Phenomenal piece. Even here in Cape Town, a million miles away, I am seeing my once English, Christian suburb (where we used to go carol singing as kids) being replaced. First there was the distant, 'exotic' sound of the call of the muezzin (before we knew what it meant), followed by a slow 'hijra'; until suddenly, one day, your sense of place is gone, replaced by hijabs, burkas, indignant looking young men parking their kitsch cars illegally on curbs, and at stop streets. And always the slow creep of concrete and the eradication of natural beauty. It's difficult to imagine my place of birth, childhood, my teens no longer existing - that one day it will be lost forever, as though my family and me - and our neighbours, our community - never existed at all.
My understanding is that by South African standards, Cape Town/Province is the most “enlightened” (to the extent that anything can even be a little bit enlightened) region of the country and the least dominated by the ANC and Muslims.
The Western Cape is the least ANC-dominated province. That part is true. The DA has run it since 2009. In 2024, the ANC fell to about 20%; the DA kept a majority. Cape Town metro is DA-run. If “not ANC” is a measure of enlightened, then, yes Cape Town is just that.
However... it is not the province “least dominated by Muslims.” It is the opposite.
Census 2022: Islam is 5.2% in the Western Cape versus 1.6% nationally. The country’s oldest and most visible Muslim community is in Cape Town. They are also demonstrably far louder and more visible than other populations. They assert their ideology and their culture. Want to have an eggs benedict (bacon) or a ham sandwich at Cape Town's Baxter Theatre restaurant (the second-largest theatre in Cape Town)? Think again. They are certified halaal... Which means even though Muslims are 5% of the population, 95% of the culture must submit to their religious dictates. Sound familiar?
Cape Town being better run than Johannesburg does not make it a post-identity idyll (not that you're saying that). Recently (2024), the main clerical body of the province, the Muslim Judicial Council, had its president tell a crowd: “I am Hamas! Cape Town is Hamas!” The ANC’s Western Cape branch backed him. You can hear “from the river to the sea” at ordinary public events - it was being chanted at the turnstiles at a cricket game I went to last year at the famous Newlands Cricket Ground.
Drive past Herzlia (a Jewish school) in Tamboerskloof and there are armed guards with rifles outside. This is what a small Jewish community is forced to do when the loudest religious leadership has identified the city with Hamas - and after an explosive device was thrown at Jewish communal offices in Gardens (adjacent suburb). All largely covered-up by a left wing captured media (just like in the US and Europe).
So: least ANC, yes. Most “enlightened” - if that means DA municipalities and fewer rolling blackouts than Gauteng - sure! Least Muslim - not at all. The Cape is where South African Islam is oldest, densest, and currently most politically and culturally virulent.
Great article. Unfortunately, from Christmas markets to local celebrations, we are seeing Islam creep in and destroy our world. Our leaders did not learn from Lebanon.
Muslim anti-Semitism originated in the 7th century, with Muhammad. Islamic scripture, including the Koran and Hadith, describes the Jewish community of Yathrib (now Medina) repeatedly refusing to convert to Islam when asked to, and mocking Muhammad’s claim to be God’s final prophet in the Jewish and Christian tradition.
Muhammad then cursed the Jews, calling them “the offspring of apes and pigs” and condemning them in this world and the next.
Islamic teaching instructs Muslims to love what Allah loves and hate what Allah hates. Allah loves Muslims and hates disbelievers.
The Jews—who rejected Islam and mocked Muhammad—are regarded as Islam’s most persistent enemy. This is underscored by Koran 5:82: “You will find the most vehement of the people in hostility to the believers to be the Jews.”
Muslim Jew-hatred is reflected in various Hadith, such as the one that is part of the Hamas Charter: “The Day of Judgement will not come until Muslims fight the Jews, when the Jews will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say ‘O Muslim, there is a Jew behind me, come and slaughter him.’”
Islamic anti-Semitism has intensified in modern times. During the 1930s and 40s, Nazi propaganda exacerbated Muslim Arab eliminationism..
Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, collaborated closely with the Nazis during World War II. Al-Husseini met with Hitler and other Nazi leaders, endorsed their anti-Semitic views, promoted Nazi propaganda claims, and encouraged Arab Islamists to back the Nazi war effort.
Through this connection, Adolf Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf, was translated into Arabic, and is to this day widely read and revered in the Islamic world for its anti-Jewish content.
Pakistan’s famed Ulema scholar, Sheikh Maulana Mawdudi has expressed admiration for “the ingenious and mighty leadership of Adolf Hitler and his comrades.”
Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrullah has echoed Nazi racial sentiments, stating: “If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew.”
Sermonising against Israel on Egypt's Al-Rahma TV in October 2009, Egyptian cleric Hazem Shuman stated: “It has been proven that the Jews are like a cancer – if they are not removed from the body of the [Islamic] nation, they will kill the entire nation.”
Another key factor is the belief that once a place has been ruled by Islam, it remains the rightful property of Muslims forever.
Koran 2:191: “Kill them wherever you come upon them and drive them out of the places from which they have driven you out.”
Israel, part of the Middle East under Ottoman Turkish Muslim control for centuries after the fall of the Byzantine Empire—with a brief interlude of Crusader occupation—is thus viewed by Muslim Arabs (and indeed the entire Islamic Ummah) as Islamic land that must be reclaimed.
Ahmad Bahr, Deputy Speaker of the Hamas Parliament, stated on Al-Aqsa TV in 2012: “If the enemy sets foot on a single square inch of Islamic land, Jihad becomes an individual duty, incumbent on every Muslim, male or female.”
Speaking at a Gaza public rally in 2012, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal proclaimed: “Since Palestine is ours, and it is the land of the Arabs and Islam, it is unthinkable that we would recognise the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation of it ... Let me emphasise that we adhere to this fundameintal principle: We do not recognize Israel … The Palestinian resistance will crush it and sweep it away, be it Allah’s will.”
Such statements convey a brief sample of Islamic anti-Semitism and eliminationism, an absolute denial of the right of the Jews to a homeland of their own, on lands that traditionally belonged to the Jewish people for over two millennia before the advent of Muhammad.
The Palestinian Arabs could have had their own state in 1948 when the UN voted to partition part of the former British Mandate of Palestine into a state for the Palestinian Arabs and a state for the Jews, but chose instead to try and wipe out the Jews altogether.
Despite getting flogged by the Israelis in this—and every subsequent conflict they have provoked—Muslim Arabs have never resiled from that position. Many Arab maps of the Middle East do not even show Israel.
The Palestinian Arabs have made it very clear that if they have to live next door to a Jewish state, they are not interested in another Arab state on part of the lands of the former Ottoman Empire.
The Arab Islamist pack snarl “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” actually means “From the River [Jordan] to the [Mediterranean] Sea, Palestine will be Jew-free.”
Given this historical and ideological backdrop, we can see that from the Arab Islamist perspective, any cessation of hostilities will always be temporary and tactical.
The precedent comes from the Treaty of al-Hudaybiyyah (628 AD), when Muhammad, being militarily weaker than the Quraysh, signed a ten-year peace treaty with the Meccans.
Once his forces grew stronger, Muhammad trumped up an excuse to claim the treaty had been broken, using this as justification to march on and conquer Mecca.
In classical Islamic jurisprudence, this episode underpins the doctrine that a truce [hudna] with unbelievers may be concluded only when Muslims are too weak to continue jihad successfully.
It must not exceed ten years, after which hostilities should resume if the balance of power allows.
Jurists like Ibn Taymiyyah and al-Mawardi explicitly codified this principle: truces are permissible only for tactical reasons and only temporarily, until conditions favour renewed jihad.
This means any peace treaty with non-Muslims is provisional and strategic, never permanent.
The invocation “Remember Hudaybiyyah” among Palestinian Arab leaders when speaking of ceasefires or peace treaties with Israel directly alludes to this very logic — outward accommodation masking a long-term strategic objective.
Lasting peace is impossible with deceitful people who harbor such deep-seated, longstanding religious-based hatred and enmity.
Just brilliant and utterly terrifying as it's logic becomes reality for we compromising kindly saps that think that the crocodile only wants a place at the table.
Phenomenal piece. Even here in Cape Town, a million miles away, I am seeing my once English, Christian suburb (where we used to go carol singing as kids) being replaced. First there was the distant, 'exotic' sound of the call of the muezzin (before we knew what it meant), followed by a slow 'hijra'; until suddenly, one day, your sense of place is gone, replaced by hijabs, burkas, indignant looking young men parking their kitsch cars illegally on curbs, and at stop streets. And always the slow creep of concrete and the eradication of natural beauty. It's difficult to imagine my place of birth, childhood, my teens no longer existing - that one day it will be lost forever, as though my family and me - and our neighbours, our community - never existed at all.
My understanding is that by South African standards, Cape Town/Province is the most “enlightened” (to the extent that anything can even be a little bit enlightened) region of the country and the least dominated by the ANC and Muslims.
The Western Cape is the least ANC-dominated province. That part is true. The DA has run it since 2009. In 2024, the ANC fell to about 20%; the DA kept a majority. Cape Town metro is DA-run. If “not ANC” is a measure of enlightened, then, yes Cape Town is just that.
However... it is not the province “least dominated by Muslims.” It is the opposite.
Census 2022: Islam is 5.2% in the Western Cape versus 1.6% nationally. The country’s oldest and most visible Muslim community is in Cape Town. They are also demonstrably far louder and more visible than other populations. They assert their ideology and their culture. Want to have an eggs benedict (bacon) or a ham sandwich at Cape Town's Baxter Theatre restaurant (the second-largest theatre in Cape Town)? Think again. They are certified halaal... Which means even though Muslims are 5% of the population, 95% of the culture must submit to their religious dictates. Sound familiar?
Cape Town being better run than Johannesburg does not make it a post-identity idyll (not that you're saying that). Recently (2024), the main clerical body of the province, the Muslim Judicial Council, had its president tell a crowd: “I am Hamas! Cape Town is Hamas!” The ANC’s Western Cape branch backed him. You can hear “from the river to the sea” at ordinary public events - it was being chanted at the turnstiles at a cricket game I went to last year at the famous Newlands Cricket Ground.
Drive past Herzlia (a Jewish school) in Tamboerskloof and there are armed guards with rifles outside. This is what a small Jewish community is forced to do when the loudest religious leadership has identified the city with Hamas - and after an explosive device was thrown at Jewish communal offices in Gardens (adjacent suburb). All largely covered-up by a left wing captured media (just like in the US and Europe).
So: least ANC, yes. Most “enlightened” - if that means DA municipalities and fewer rolling blackouts than Gauteng - sure! Least Muslim - not at all. The Cape is where South African Islam is oldest, densest, and currently most politically and culturally virulent.
Great article. Unfortunately, from Christmas markets to local celebrations, we are seeing Islam creep in and destroy our world. Our leaders did not learn from Lebanon.
Despite the smokescreens, it’s still about jihad.
Muslim anti-Semitism originated in the 7th century, with Muhammad. Islamic scripture, including the Koran and Hadith, describes the Jewish community of Yathrib (now Medina) repeatedly refusing to convert to Islam when asked to, and mocking Muhammad’s claim to be God’s final prophet in the Jewish and Christian tradition.
Muhammad then cursed the Jews, calling them “the offspring of apes and pigs” and condemning them in this world and the next.
Islamic teaching instructs Muslims to love what Allah loves and hate what Allah hates. Allah loves Muslims and hates disbelievers.
The Jews—who rejected Islam and mocked Muhammad—are regarded as Islam’s most persistent enemy. This is underscored by Koran 5:82: “You will find the most vehement of the people in hostility to the believers to be the Jews.”
Muslim Jew-hatred is reflected in various Hadith, such as the one that is part of the Hamas Charter: “The Day of Judgement will not come until Muslims fight the Jews, when the Jews will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say ‘O Muslim, there is a Jew behind me, come and slaughter him.’”
Islamic anti-Semitism has intensified in modern times. During the 1930s and 40s, Nazi propaganda exacerbated Muslim Arab eliminationism..
Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, collaborated closely with the Nazis during World War II. Al-Husseini met with Hitler and other Nazi leaders, endorsed their anti-Semitic views, promoted Nazi propaganda claims, and encouraged Arab Islamists to back the Nazi war effort.
Through this connection, Adolf Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf, was translated into Arabic, and is to this day widely read and revered in the Islamic world for its anti-Jewish content.
Pakistan’s famed Ulema scholar, Sheikh Maulana Mawdudi has expressed admiration for “the ingenious and mighty leadership of Adolf Hitler and his comrades.”
Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrullah has echoed Nazi racial sentiments, stating: “If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew.”
Sermonising against Israel on Egypt's Al-Rahma TV in October 2009, Egyptian cleric Hazem Shuman stated: “It has been proven that the Jews are like a cancer – if they are not removed from the body of the [Islamic] nation, they will kill the entire nation.”
Another key factor is the belief that once a place has been ruled by Islam, it remains the rightful property of Muslims forever.
Koran 2:191: “Kill them wherever you come upon them and drive them out of the places from which they have driven you out.”
Israel, part of the Middle East under Ottoman Turkish Muslim control for centuries after the fall of the Byzantine Empire—with a brief interlude of Crusader occupation—is thus viewed by Muslim Arabs (and indeed the entire Islamic Ummah) as Islamic land that must be reclaimed.
Ahmad Bahr, Deputy Speaker of the Hamas Parliament, stated on Al-Aqsa TV in 2012: “If the enemy sets foot on a single square inch of Islamic land, Jihad becomes an individual duty, incumbent on every Muslim, male or female.”
Speaking at a Gaza public rally in 2012, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal proclaimed: “Since Palestine is ours, and it is the land of the Arabs and Islam, it is unthinkable that we would recognise the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation of it ... Let me emphasise that we adhere to this fundameintal principle: We do not recognize Israel … The Palestinian resistance will crush it and sweep it away, be it Allah’s will.”
Such statements convey a brief sample of Islamic anti-Semitism and eliminationism, an absolute denial of the right of the Jews to a homeland of their own, on lands that traditionally belonged to the Jewish people for over two millennia before the advent of Muhammad.
The Palestinian Arabs could have had their own state in 1948 when the UN voted to partition part of the former British Mandate of Palestine into a state for the Palestinian Arabs and a state for the Jews, but chose instead to try and wipe out the Jews altogether.
Despite getting flogged by the Israelis in this—and every subsequent conflict they have provoked—Muslim Arabs have never resiled from that position. Many Arab maps of the Middle East do not even show Israel.
The Palestinian Arabs have made it very clear that if they have to live next door to a Jewish state, they are not interested in another Arab state on part of the lands of the former Ottoman Empire.
The Arab Islamist pack snarl “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” actually means “From the River [Jordan] to the [Mediterranean] Sea, Palestine will be Jew-free.”
Given this historical and ideological backdrop, we can see that from the Arab Islamist perspective, any cessation of hostilities will always be temporary and tactical.
The precedent comes from the Treaty of al-Hudaybiyyah (628 AD), when Muhammad, being militarily weaker than the Quraysh, signed a ten-year peace treaty with the Meccans.
Once his forces grew stronger, Muhammad trumped up an excuse to claim the treaty had been broken, using this as justification to march on and conquer Mecca.
In classical Islamic jurisprudence, this episode underpins the doctrine that a truce [hudna] with unbelievers may be concluded only when Muslims are too weak to continue jihad successfully.
It must not exceed ten years, after which hostilities should resume if the balance of power allows.
Jurists like Ibn Taymiyyah and al-Mawardi explicitly codified this principle: truces are permissible only for tactical reasons and only temporarily, until conditions favour renewed jihad.
This means any peace treaty with non-Muslims is provisional and strategic, never permanent.
The invocation “Remember Hudaybiyyah” among Palestinian Arab leaders when speaking of ceasefires or peace treaties with Israel directly alludes to this very logic — outward accommodation masking a long-term strategic objective.
Lasting peace is impossible with deceitful people who harbor such deep-seated, longstanding religious-based hatred and enmity.
Excellent article. We witnessed the 70s and 80s along southern border of Lebanon with Israel. The world failed to understand what was happening.
Wow, what an analysis
Just brilliant and utterly terrifying as it's logic becomes reality for we compromising kindly saps that think that the crocodile only wants a place at the table.
As opposed to eating us all alive.