The Muslim Judicial Council is officially seeking a public apology from Ebrahim Rasool for allowing Hindu rituals at his daughter’s Islamic wedding.
In a statement yesterday, the MJC said it came to this conclusion following its Special General Majlis Meeting held on Saturday.
It said while no acts of kufr (idolatry or polytheism) were committed, the former Western Cape Premier was wrong and should have asked for expert advice before having his daughter Tahrir and her husband perform the Seven Steps ritual at their wedding on 28 December.
Rasool said he wanted to include his son-in-law’s Hindu heritage as a mark of respect to his family and made sure the rituals were “sanitised” of religious significance.
However, the MJC said he should have had “broader consultation”.
“Responsibility for this failure rests with Ebrahim Rasool himself, and for this, we believe that atonement and a public apology from him would be apposite (appropriate).”
The MJC said those Muslim who declared Rasool to be outside the fold of Islam owed him an apology in return as their assumptions were based on rumour “that flies brazenly in the face” of Islamic teachings.
“Having said that, the inclusion of the ritual remains, despite the attempts at sanitisation, impermissible in light of the Sharīáh, and mitigated by neither Úrf nor Maqāṣid,” it said.
The MJC said two of its members who were present at the wedding “were as surprised as anyone else, and as unaware of the full origin and significance of the ritual as most other guests”.
“It must be understood that there has been no prior disclosure of everything that would transpire at the wedding,” the MJC said.
Rasool referred queries to ANC Western Cape spokesman Dennis Cruywagen, who did not respond yesterday.