So the Ebrahim Rasool wedding storm has finally blown over.
Or has it?
This week the Muslim Judicial Council laid down the law once and for all.
In a statement, the religious body ruled the former Western Cape Premier was wrong and should have asked for expert advice before having his daughter Tahrir and her husband perform the Hindu Seven Steps ritual at their Islamic wedding.
Rasool had 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.
The MJC found that no acts of kufr (idolatry or polytheism) were committed, but that “atonement and a public apology” would be an appropriate response from Rasool.
The sheikhs also reserved a special mention for ignorant Facebook skinnerbekke and their un-Islamic personal attacks on Rasool.
AMBIGUOUS: Hindu rituals at Islamic wedding
So there you have it. Case closed.
Still, a few niggling questions remain.
Like, who exactly is Rasool supposed to publicly apologise to?
Is atonement not a private pact between man and his creator?
It is for the Almighty to forgive him, not the Facebook fietna brigade, who took such strong offence.
Apologising to those holier-than-thou haters would only play into their hands.
So Munier doesn’t blame Rasool for reserving his right to remain silent on the matter.
As for those questioning why the clerics who attended the controversial wedding didn’t take action right there and then, the MJC said its two members “were as surprised as anyone else”.
They were “unaware of the full origin and significance of the ritual” in which the couple walk around a fire.
And the wedding programme didn’t make mention of the practice either.
Those two sheikhs were wise enough not to address the matter on air.
Can you imagine fielding questions from a mob of majat muftis on radio? That was dodging a bullet.