ANGOLA DENIES PERSECUTING MUSLIMS

     Luanda, Angola, 26 Muharram 1435/30 November 2013 (MINA) – Angola Foreign Minister, Georges Chikoti said there had been “misunderstandings” about the government action.

He said the government had refused registration to a number of Islamic religious groups and closed illegal mosques because they did not comply with national laws, but it denied any persecution of Muslims.

    The government of the No 2 oil producer in Africa has faced a storm of criticism after some international media reported it had “banned Islam”, causing embarrassment for this member of the OPEC oil cartel dominated by Muslim states, News24 quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

   The outcry followed an announcement by the Ministry of Justice earlier this month listing 194 “religious confessions” whose requests for registration it rejected, among them the Islamic Community of Angola (ICA).

    Requests from a number of evangelical Christian and other non-Muslim groups were also turned down.

    In a briefing to diplomats on Friday, Foreign Minister said there had been “misunderstandings” about the government action.

     “There has been no Muslim persecuted,” Chikoti said.

     “There is no government policy to persecute one church or religion, that was an interpretation made by the Islamic community in Angola,” he said.

    Chikoti said Angola’s constitution defends the right to religious freedom, but the law requires religious groups to meet legal criteria to be recognised as official churches.

ICA: Terms of law subterfuge bans Muslim

    A ICA leader, David Ja, told Reuters the authorities had closed dozens of mosques and even demolished some across Angola’s 18 provinces, in what he called a targeted crackdown in the predominantly Catholic former Portuguese colony.

     Ja said the around 900 000 Muslims in the country were feeling persecuted and called the government’s argument over legal requirements “a subterfuge to ban Islam”.

     He said his organisation had enough members and covered enough territory to quality for registration.

     “It is a way to ban a religion they think threatens Angolan culture,” he added.

     The ICA official added that anyone who practices Islam, or dons Islamic veil, risks being found guilty of disobeying Angola’s penal code.

     The ICA’s complaints were supported by Rafael Marques de Morais, a political activist and leading investigative journalist in Angola, On Islam reports.

     “I’ve seen an order that says Muslims must destroy the mosques themselves and clear away the debris, or they will be charged for the cost of the destruction,” Morais said.

     Organisations need to have more than 100 000 adult members and have a presence in over two thirds of the country’s territory to be considered legal entities.

     Most of the estimated 18 million Angolans are Catholic, a legacy of Portuguese colonial rule which ended in 1975.

    Many Muslims settled in Angola after arriving from West African countries after 1992, when President Jose Eduardo dos Santos’ MPLA government abandoned Marxism. Many fled political persecution at home, others came to work in diamond fields in eastern Angola.

     Chikoti said Angola faced a big influx of illegal immigrants and many of these were Muslims. (T/P09/P04).

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)