Police Minister Bheki Cele has apologised to South Africans Muslims for ‘blasphemous remarks’ allegedly made by police officers arresting about 24 Muslim worshipers in Mpumalanga at the weekend.
In a video which went viral, a group of armed police officers can be heard screaming at the congregants in a mosque. Among other utterances, a police officer shouts to the congregants ‘Are you bigger than the president? Or is Muhammad bigger than the president?’.
The Jamiatul Ulama South Africa, or Council of Muslim Theologians, condemned the police conduct during the arrest,saying in a statement: ‘Apart from the verbal abuse, which is demeaning to Prophet Muhammad, the SAPS officers are also seen entering the prayer room with their heavy boots. Such images are distressing to Muslims who consider prayer places as sacred and entered upon only without shoes.’
The council called on the Independent Police Investigative Directorate and the South African Human Rights Commission to probe the matter.
‘While we accept the right of the officers to enforce the law, which still does not allow religious gatherings, it is the abusive and heavy-handed nature of the SAPS officers which we call out as unacceptable,’ the organisation said.
Cele’s acting spokesperson Brigadier Mathapelo Peters said in a statement the minister had ‘issue an apology to the Muslim community’.
Peters added: ‘Minister Cele wishes to emphasise that police have a constitutional obligation to enforce the laws of the country, a duty to be executed within the confines of the same laws, applied with no prejudice against any gender, race, or creed.’