Iran Press/ Africa: Qibla Movement took up the responsibility in South Africa when Imam Khomeini declared the last Friday of Ramadaan as the International Quds Day. Through all of the trying and testing period during the apartheid years and after, Qibla has kept up with the commemoration of Quds Day. Iran Press correspondent raised this question What stood behind this motivation for Qibla?
Yusuf Patel said: "First and foremost we've been a revolutionary organization. So when the Islamic Revolution came about in Iran, we immediately associated with this because it was an Islamic base. Many of us came from various other secular movements. But we had to find something which is Islamic. And that gave rise to the assembly of Qibla in 1979 and the leaders of Imam Achmat Cassim."
Patel added: "The Quds day when Imam Khomeini came out was a call of the Quds day, we immediately took it up, and since then, this is the 42nd year that the Quds march has been observed. Even in 1985, and 1986, Imam Achmat and I were arrested. While we were in prison, the brothers outside carried on with the march, despite the oppression of the Apartheid state in South Africa at that time."
Iran Press correspondent raised another regarding Imam Khomeini's vision over 40 years ago that he declared this day. Now the scenes that are playing out in Palestine, and the world is standing up against the genocide, but Imam Khomeini already had this vision over forty years ago. What does that tell us about the type of leadership that he had?
Yusuf Patel said: "No, look, Imam Khomeini was a leader of the 80s and 90s. He was in that century, the person that stood for the oppressed people around the world."
So in our case, with the oppression that we went through at that time, we could easily identify with the question of his call and with the Islamic Revolution at the time. We wanted to see to it whether we could bring about the type of revolution that the people of Iran went through.
So, when Imam Khomeini was there - if you've got to talk about it - he fell among the question of the Che Guevara, the Malek al-Shabazz, Malcolm X, those were the people. But he had the intellect to establish a base for the revolution to happen.
And therefore when he made the call he said that the freedom of Palestine is essential to the freedom of the world. We took it up because South Africa and the apartheid state were the people that supported the State of Israel and therefore the state of Israel was funded by our mines and gold and diamonds in 1914 -1915.
In 1948 the person who was pushing for the State of Israel was the former General Smuts who was the Prime Minister of South Africa. So it was easy for us to associate with that because their freedom and our freedom were interlinked in that.
Regarding the vanguard of the International Community in the Palestinian struggle, Yusuf Patel concluded: "Look, the vanguard of that struggle should be the question of social justice. The thing is, Africa needs to be decolonized. For us to able to see to it that the materials and wealth of Africa are not there to support the state of Israel.
And therefore, for Israel to become free, they've got to become decolonized, and that's why there's an interlink between Africa and the Palestinian people. So the question of decolonization is critical. We see what's happening in Burkina Faso now. We see what’s happening in Nigeretc. That is the movement of the new Africa that needs to come out, which. was advocated by people like Thomas Sankara, Amilcar Cabral, Julius Nyerere, and all the African revolutionaries. And therefore, we would advocate the freedom and decolonization of Africa, and we're going to pressure our government to give support to those countries, but also to decolonize us to get the Zionists out of our country.
He added Palestine will never be free unless Africa becomes free, because our resources are being used to finance the state of Israel. Our diamonds are still being cut in Israel.
It has been there since the inception of the discovery of diamonds, that the state of Israel was established by our diamond industry. And therefore, we've got to see to it that our wealth doesn't go to the state of Israel, and that will ensure that we become decolonized and they (Palestine) will become decolonized too.
