A man hailed as the world\u2019s first imam to say he was gay was shot dead in South Africa on Saturday, local police said, in what rights groups fear could be a hate crime. <\/p>\n
Eastern Cape provincial police said in a statement it was investigating the death of Muhsin Hendricks, 58, in Bethelsdorp stating that the motive behind the killing was unclear. <\/p>\n
The statement said that at around 10 a.m. Saturday, \u201cHendricks and a driver was inside a gold-colored VW TRoc in Haley Place, Extension 24, Bethelsdorp when a silver-colored Hilux double cab stopped in front and blocked them from driving off.\u201d <\/p>\n
It added that: \u201cTwo unknown suspects with covered faces got out of the vehicle and started firing multiple shots at the vehicle. Thereafter they fled the scene, and the driver noticed that Hendricks who was seated at the back of the vehicle was shot and killed.\u201d <\/p>\n
Shootings are common in South Africa where murder rates \u2013 already among the highest in the world \u2013 are at a 20-year high. <\/p>\n
Hendricks was the \u201cfirst imam in the world to come out as gay\u201d in 1996, according to a statement from the advocacy group the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World) on Saturday. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe ILGA World family is in deep shock at the news of the murder of Muhsin Hendricks, and calls on authorities to thoroughly investigate what we fear may be a hate crime,\u201d Julia Ehrt, executive director at ILGA World, said in the statement. <\/p>\n
South Africa\u2019s <\/strong>Department of Justice and Constitutional Development said it was \u201csaddened\u201d by Hendrick\u2019s murder and pledged to \u201ctrack and monitor that justice is dispensed\u201d if his death is indeed confirmed as a hate crime. <\/p>\n Hendricks founded the Al-Ghurbaah Foundation in Cape Town, where he served as executive director. The human rights organization provides support to \u201cQueer Muslims helping them to reconcile Islam with their Sexual orientation and Gender Identity,\u201d according to the Al-Ghurbaah Foundation\u2019s website. <\/p>\n The Muslim Judicial Council of South Africa (MJC) \u201cunequivocally\u201d condemned the \u201cshocking killing\u201d in a statement Sunday. <\/p>\n \u201cIt has been alleged that the killing may have been motivated by hatred towards Muhsin Hendricks due to his views on same-sex relationships. While the MJC has consistently maintained that Muhsin\u2019s position is incompatible with Islamic teachings, we unequivocally condemn his murder and any acts of violence targeting members of the LGBTQ community or any other community,\u201d the MJC said. <\/p>\n The imam was the subject of the 2022 documentary \u201cThe Radical\u201d which followed Hendricks establishing a mosque for LGBTQ+ Muslims in Cape Town, South Africa, amid death threats. \u201cThe need to be authentic was greater than the fear to die,\u201d Hendricks says in the film. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A man hailed as the world\u2019s first imam to say he was gay was shot dead in South Africa on Saturday, local police said, in what rights groups fear could be a hate crime. Eastern Cape provincial police said in a statement it was investigating the death of Muhsin Hendricks, 58, in Bethelsdorp stating that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}