South Africa's Chief Rabbi asks Archbishop to condemn Hamas, Al-Shabaab
During the Israel-Gaza conflict, Makgoba accused Israel of apartheid, casting off the Jewish State as evil and unjust.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFSouth African demonstrators wave Palestinian flags during a protest following clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police at Al Asqa Mosque in Jerusalem, outside parliament in Cape Town, South Africa, May 11, 2021.(photo credit: MIKE HUTCHINGS / REUTERS)
Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein of the Union of Orthodox Synagogues of South Africa called on Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town to condemn Hamas and allied terror groups in the Gaza Strip, after he came out publicly against Israel during the most recent 11-day escalation.During the Israel-Gaza conflict, Makgoba accused Israel of apartheid, casting off the Jewish State as evil and unjust.“The Archbishop’s support for the military dictatorship of Hamas merely perpetuated the suffering of Palestinians,” Goldstein said in a statement. “For while you castigate Israel for defending itself against violent extremists, know that the very same violent religious ideology drives extremists right here on our borders, and their intended victims are the region’s Christian congregations.“The call comes around the same time South Africa plans to send military units to Mozambique, where Islamist terrorist groups have been abducting children, raiding villages and are in the process displacing hundreds of thousands since 2017.“There is a global religious war being waged by a cohort of militant-Islamist group that pledges allegiance to ISIS and shares the same violent ideology as Hamas, both of whom are funded by Iran," Goldstein said. "When you support Hamas, you endorse the ideology of Ansar al-Sunna, Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram and ISIS, and you jeopardise the safety of Christians across Africa.”While the groups are not as established as Hamas as being a designated terrorist organization, the Archbishop has not outright condemned the Islamist groups as terror organizations and instead calls the conflict is "multifaceted" with the terror groups expressing "real" grievances.“When confronting violent religious extremism, there is only one approach that will protect civilized values – and that is total condemnation without qualification and justification,” the Chief Rabbi said.“The crisis in Mozambique is a reflection of the broader war against Christians in Africa. More than 4,000 Christians have been murdered in Africa in the last year” the Chief Rabbi added. “And these extremist Islamist groups attacking Christians in Africa share the same origins and violent philosophy as the groups that attack Jews in Israel.”He went to go on to describe the difference between Israel and the Islamist terror groups in Mozambique and the Gaza Strip, and how the Archbishop's condemnation comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa is unfounded and irresponsible.“Israel is a beacon of freedom for all religions – Christians, Muslims and Jews. In Israel, citizens, be they Jewish, Christian or Muslim, enjoy complete equality," the Chief Rabbi said. "All citizens, regardless of religion, ethnicity or any other marker, have the right to vote, and to serve in government. It is quite absurd to call this apartheid.”
“I call on the Archbishop to correct what he said and clarify, for the sake of all decent people of faith, that no grievance, no matter how real, can ever justify the savagery of Al ansuur,” the Chief Rabbi writes. “He must condemn it in simple terms with no caveats. It is this kind of moral confusion that strengthens the hand of the same murderous ideology of Hamas, ISIS, Al-Shabaab and others who wreak pain and destruction on our world.”
