VIDEO: Authorities Destroy Mosques in Angola

The destruction of at least 11 mosques in the last two months in Angola is provoking reactions of outrage online.

According to Voz da América [pt], Angolan authorities state that the reason for the destruction is illegal construction. Other reports add that the process of legalization of Islam and other religions in the country has not been approved by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, and therefore, according to the news agency of the state AngolaPress, “their temples will be closed until the new pronunciation in the case”. The Minister of Culture, Rosa Cruz e Silva, said that a law related to liberty of religious assembly should be revised “as a way of fighting ‘vigorously’ the coming up of new religious congregation whose religious assembly are contrary to our habits and customs to Angolan culture.”

The Muslim Community of Angola (CISA) considers that the government is undertaking religious persecution and preventing the realization of religious cults. So is referred in the caption of a video posted on Youtube last September by Coque Manuel which shows a mosque in the city of Moxico being destroyed:

A destruição (…) deve ser imediatamente interrompida e exigimos ao Presidente Angola que peça desculpas aos muçulmanos em todo o mundo. Se não, então gostaríamos de convidar a comunidade Islâmica para realizar manifestações pacíficas em frente dos edifícios das embaixadas angolanas em todo o mundo.

The destruction (…) must be immediately stopped and we demand an apology from the President of Angola to muslims around the world. If not, then we would like to invite the Islam community to protest peacefully in front of the buildings of Angolan embassies around the world.

3 comments

Join the conversation

Authors, please log in »

Guidelines

  • All comments are reviewed by a moderator. Do not submit your comment more than once or it may be identified as spam.
  • Please treat others with respect. Comments containing hate speech, obscenity, and personal attacks will not be approved.