TheJamiatul Ulama Transvaal now theJamiatul Ulama South Africa (Council ofMuslim Theologians), headquartered inFordsburg,Johannesburg, was founded in 1923 to serve theMuslim community of the (now defunct)Transvaal Province ofSouth Africa.[1] It publishes a weekly online newsletter.[2]
It currently operates in the provinces that formerly made up the Transvaal, as well as in theFree State Province, and is one of a number of nationalMuslim organizations in South Africa.
The organization has been characterized asfundamentalist andDeobandi,[3] and it is widely perceived as having links with theTablighi Jamaat.
Large number of Muslims subscribe to decisions regardingfiqh (Islamic law) in the region where the organization operates. It also has significant influence on the running of manymosques andmadrasas in the region.
The Jamiatul Ulama South Africa has been criticised for its largely apolitical stance during theapartheid era. The organization, unlike its counterpart inKwaZulu-Natal, the Jamiatul Ulama KwaZulu-Natal was accused by more activist Islamic scholars at theTruth and Reconciliation Commission of not speaking out against thetricameral system, which denied black South Africans political power, while giving limited rights toColoureds andIndians.
The Jamiatul Ulama South Africa owns and manages a community radio station calledRadio Islam that broadcasts on theWitwatersrand. A complaint was made by an organization to theIndependent Communications Authority of South Africa in 1998 that the radio station was not allowing women to be heard on air. The station argued that Islam does not allow women's voices to be heard. The authority ruled against the station, and in response, the station collected a petition of 28,000 names from women who it claimed supported the decision to bar women from the airwaves.
The organization again made headlines in 2006 when it obtained an interdict against several South African newspaper companies in theJohannesburg High Court against the republishing of cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet,Muhammad. See:Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. This case raised important questions about the limits of freedom of expression in South Africa.
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