c. 1996 Religion News Service

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (RNS)-The view of sprawling low-hung shanties outside Farhad Hussen’s Pretoria office window fades in and out of the choking canopy of cooking-fire smoke and drizzle.

Bent figures float across the expanse of mud, between the wobbly shacks of wood and tin, hauling bundles of firewood and plastic buckets of water. Here in the shadow of the glitter of downtown Pretoria, the capital of South Africa, is a place that reeks of misery.”It doesn’t take much to see that Christianity has failed in this country,”said Hussen, the director of Pretoria’s Institute for Islamic Services.”Christianity has only kept these people down. It was the religion of apartheid. Muslims in South Africa want to lift the black man up. We want to give him hope. We have millions of blacks living in brutal poverty here, and we have a terrible crime wave that mostly involves the black community. They are looking for someone to lead them out.”Louis Farrakhan can do that. He can give them hope by restoring their dignity,”Hussen said.

Farrakhan, the controversial leader of the Chicago-based Nation of Islam, arrived in South Africa on Sunday (Jan. 28), part of a tour of Africa and the Middle East that already has included controversial stops in Libya and Nigeria. After landing in Johannesburg, he immediately went to the home of South African President Nelson Mandela where the two met for 40 minutes.

Farrakhan’s arrival in South Africa has not been welcomed by everyone. In the past Farrakhan has made remarks many have criticized as anti-Semitic, anti-white and anti-Catholic as well as homophobic and sexist. His presence in South Africa, and especially his meeting with Mandela, have upset many whites and enraged the South African Jewish community.

Many here, of all races, are quick to point out that race issues in South Africa are not the same as in the United States, and they caution against outsiders rocking their still fragile democracy. Mandela, meanwhile, let Farrakhan know his views on race in South Africa.”In the 1950s,”Mandela told a press conference,”one of the principles we established was non-racialism. We have defended that policy without fear, and we have now triumphed. We are building a non-racial society in this country,”said Mandela.

While Farrakhan espouses Islam, many mainstream Muslims consider the Nation of Islam’s theology to be heretical. One point of contention is the Nation of Islam’s belief in black racial superiority; mainstream Islam teaches that race is irrelevant.

But Farrakhan’s message of black economic empowerment and self help is finding some ready listeners, especially among South African Muslims, the majority of whom are immigrants from India and other Asian nations.”We have had great changes in the last two years,”said Gulam Sadia, of the Johannesburg-based Islamic Research Center.”But economically nothing has changed in this country. The wealth is still in the hands of the whites, and the blacks are still living in poverty. Helping to lift up the blacks and the dispossessed is Farrakhan’s struggle, his `jihad.'” Many blacks and Muslims here argue that Farrakhan’s past controversial remarks should not overshadow his positive messages.”No one here has been able to address the crime issue,”said Yusef Mustafa of Pretoria.”Farrakhan preaches that we should stop trafficking in drugs, that we should respect our women, that we shouldn’t drink. I don’t see anything wrong with saying those things. We need that kind of talk.” The black-owned newspaper Sowetan has given positive coverage to Farrakhan’s trip. But the white-owned press has been critical, highlighting Farrakhan’s highly publicized remarks, including calling Judaism a”gutter religion,”and arguing that Farrakhan is only using the meeting with Mandela to elevate himself back home.

Others simply say Farrakhan is attempting to trick South Africans into thinking he is a not racist.”Before a couple of weeks ago, 90 percent of South Africans had never heard of Louis Farrakhan,”said Rabbi Hirsch Rosenblum of Johannesburg. Rosenblum, who came to South Africa 20 years ago from New York, says he has followed The Nation of Islam for many years.”People are not seeing the real Louis Farrakhan. They think he is an OK guy. But I know that he doesn’t care for Jews, he could certainly do without us. People here have to keep in mind that anyone who elevates himself by attacking others is a dangerous person,”said Rosenblum.

But Farrakhan, Rosenblum added, will find tens of thousands of people waiting to follow him in South Africa.”South Africa has multitudes of poor, black dispossessed. This place is ripe for someone like him.”

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