The following is an issue very close to Munier’s heart.
Munier’s mense hailed from District Six.
His oupa owned the popular Terminus Café, which once stood in that now vacant spot in front of Zonnebloem school at the top of Keizergracht Street.
BACK IN THE DAY: Munier’s oupa’s winkeltjie in District Six
While Munier didn’t live in District Six – it was before his time – he had a close bond with the place, growing up.
He went to Zonnebloem Boys’ School and later Harold Cressy High School.
At Zonnebloem, which was an Anglican school, he got a solid Christian education.
He remembers walking hand-in-hand to the chapel every Thursday, singing hymns at the top of his lungs, and would even get his turn with the collection plate.
How great thou art was principal Mr Wynn’s favourite hymn, played beautifully by Mrs Jacobs on the piano.
Fond memories.
After school, Munier would rush home, change into his top and koefieyah, take his soerat sakkie under his arm and run to madressa.
There he learnt to read and write in Arabic, fiqh (ethics) and koples (memorising the Qur’an).
Baie shukran to Sheikh Yusuf for all the much-needed rottang pakslae.
This is how it was for Munier, and many others.
Like in District Six, Munier grew up in a time and place where culture and religion were intertwined.
We respected and embraced each other’s traditions.
Munier’s Christian tjommies would come to say slamat on Labarang.
They would know how to make salaah from attending janaazahs.
You didn’t have to explain the finer points of Ramadaan, Eid, Christmas and Easter to your neighbours.
We all knew. We were one and the same people.
Come to think of it, this was probably one of the reasons why the apartheid government needed to destroy District Six.
That kind of cultural harmony and tolerance – in the heart of the city centre – was not a good advertisement for the segregated society they were trying to build. So they destroyed this entire cosmopolitan village.
But they didn’t manage to destroy the spirit of District Six, which still lives on in the people of the Cape Flats.
Today, you’ll still see signs of that integration.
There is hardly a Christian family that doesn’t have a Muslim relative, and vice versa.
Munier himself has Christian family connections.
So it was with shock that Munier read about a school in Milnerton, where a Muslim learner allegedly had her headscarf pulled off by a teacher.
The principal decided – after doing his own research – that it was not necessary for Muslims to wear a doekie in the month of Ramadaan.
He had Googled the issue and quoted a website based in North Carolina, USA (which is apparently a Trump state).
He didn’t think of consulting the Muslim Judicial Council or the Western Cape Education Department before denying the girl’s mother’s request.
In the end, the WCED reprimanded the principal, saying: “In terms of the Constitution, as quoted by the [school] guidelines, schools should not prohibit attire such as yarmulkes and headscarves if they form part of religious practice.
“We believe the simplest approach would be for the school to adjust dress codes to meet these requirements.”
Problem solved. Amend the dress code.
If schools can raise their school fees each year and introduce a new curriculum, surely they can respect religious practices.
Honestly, this is not difficult. If you don’t know – ask, learn, try to understand.
But no, it seems the instinctive response is to be intolerant and discriminate.
This is not us. We don’t know about intolerance and ignorance. It’s something new and foreign, and Munier doesn’t like it one bit.
It’s time we went back to our roots and revisited the old values of District Six.
Outside communities could learn from it too.