Melanie Nathan, Executive Director, February 15, 2025.
It is with deep sadness that African Human Rights Coalition expresses condolences to all family, friends and community impacted by the devastating and tragic loss of Imam Muhsin Hendricks a most kind, gentle, loving and courageous man, of great faith. He died for his beliefs while traveling to perform a courageous act of acceptance and equality. While we condemn the violence and hate that took him, we seek accountability for a life taken so violently and far too soon. May Imam Muhsin Hendricks rest in peace and may he be returned in the name of his deep faith.
Muhsim Hendricks an Imam from Cape Town was assassinated today in Port Elizabeth. He was shot down in cold blood driving his vehicle after he had travelled to officiate at a lesbian /interfaith wedding in Port Elizabeth.
South Africa is country where LGBTQI+ equal rights, including the right to same sex marriage, is specifically secured by the Constitution. Muhsin Hendricks, called “the world’s first openly gay imam” was known to lead communal prayers for gay Muslims. As Imam he provided queer safe space for prayers, counseling and Muslim marriage ceremonies since 1998, a defiant role that saw him exiled from the faith by local Islamic leaders in 2007 and a call by the Muslim Judicial Council in Cape Town for a Fatwa. Undeterred, he continued to spread the message that being gay and Muslim are not incompatible.
African Human Rights Coalition expresses its condemnation of any execution in the name of religion and human sexuality, be it the procuring of "KILL THE GAYS" legislation in the name of Christianity or Islam. We hold equally accountable all extreme forms of religion that call for the death of gays, lesbians, bisexual, trans, allies and their human rights defenders. Accountability for the Jihadists and the Evangelicals who promote hate of fellow beings based on human sexuality. This dicta being spread all around the world, serves to license the brutal executions and murders such as that of our dear colleague and friend Muhsin Hendricks.
We call for an end to the criminalization of LGBTQI+ people, worldwide. Over 30 countries in Africa criminalize LGBTQI+ people and almost all the rest harbor harsh societal taboos that only serve unimaginable violence. Any government which fails to curb the spread of hate speech, as we are seeing in the wake of Muhsim's violent murder, fails to take action against assault, mob violence, and religious persecution of gays are complicit in these tragic deaths which we have seen all to often. We call on the South African Government to take swift action against the individuals spreading hate across the social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, mostly perpetrated by South Africa's Muslim community. We call for accountability to the license that the Fatwa of the Muslim Judicial Council gave to this execution. We call on immediate action against the Muslim Judicial Council of South Africa. The South African Government must hold them accountable. The South African Government turned a blind eye to this Fatwa, and must now bring justice under its law and bring resolution to the obvious conflict between Islam as practiced in South Africa, and the South African law and Constitution. Failing which the South African Government must be held to be complicit. African Human Rights Coalition provides humanitarian and advocacy services to thousands of forcibly displaced Muslim and Christian Africans due to the violence that criminalization by state law and religion impose.
A life taken so tragically and far too soon - may Imam Muhsin rest in peace and may he be returned in the name of his deep faith.
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