Self-hating Muslim or man of straw
Over the years I have read many letters of Naushad Omar. The letter “Authoritarianism in Islamic society does not come from Quran” April 2, 2019 and his letter dated April 9 2019 suggests that the writer is possibly a self-hating Muslim and also a “man of straw”. What is certain is that he is unqualified to express the opinions that he does as he has limited actual qualification and authority.
It is evident from his letters that Mr. Omar despises Africans specifically and Muslims generally and has a naïve admiration of the “West”. His words “The vast majority of Muslims, including the priests and scholars, have no understanding of the meaning of simple verses in the Quran” explains his dislike of Muslims. Did he complete a global survey to verify? He specifies, “Although the Turks are close to the straight path they lack the knowledge of knowing exactly what the criterion in the Quran and Hadith are. With a swoop of his pen he degrades an entire nation under his delusional conceit.
From the info available, Mr. Omar is not a learned scholar and has no leadership, no charity and no community reputation and is a nonentity to the Muslim community. It is also unknown if he serves on any ratepayers or neighborhood watch, school committees etc. He thus lacks civic credibility.
Since he lacks an appropriate university qualification his knowledge on Islamic history is suspicious. While he enjoys sharing his global and local political thoughts, he lacks basic credibility. There are already two Muslim political parties in Cape Town. The two elected political parties democratically represent the Muslim voice in politics. Although other qualified and recognized Muslims thinkers are entitled to share their opinions, they have a limited direct mandate from the community.
Though it is the absolute choice of the editor to publish what he chooses, Mr. Omar, lacks legitimacy and credibility within the Muslim community. He is perhaps a self-hating Muslim or “a man of straw”. In either case he is unqualified to speak on behalf of the Muslim community and Muslim matters in general.
Cllr Yagyah Adams
Cape Muslim Congress