Doha: Days after reports banning Islam in Angola created anger in the Muslim world and the consequent denial of the reports by Angolan officials, Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) said the Muslim panel is planning to send its own team to verify the actual situation in the Christian dominated country.
"After denials from Angolan officials, we are working on dispatching a fact finding team to get an internationally accepted report," OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told Al-Jazeera in an interview aired on Wednesday.
"We have clearly expressed our opinion that we cannot accept this (decision)", he added.
"We have also launched a diplomatic campaign to ask the United Nations, the African Union, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) to take a firm position against any proposed ban", he said.
Reports about Islam ban in Angola surfaced on Sunday after local news agencies and media quoted the Angolan minister of culture, Rosa Cruz, saying "the process of legalization of Islam has not been approved by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, their mosques would be closed until further notice."
The reports were soon denied by the Angolan embassy officials in Washington.
"Angola is a country that does not interfere in religion. There is no such ban, and that the reports are erroneous", an unnamed official was quoted as saying by The International Business Times.
However, David Ja, the president of the Muslim Council of Angola, in an AFP interview confirmed that all of Angola's 60 mosques were closed at present, eight mosques have been dismantled in the past two years.
He added that Muslim women were not allowed to wear a veil in public.
He also emphasized that the action against Islamic institutions had been taken under Angolan law, rather than as a result of random religious persecution.
"Anyone who practiced the Islamic faith ran the risk of being found guilty of "qualified disobedience" of Angola's penal code", he said.
Angolan embassy in US says 'Islam ban' reports erroneousAngolan diplomats in the United States have rejected reports that it has banned Islam - but not before the widely reported news that it had done so sent shock waves among the Muslims around the world. The International Business Times quoted a spokesperson from the Angolan embassy in Washington DC, who said Angola is "a country that does not interfere in religion"..... Read More
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