Kindred spirits cross a religious divide
Article by Josh Harkinson, from Noseweek Magazine June 2017.
A unique friendship is developing between Dr Taj Hargey, founder of Cape Town’s Open Mosque in Wynberg, and Rabbi Greg Alexander of the Cape Town Progressive Jewish Congregation.
Read on as the two religious leaders swap thoughts about each other. By Sue Segar
First heard about Dr Taj Hargey when the Open Mosque controversy exploded in the newspapers in 2014. I realised he was doing what Rabbi David Sherman had had to do in our synagogue 70 years ago. I felt strongly about Dr Hargey’s cause. What was wrong with trying to get people to worship together and do beautiful things? The crime, apparently, was that he was not doing it how a “good Muslim” should. He was saying men and women were equal, that women could read prayers and that the Quran backs this up. For this, he was threatened and fire-bombed. I wanted to reach out to him and tell him that what he was doing was great and that we, in our synagogue, had been there before. I wrote to him. Sometime later he contacted me and asked to meet. I went over to the mosque and we sat down and told each other about ourselves and what we were doing. We decided to collaborate.
Any religious text is open to interpretation. One person can read a text as telling him to go out and kill non-believers but the same text can tell them to strive to be a better person. So here was an Imam who was reading in the text that men and women were equal. That’s a core teaching of our synagogue. As progressive Jews, we believe men and women have equal obligations and equal rights to participate in Judaism. Here was somebody in the Muslim world trying to do what we’ve been doing for decades and getting flak. This struck a chord. I felt he needed our support.
The Cape Town Progressive Jewish congregation, also known as Temple Israel, has three branches in Wynberg, Green Point, and Milnerton – and about 3,000 members. Our vision is to create a caring community based on study, spirituality, and good deeds.
Judaism is an ancient wisdom that has relevance for Jews and the world. As a rabbi living in Cape Town, I am not just working for the Jewish people but to create the kind of culture that works on moral norms and uplifts all those who live here. It comes from my Jewish teaching. A core text for me is Leviticus, chapter 19, which says ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself. It stresses neighbourliness and love instead of the differences that separate us. So it’s okay for Muslims to be Muslims, Christians to be Christians, and Jews to be Jews. But the starting point of our identity is that we all descend from Adam and Eve, we all come from the same roots, and God in his wisdom created all of his peoples differently. That’s a beautiful thing.
I was born in Johannesburg in 1971. My mother was a teacher and my father a businessman. Both were involved in charitable committees. I went to King Edward School and then the University of Cape Town where I studied Psychology and English. I did post-graduate studies in Advertising and went into advertising as a copywriter for Hunt Lascaris, among others. After a year, I realised it was cut-throat and competitive. There was ” no such thing as ethical advertising. I got out and went travelling.
For the next ten years, I visited many countries, did numerous different jobs, and had many experiences. I had a TEFL qualification from UCT, which enabled me to teach English as a foreign language. I started in the United Kingdom, working as a waiter, selling eggs and potatoes, before working at the National Gallery as a guide. Next, I lived in Thailand, then Israel, Jordan, and Turkey. I also lived in Moscow for six months teaching English. And I lived in Hungary for a while.
Throughout my travels, I sought out teachers to nurture my spiritual life. In Thailand, I did Vipassana meditation and studied with the monks and nuns in a Buddhist monastery, Wat Koh Tao. In Russia, I studied in a Yeshiva, a traditional Jewish study house. We met in secret in a Moscow apartment. Those were the Boris Yeltsin years. Russia was still coming out of communism and people didn’t openly declare their Jewishness. Inside, we studied the Talmud in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Russian.
In Israel, I studied orthodox and reformed yeshivas, which gave different perspectives on Judaism. Somewhere along that journey I decided to be a rabbi. I hadn’t found a teacher or community doing what I wanted to do so I decided to create that community myself. I went to a rabbinical school between London and Israel for six years. I got married and lived in America for a while. Ten years ago, I came to Cape Town to be a rabbi at Temple Israel. Temple Israel is 72 years old.
I inherited 65 years of history. Sometimes I wish I’d started my own temple. It has been very challenging, but ten years later, we’re on a very different path. Before I arrived, the synagogue was like an airport lounge. People would come in and fly out. On Friday nights people would sit at different places in the synagogue without really speaking to each other. The first thing I did was to create a community. It took six years to get an agreement, but we turned the chairs to face each other instead of facing the stage. Now people look at each other in the services and there’s a greater feeling of community.
I see people building high walls, electrifying fences, and creating communities around fear. In South Africa, we need the opposite
We have created a group to deal with those in crisis, we have an educational fund and a social action group that’s active in the broader community. We have a membership demographic that a synagogue 30 years ago would not have dreamed of. Members from Atlantis, Kuils River, and Bonteheuwel – many from our Jews by Choice programme – sit in the synagogue with Jews from Sea Point and Constantia.
I love what I do. No day is the same. I love the challenge and opportunity of sitting with people at moments of vulnerability and celebration, achievement and crisis. As a rabbi, I’m able to hold that space for them.
What worries me the most about South Africa and the world today is the prevalence of fear. That’s not to say there aren’t real reasons to be afraid, for instance, if you are a woman or vulnerable through poverty or job insecurity. Fear, however, should not be the motivation that drives decisions. I see people building high walls, electrifying fences, and creating communities around fear. In South Africa, we need the opposite approach. We should be asking how to take walls down to create communities where people can meet and see their common humanity. It’s the same with religion and politics. When people start with fear, they end up killing each other or divorcing from each other, so you end up with stagnated separatist communities. What I would love to see are spaces that bring people together. That’s what we’re trying to do.
My wife Andi and I have three children: two sons aged 14 and 12 and a daughter aged seven. I work hard, but in my spare time, I read widely. I love walking on the mountain and I am a non-practising cyclist. I love to cook.
My rabbi and my teacher are the late Abraham Joshua Heschel, a 20th Century rabbi from Eastern Europe who ended up in America and who was famous for his civil rights activism. I still read and consult him and often ask, ‘What would Heschel do?’
He marched with Martin Luther King in Alabama. He famously said that “I felt my feet were praying” as he walked. He was one of the first rabbis to speak against the war in Vietnam. He was a profoundly learned man who lived an Orthodox lifestyle but transcended his background to meet the challenges of the day. He died before I was able to meet him but he speaks to me through his writings.
About a year ago, we invited Dr Taj Hargey’s community to our synagogue to build personal bonds between our congregations. We’ve taken part in an interfaith retreat and plan another this year. In June we hosted the mosque for Ramadan at the Wynberg Synagogue. We called it a Ramadan Iftar. It coincided with our Friday night Shabbat. They came and broke their fast and did their evening prayer and joined us for our evening prayers. Then we ate the meal together. In December, the Open Mosque will host us for Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights. We’re expecting a couple of hundred people.
DR Taj Hargey
I met Rabbi Greg Alexander after he contacted me out of the blue the day we opened the doors of the Open Mosque, in September 2014. There were about 300 people outside baying for my blood with knives and sticks. They were led by a crazy Algerian immigrant with a big beard and a turban, presenting himself as a scholar and theologian. I stood outside and told them we have a constitutional right in South Africa to have freedom of religion, and if they don’t like this mosque, they can go to their own mosque. I said we were for open-minded, progressive people.
They didn’t like that. In the next year-or-so, we had four arson attacks – they tried to burn the mosque down. Once they threw a petrol bomb and burnt the door down. In December 2014, at three in the morning, people drove a huge four-by-four into the door at high speed, entered the mosque in the vehicle and pulled out guns. They held up the petrified caretaker and demanded to know where I was. I was not there but if I had been, I would not be here today.
There was a stream of negative publicity and it felt as if everyone was cursing and threatening us. In the middle of all this, Rabbi Greg asked to meet me. He was the first person of another faith – even among the Muslims in Cape Town – to say he wanted to support me in opening this mosque. It meant a great deal. Since then, our friendship has developed and we’ve had regular events with Muslims and Jews. In June we had an Iftar, a breaking of the Muslim fast, in the Jewish synagogue where we prayed Islamic prayers and attended the Jewish service, then ate food together. What a sense of friendship we experienced, with people of two different faiths but related ideologies coming together.
The membership of our mosque is small – between 30 and 40 – at this stage. People are still afraid to be stigmatised or, as they say on the Cape Flats, to be branded as a heretic and threatened with not being buried in a Muslim cemetery. We appeal to people who are courageous, free thinkers. Our small membership suits us right now. We operate like any other mosque, with Friday weekly prayers and five daily prayers. We have rotational imams. Anyone capable to lead the prayers or give the sermon is welcome. We want to democratise Islam.
In 2014, at three in the morning, people drove a four-by-four into the door at high speed entered the mosque in the vehicle and pulled out guns
Even though I am South African, my home is in Oxford. I live there with my wife, Professor Jacqueline Woodman, a consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. I come here for a few weeks every few months. In my spare time I read, ski, play squash or swim. I take a keen interest in world affairs.
I was born in Wynberg, Cape Town, in 1955 – strangely enough, about 500 metres from this mosque. My father was a supermarket worker. I was the oldest child in a large, poor family. I was rebellious, refused to take the role apartheid assigned me, and wanted to explore the world.
I matriculated at the South Peninsula High School in 1972, and because I couldn’t go to the University of Cape Town, I went to the University of Durban-Westville in Natal. I got top results and in my second year, I was given a fantastic scholarship by Total South Africa. (To this day, I only ever fill up at Total petrol stations). I completed a BA, majoring in history and theology.
An Afrikaans professor helped me to get a passport to leave the country. I was accepted at the American University in Cairo. I borrowed the money for the one-way air ticket from an uncle. I completed my Master’s in Middle East Studies, focusing on history, politics and theology. I was shortlisted for a Rhodes Scholarship but came fifth, so missed out.
It turned out that the head of the SA Rhodes scholarship interviewing committee was also the head of the SA Zionist Federation. He asked me all about Palestine. I said there should be equal rights for both Jews and Arabs in Palestine. He didn’t like this. I would have been the first South African of colour to be a Rhodes Scholar. In an unprecedented move, the secretary of the Rhodes Foundation in South Africa arranged for the Oppenheimer Trust to give me a full scholarship.
I had a wonderful time doing my PhD at Oxford and was able to travel. At Oxford, my views on Islam changed. Before arriving in Egypt I was a verklempt orthodox Muslim. Egypt opened my eyes and Oxford liberated me. I developed strong beliefs in gender equality, non-racism and general egalitarianism.
After graduating, I worked as an academic in London for a couple of years, then lectured at UCT in the 1980s in the Department of Religious Studies. During this time, I was arrested and put in solitary confinement for producing subversive literature. A position came up in the United States and I went to work there as a professor. I left the US in 2000, just before 9/11, as I didn’t want to live in an America run by Baby Bush, a crazy neocon.
I returned to teach at Oxford and established a progressive organisation called the Muslim Education Centre of Oxford. There I started to develop my ideas of the three E’s of Islam: the home of enlightened, egalitarian and erudite Islam. That was the dry run for the Open Mosque.
About five years ago, I realised that my pension was coming up, and it was time to come home. We’d had a political revolution and now needed a religious revolution, especially in the Muslim community. This car-repair workshop in Wynberg came up for rent. They gave me a lease and we started this mosque.
Our enemies are totally upset about what we are doing. They hate the fact that we accept only the Quran as our document
Our enemies are totally upset about what we are doing. They hate the fact that we accept only the Quran as our document; that we are the only mosque in South Africa with one entrance (for men and women); and that we are non-sectarian and intercultural. What upsets the clergy the most is that we are independent. As soon as we opened, the witch hunt started.
They spread falsehoods like we are “a homosexual mosque”. While we don’t have an issue with people who are gay or homosexual, none of us is gay. They said we are not true Muslims and accused me of being a British spy.
Many Muslims are avoiding this mosque as there is a religious ruling by the rest of the local Muslim clergy that if they attend this mosque, they won’t be buried in a Muslim cemetery.
I think now they’ve realised these threats of violence are not working, and the best tactic is to ignore this mosque. That’s perfect for us, as it gives us a chance to grow.
This mosque is like a young sapling and my role is to provide a stake for it to grow. Since we opened, we’ve had requests from Singapore, Australia and other countries to start similar inclusive mosques. It’s the only mosque in the world that I know of which has the words “All Welcome” outside.
I believe Rabbi Greg saw a kindred spirit in me – coming from the reformed branch of Judaism – and saw this mosque as part of the vanguard for reform in Islam. He saw that we were an open, inclusive, progressive, pluralistic house of worship. He is a gentle, kind man.
One thing that makes me emotional is that last year in December, the owner of the property we were renting for the mosque suffered a catastrophic illness, and the court appointed a curator to look after his affairs. They gave us a deadline to purchase the property by the end of March. Since the lease was up for renewal in June, we knew a new owner might not renew our lease. I was scraping money together and was short of about R600.000. Rabbi Greg and his congregation came up with half of that in loans. We are repaying it, but now we are the proud owners of this building. Without that contribution, we wouldn’t have been able to purchase it.
I know the Middle East like the back of my hand and I don’t want the problems of that region to be imported to South Africa. We have enough problems here. We have Zuma, Zille, service-delivery problems. And rampant corruption. The last thing we need to add to our in-tray is the importation of Muslim fanaticism, and terrorism; for al-Qaeda, Isis and the Taliban to be operating here, launching despicable acts against innocent civilians.
Already we have the early symbols of extremism in South Africa, with people wearing the hijab, women covering their hair, lots of young girls wearing the burqa and men wearing wild bushy beards. When I was growing up people did not cover their faces – now you see it everywhere. I see this as the first wave of extremism from the Middle East.
What disturbs me the most about South Africa today is the lack of justice in every sphere. The leader of the country is the number-one thief. We have similar corruption in the religious sphere. Take the halaal certification racket where items have to have a halal stamp. The income from that is estimated at over R500 million a year. Where does that money go? There are no records. That is another reason the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) are Rabbi Greg saw a kindred spirit in me – coming from the reformed branch of Judaism – and saw this mosque as part of the vanguard for reform in Islam so anti my mosque. They know I want accountability for this money.
Rabbi Greg saw a kindred spirit in me – coming from the reformed branch of Judaism – and saw this mosque as part of the vanguard for reform in Islam
My view on Israel is that it has a right to exist but not on its own terms. It can only have security when there’s true justice. One party can’t produce the Bible as a title deed and expect the other party to accept it.
I believe the world is in a mess because Muslims are not following the Quran. In Chapter 2 vs 62, it says “Whosoever believes in God… and does good deeds will have the reward with the Lord. They shall have no fear.”
As a theologian, I see that verse as being inclusive. Imagine if this philosophy became the overriding feature of Islam. At the root of all killing is an injustice. If there was true justice in the Middle East, do you think people would go around and kill?
Rabbi Greg is a man of integrity, initiative and vision, the kind of person South Africa needs. When I approached him and said, it’s time your synagogue came to the mosque, he came up with idea that Hanukkah is a good time.
On 17 December this year, for the first time ever I believe, a Jewish congregation will celebrate Hanukkah in a Muslim mosque. It will be amazing.
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