website!

In my own experience with Open Lines, I have found that I get a much better response in the Shoutbox for my show than I do when I promote it on Facebook. So much so that I’m quite happy not to even bother with Facebook, thank you very much. That tells me a lot about how our audience is changing and how technology is allowing us to adapt our programming.

Meanwhile, we continue to bring you our live haj coverage until Monday 30 November and we hope that at least some of you would have been satisfied with this year’s coverage.

On Air

As for my show in the coming week, this is what you can stay tuned for:

• Thur 26 Nov: Translation of Arafat Khutbah
• Mon 30 Nov: Commemorating Emancipation Day for slaves
• Tue 1 Dec: IPSA Extremism Conference Part 5: Modern day Islamism (Repeat)
• Wed 2 Dec: Interrogating the Coloured Mentality (Repeat)
• Thur 3 Dec: Q & A on Family Responsibility re unmarried women, widows and divorcees
• Mon 7 Dec: IPSA Extremism Conference Part 6: Profile of an extremist
• Tue 8 Dec: How hard is it to get a drivers license? (Repeat)
• Wed 9 Dec: Facebook: Is it overrated (Repeat)
• Thur 10 Dec: Plastic Surgery: halaal or not? (Repeat, subject to change)

A few years ago I recall inspirational speaker, Iyanla Vanzant, telling Oprah, “Girl, why is it that when you see trouble coming, you don’t head to the other side of the road?” In the last month I felt like there was no “other side of the road” to head to. Whichever way I went, there was controversy and trouble coming at me and because of the nature of the job, there was nowhere to hide.

Suffice to say, it has not been an easy month. At times I literally felt like I was in a war zone. Upon reflection, it brought two more sayings to mind - “Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it” and “be careful what you say for someone is always watching.” Boy, did that ever turn out to be true!

I’ve always wanted to do the kind of stories that mattered to my audience; that made an impact and influenced people’s lives in some way. Otherwise, what would be the point? VOC, bless its soul, has more than given me the opportunity and platform to do that. I’ve prided myself on being part of a team that after 15 years in the business has a very good idea of what our niche is and does very well in meeting the needs of our specific audience.

But sometimes, those two sayings I quoted above get just a bit too hot to handle. A month ago the focus was on getting hujjaj ready to leave. The additional haj quota had come through and sadly, in the panic to fill that quota of 5,000 all the rules that the South African Haj and Umrah Council (Sahuc) had painstakingly tried to put in place over the last three years, got tossed out of the window.

It did not bode well for Sahuc, whom people have always been ready to gun. If I look back at the annual polls on the regulator’s performance, they appeared to have gained ground when they stuck to their guns on the new rules introduced on haj - like the five year rule and no kids under 14. But when that was lifted - some say without achieving a quorum - they lost a lot of respect.

Listeners were furious with me for not giving them the chance to tell Sahuc exactly how mad they were. In the focus to get the most pertinent information out first for the benefit of those hujjaj who were on the point of departing, I felt that the chance to vent had to wait. When we finally gave them the chance to unpack on air and deservedly so, some would say, they went ‘bos’. Sahuc was furious at me for not giving them a fair chance to reply. I’m still working on bringing the regulator in studio to answer the key complaints that were raised, in the interest of fairness. But other stories broke and I got side tracked.

Messing with the music

I barely had the chance to breath after the haj story when the Desert Rose debate broke on the front page of the Argus two weeks ago. My previous blog dealt with that quite adequately. What was deeply disturbing, infuriating and highly stressful to observe was the level to which this public “debate” dropped. Vigorous debate in our community is welcome. That is what we are there to encourage. But I cannot respect anyone who thinks that in order for them to make a point, they must insult others.

It doesn’t matter who the other person is, we remain human beings, Muslims for heaven’s sake! Why this terrible need to prove that “they” are wrong and “we” are right, to the extent that you wish to obliterate people from the face of the earth? If they disagree with you, they are fools, nincompoops, have hidden agendas and are just on this side of Shaytan in their evil.

Astaghfirullah! Every time I went in to read the comments posted on the articles related to this MJC fatwa, I felt my heart drop into my shoes and my blood pressure going through the roof. Previously I would have celebrated how busy the comment boxes were, but the insulting nature of the exchanges gave me little cause to celebrate. It was demeaning and showed an ugly side to our community that was most unbecoming. As one of the commentators said, it made one feel that “die kool is die sous nie werd”.

What makes it worse is when people sit in judgment without the slightest care for what you really are about. I’ve had to sit there and read postings accusing me of being the original wicked witch of the west, of being manipulative, using the station for my own means, being the reason why so many have left VOC….the list goes on. Does it hurt? Of course it does.

But at the end of it all, I maintain that my work must speak for itself and the Almighty is my witness for my real motives. And if that fails to bolster me, I remember my mother telling me that if you are waiting on people to thank you for the work you do, you will have a long wait. Well, I quit waiting a long time ago.

So you sucked it in, along with another blood pressure tablet, and you move along swiftly. At this point, I am so tired of this issue that if I never hear the word “fatwa” again, it would be too soon. I must agree with the MJC. This debate was not about music. It was about whether or not you could play the Fatiha and the Lord’s Prayer in the same song. Some might feel its okay, others might differ. What we cannot disagree with is that it is controversial.

So is it not time for us to call a halt to this destructive debate by accepting that there are different opinions on it, choose the opinion you are comfortable with and don’t try to force you view onto others? I pray that we are mature enough to do so! It is especially necessary that we do so since the MJC indicated that they will continue to have internal dialogue on the issue of music and are in fact planning a seminar and one day workshop where they will ask for different perspectives on the matter. That is an encouraging sign, alhamdulilah. Now if only the rest of us can be adult about this, we would have made progress. From my lips to God’s ears!

The Somali Storm

Then in the middle of the Desert Rose debacle, comes the Somali story and did that ever land me and my news team in another pit of trouble. There were many things to consider. Do you use an anonymous letter which expresses real concern about the possibility of militancy at independent Somali mosques as foundation to raise a concern or do you not? Even after we verified the identity of the author, our news team deliberated on this issue repeatedly before we decided to go with it.

When we finally broke the story, we made very sure that we covered every angle so that we did the minimum of damage. We also had to consider that if we did not cover the story, would other media be as responsible? I did not believe they would. Had we not just survived the fall out over Prof Hussein Solomon’s statements in the main stream media?

By the same token, would we be a responsible media if we failed to cover the story when we were presently airing a series of talks done at the International Peace University of South Africa on Muslim extremism? At this conference one fact that stood out clearly was that whatever the root causes of extremism - and this could not be ignored - we had to acknowledge that it existed and we needed to know where to draw the line.

So if there was any chance of such militancy raising its head, then it had to be addressed. More so after the Muslim and Somali leadership stood up and gave the assurance to the South African authorities that there was no militancy among SA Muslims, and if there was, we would help to illuminate and eradicate it. Hence, we proceeded with the story.

It was cause for another storm and over the course of last week, we had lots of angry, concerned responses from the Somali community. One has sympathy with them because no one wants to see them targeted again, but it was also not fair to try to shoot the messenger. Hats off to our special reporter Hassan Isilow for holding it together so well under immense pressure. In the end, I am pleased to say, we were able to make peace on the issue and agree to co-operate with the Somali community in covering issues of this nature. Barakallah.

Muslims in the media

Then to conclude the focus on Muslims in the media, a post graduate media student at Stellenbosch University sends me a questionnaire. She is doing an in-depth analysis about the relationship between the media and Islam. One of the articles she is writing looks at what it means to be a Muslim journalist, in terms of newsroom experiences, while addressing the way that Islam is treated in a secular media.

And her questions helped me to gain a bit of perspective on the last month. I’ve included some of her key questions and my answers:

Q: How do you feel about the way the secular media portray Islam?

A: It would be easy to say that the media in general does not treat Muslims well, but the truth is that it is changing more in countries like SA than elsewhere. The manner in which the music issue has dominated in the Cape Argus in the last two weeks is a case in point of how Muslim issues can be covered with relative sensitivity. The Fort Hood shooting in the US is proof of how carefully US authorities are now trying not to blame Muslims. However, the poor global coverage on the terrible Islaphobic inspired murder of Marwa el Sherbini in Germany which ended on Wednesday is proof of double standards. Thus it remains something we must lobby for.

Q: Do you feel that Muslims are adequately represented in South African newsrooms?

A: Yes, this has been one of the major areas of growth post 1994 - how Muslims have been able to be present in just about every sphere.

Q: Do you feel that the international stereotype about Islam created by the Western media - with continual focus on terrorism, oppressive regimes, and the burka - has been extended to South African Muslims?

A: To some extent, but the SA Muslim community is very dynamic and vocal, especially in the Cape which has resulted in much more tolerance and understanding. SA Muslims are also deliberately working to make people understand that we are proudly South African and eager to contribute to this country.

Q: Do you feel the full spectrum of South African Muslims receive adequate coverage in the media? For example, do you get the impression that the public is made aware of the existence of black Muslims in the townships?

A: That is an issue that we as a community are still grappling with, so I can’t fault the media for their oversight. Once we are better able to deal with such diversity within, we can change outside perceptions.

Q: Do you ever find that your faith makes it difficult to be entirely objective about a story? What do you do in such circumstances?

A: Whoever preached objectivity was badly deluded. There is no such thing. We are all biased. The challenge is to remain fair and ethical no matter what the bias is.

Q: How does your belief in Islam influence the way you approach sensitive topics that might need to be discussed?

A: I intrinsically believe that there is nothing we cannot talk about. It is always about finding the right approach that allows one to show the necessary sensitivity and my faith allows me to do that. One of my challenges is precisely breaking the stereotypical notion of taboos in Islam.

Q: Do you feel that religion deserves a certain freedom from criticism, or do you believe that freedom of speech supersedes all?

A: Everything is open to criticism, just as every freedom comes with certain boundaries. Being respectful of a faith does not mean questions can’t be asked. It’s all in the approach and willingness to remain open to the answers you receive.

Q: What changes would you like to see in media coverage about Islam?

A: A willingness to ask us what we think, instead of making assumptions, getting people who know what they are talking about to address issues and to remain open to engagement. We have come a long way in this regard already in the Cape, thankfully, but it needs to extend to other parts of SA and especially in countries where Muslim minorities live today.

On Air

On another note, next week you can stay tuned for the following subjects on my Open Lines show at 12pm:

• Sun 15 Nov (3pm): Review of the Marwa el Sherbini murder verdict (repeat)
• Mon 16 Nov: Hadith on the Internet - can it be trusted? (repeat)
• Tue 17 Nov: IPSA Extremism Conference 4 - Q & A and Political Rebellion in Sunni thought by Prof Yusuf Dadoo
• Wed 18 Nov: The real deal on being a private investigator
• Thur 19 Nov: Part 3 of the Q & A on Inheritance