South African chief sheikh Riad Fataar proclaims: 'I am Hamas!'

Sheikh Riad Fataar, president of South Africa’s Muslim Judicial Council (MJC), expressed staunch support for Hamas. In a speech he gave last week in Cape Town, Fataar was heard saying “I am Hamas, Cape Town is Hamas. Viva Hamas Viva! ...We support Hamas because Hamas follows the Aayah [verse] in the holy Quran...: ‘Fight those who fight you.’” The Sheikh also degraded the Christian teaching of giving the other cheek, adding, “You slap me – I slap you back!”

The MJC is regarded as the most influential Muslim organization in the Western Cape area. For this reason, Fataar’s remarks were met with much disdain from the Jewish community in the country, fearing that they would incite violence against Jews.

Chief Rabbi of South Africa, Warren Goldstein, commented on these remarks, adding: “This disturbing support for a brutal terror organization is not isolated to the MJC. It is part of a concerted effort to radicalize many stakeholders in South Africa, including the mainstream media, academia, and government. This radicalization takes the form of stigmatizing Israel by the false accusations of genocide and the moral equivalence between Hamas, a murderous terror organization, and Israel, a free democracy fighting for its life within the ethics of international law.

“This campaign has been effective which is why the open support of Hamas by the MJC is only being raised as an issue by the Jewish Report. None of the other media consider it objectionable or even noteworthy. The MJC statement is also a timely reminder for law enforcement to investigate the allegations raised by global media on how funds raised by the MJC and others for Hamas, have been banked and transferred from South Africa via local banks to Hamas, an organization on global terror lists,” added the chief rabbi.

Rolene Marks, national spokesperson of the South African Zionist Federation, commented: “If Sheikh Riad Fataar, president of the Muslim Judicial Council of South Africa, tells the world ‘I am Hamas’ then he is admitting publicly he is a terrorist. Hamas is recognised internationally as a terrorist organisation and was first recognised as one by the US in 1997.

“Hamas started the war with Israel on October 7 on a day in which it burned children alive, raped women, and shot civilians in cold blood – according to films by the terrorists themselves and eyewitness accounts. Hamas are dedicated to the genocide of the Jewish people and the State of Israel, as is laid out quite emphatically in the Hamas charter. Statements such as ‘I am Hamas’ should not attract ANC endorsement.

“The ANC has proven once again its intentions to marginalise the South African Jewish community. The South African government is proving, once again, that they cannot be an honest broker for any kind of negotiated two-state solution, which is actually the official foreign policy position of the South African government. They cannot be trusted if one of the leading political parties in government, the ANC, sides with a terrorist organization whose very foundational genocidal charter calls for the elimination of the State of Israel and the Jewish people.”

Support for terror, from terror

Despite the backlash, Fataar doubled down on his statements, stating that “his support for Hamas was rooted in advocating for the oppressed Palestinian people, not an attack on Jews,” He dismissed allegations that his remarks might incite violence as attempts to silence Palestinian support.

Fataar’s stances were backed by the Western Cape branch of the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), which expressed solidarity with the sheikh against what they deemed “an unwarranted attack by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies,” reminding that the organization responsible for the massacre of 1200 people and the kidnapping of over 250 hostages aged 0-86 is “recognized by the government of South Africa as a legitimate political formation in the struggle for Palestinian self-determination.”

Al-Quds Foundation South Africa, the local branch of the global Al-Quds Foundation designated by the US as a fundraising front for Hamas, also supported Fataar. The group defended Hamas as a “legitimate liberation movement fighting for Palestinian self-determination.” In June, The Jerusalem Post reported that the Al-Quds Foundation South Africa was designated as a terror-related entity on World-Check, a database of politically exposed persons and heightened risk agents used globally to identify and manage financial, regulatory, and reputational risks.

Al-Quds Foundation’s youth group, Youth for Al-Quds, also supported Fataar’s statements, denouncing a critical article published in the South African Jewish Report, blaming “the Zionists” of “mislay(ing) the narrative around HAMAS” and adding: “We stand behind our honourable Sheikh Riad Fataar loudly and proudly… We are proud when we say, ‘YOU are HAMAS, I am HAMAS, WE are ALL HAMAS!”

In the past months, the African National Congress Party-led South African government has sought to see itself as leading a battle against Israel on behalf of its allies in the global south such as Iran and Russia, working to grant Hamas legitimacy despite the atrocities it carried out on October 7 and the despite the antisemitic, violent and terror-lauding rhetoric of its leaders.

Earlier this year, the Post exposed that South African banks provide platforms to fund Hamas through a network of several organizations and straw man groups linked to the Al-Quds Foundation, a front for Hamas designated as such by both the US and Israel. Hamas officials have also visited South Africa several times since at least 2016, and ANC leaders have been praising and endorsing the group repeatedly since the October 7 massacre and before.