Catholic bishops in South Africa have strongly condemned a “bloody and futile” knife attack on a Mosque near Durban, saying attempts to stir up religious hatred must be resisted.
A group of men armed with knives and a petrol bomb slit the throats of two worshippers and an Imam at a mosque on the Old Main Road in Ottawa the KwaZulu-Natal province on Thursday (10 May). The Iman later died while the other two men are in critical condition, emergency services report.
The unknown attackers set rooms in the mosque alight before fleeing in a vehicle, police report.
"Religious tolerance has long been a characteristic of South African society and those who wish to wreak havoc, and set one faith community against another, must never be allowed to succeed. We will continue to pray for peace in our country and throughout the world, a peace that is based on respect for the dignity and rights of each human being", the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC) said in a statement released after the attack.
"On behalf of the Catholic Church in Southern Africa, we offer our deepest condolences and sympathy to the family and friends of the murdered imam, and wish the injured a speedy and full recovery", says the SACBC statement. "Our hearts go out to the community of the Imam Hussein Mosque who have been so brutally violated. You are in our thoughts and prayers", continued the statement, signed by Bishop Stephen Brislin, Archbishop of Cape Town and President of (SACBC).
Witnesses have since said the three male attackers were Egyptian.
On Friday (11 May), an official announced that South Africa’s elite police unit has taken over the investigation because “extremism” is suspected as a possible motive.
“Upon assessing the crime scene it was found that there was an element of extremism to it,” a spokesman for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation told Reuters.
No arrests have yet been made.
South Africa, despite high levels of violent crime rooted in poverty and income disparities, has rarely been associated with the Islamist militancy seen in other parts of the continent.
PICTURE: The Imam Hussain Mosque ©Twitter
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