At the same time, so-called “Temple groups” have already begun calling their supporters to take part in incursions into Masjid al-Aqsa, alongside announcing extended incursion hours.  

This announcement needs to be understood clearly:

The Masjid is being opened to both Muslims and settlers alike. It was not opened on Wednesday evening, despite the ceasefire announcement, so that Muslims do not experience an exclusive return to Masjid al-Aqsa  

 The timing coincides with the final day of the Hebrew Passover, which will be used to stage scenes presented as “victory” and to escalate violations. Heavy restrictions on worshippers are expected.  

Incursion hours have now been extended to 6:30 am – 11:30 am and 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm.
This marks their longest duration yet, increasing from three hours in 2008 to six and a half hours today in 2026.

This is part of a long-term trajectory. Settler incursions into Masjid al-Aqsa began in 2003, with fixed timings introduced in 2008. Since then, these hours have steadily expanded. The stated aim is clear: to enforce a “time division” where access to Masjid al-Aqsa is split equally between Muslim worshippers and settler incursions.  

The threat of sacrificial offerings has not gone away. In fact, today ( Friday) carries an even greater risk, with likely renewed attempts to bring offerings into the Masjid or as close to it as possible.  

A new reality is being reinforced. Even before Ramadan, incursions would begin at 7:00 am. During Ramadan, this was pushed earlier to 6:30 am. Indications now suggest this earlier timing will be fixed and continued.  

The Israeli “Home Front Command” has declared that activities will resume from 6:00 am, reinforcing a shift where authority over opening and closing Masjid al-Aqsa is being removed from the Islamic Waqf, despite it being the sole legitimate authority responsible for Masjid al-Aqsa.

There will likely be intensified filming and documentation of the incursions, used as propaganda to project “control” and to normalise a dominant settler presence within Masjid al-Aqsa.

So this is an opening designed to expand incursions and impose a new reality on Masjid al-Aqsa.   

This is a new phase of escalation and violation.  

وَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّن مَّنَعَ مَسَاجِدَ اللَّهِ أَنْ يُذْكَرَ فِيهَا اسْمُهُ وَسَعَىٰ فِي خَرَابِهَا
“And who are more unjust than those who prevent the Name of Allah from being mentioned in His Masjids and strive towards their ruin… [Al-Baqarah]

احْفَظِ اللَّهَ يَحْفَظْكَ
“Guard and preserve what is sacred to Allah, and He will guard and preserve you.” [Sunan at-Tirmidhi]

Palestine Activist

The post The reality behind the reopening of Masjid al-Aqsa appeared first on Al-Qalam.

These movements, from shack dwellers to community advice centres, are not the product of party programmes. They are born of necessity, of lived experience, and of survival. Yet when traditional left parties intervene, they often fall into what can be called a triple entrapment: economism, statism, and partyism. They cling to outdated vanguardist models, assuming revolution is a mechanical outcome of economic contradictions, led by professional cadres under the auspices of a vanguard party. In doing so, they risk suffocating the grassroots energy that keeps resistance alive.

What is needed is a politics that listens. Instead of treating communities as raw material for party agendas, the left must recognise that the subaltern are not passive victims of history but active makers of it. The struggles for land, water, food, and dignity are not simply economic demands—they are acts of reclaiming humanity.

Examples abound. Gauteng Housing Crisis Committee land occupations and grassroots-based socioeconomic development initiatives, the popular education and advocacy work of Zabalaza Pathway Institute, and ILRIG’s counter-hegemonic research show us what grassroots socialism looks like in practice: survival treated as a collective right, not a commodity. These initiatives embody cooperative economics, mutual aid, and participatory democracy. The challenge now is to weave them together into a sustained, strategically informed challenge to capital.

Organisations such as the South African Communist Party, Socialist Party of Azania and Zabalaza Anarchist Socialist Front must redefine their roles. Their task is not to capture movements into party hierarchies but to act as shields, amplifiers, and allies. The ZACF can promote anarchist principles of horizontalism and mutual aid. SOPA can connect Black Consciousness and African communal traditions to modern Marxist Humanism. The SACP, with its nationwide reach, can defend grassroots movements from repression while re-anchoring its programme in local culture and cooperative initiatives.

If the left is to remain relevant, it must abandon the prophet model and embrace the pedagogy of listening. Revolution cannot be imposed from above; it must be cultivated from below, in kitchens, neighbourhoods, and community assemblies.

The focus should not only be on capturing the state but also on building communal, cooperative, and democratic forms of life. South Africa’s grassroots movements are already showing us the way. The question is whether the left will learn to follow.

Mphutlane wa Bofelo

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Fuelled by a combination of deliberate media negative framing of Islam and Muslims, Zionist linked communities are actively promoting Islamophobia in pursuance of a political agenda.

Wherever you turn, you will see negative images of Islam and Muslims being portrayed in the mainstream media, social media, in novels and in movies, etc. These negative images of Islam and Muslims are being driven mainly by Zionists and Christian Zionists.

One of the ways to counter this negative stereotyping and imagery, and as a form of soft dawah, is to invite the media to your local masjid or musalla to witness Iftar and maghrib salaah. 

Let them witness the universal brotherhood, unity and spirit of Iftar and Ramadan, and our salaah, where people across all races and social classes break fast together and pray next to each other – shoulder to shoulder.

Invite all media, but particularly the local community newspapers, the local community radio stations, podcast hosts and influencers, in addition to the usual mainstream media. 

In addition, you could also consider inviting the local religious leaders, the head of the local police station, the principals of local schools where children from the community attend, community leaders and local councillors.

Let one or two musalees be appointed to chaperone the guests and guide them along, doing soft dawah. 

No amount of preaching can substitute the visual effects of seeing people of all races and social classes share Iftar together and perform Salah shoulder to shoulder.

SAMNET encourages everyone to try their best to Google your local reporters, your local newspapers, radio stations, etc., in each of your areas, no matter how small or how large your Masjid or your Musallah is, and invite them to the beauty of Islam. 

Keep it apolitical; just focus on ‘breaking bread together’ – consider the same for Eid salah, whether at Eidgah or musjid.

South African Muslim Network (SAMNET)
Durban

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However, Ramadan presents to us an opportunity to draw us closer to Allah and to draw strength from Allah’s infinite power and mercy in order to enable us to face and defeat the ills that have engulfed the world. We are not only called to deprive ourselves of the desires of the flesh, but we are also called to do the necessary internal work to increase our consciousness that will in turn prepare us for a comprehensive battle against ourselves and against those who cause disharmony in the world.

Let us utilise this Ramadan to rededicate ourselves to the cause of eliminating tyranny, hunger and hopelessness. On each day of fasting, let us remember the people of Palestine, Sudan, Kashmir, the Democratic Republic of Congo and many other places in which the daily reality is that of death and destruction.

At a time when it seems easier to throw our collective hands up in resignation and it looks appealing to simply focus on one’s own welfare to the exclusion of all that is happening elsewhere, Ramadan comes to remind us of our connectedness. Giving up hope will strip us of our humanity and it will be a repudiation of our Muslimness.

The Muslim Youth Movement of South Africa wishes all Muslims in South Africa and around the world a blessed and mindful Ramadan.

Thandile Kona
President of MYMSA

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As we enter this blessed month, we pause to reflect on its purpose. At a time when our lives are so filled with social media feeds, with watching war and suffering, with navigating AI and illusions of truth and progress, Ramadaan brings a deeply needed space in which we can step back from technology and reflect, reconnecting with humanity and our Creator. 

Ramadaan is a time when small acts carry immeasurable weight.  A time when we embrace fasting, prayer and charity, re-uniting with the global Ummah.

AMA’s Ramadaan campaign focuses on the provision of suhoor and iftar meals, as well as water, in needy communities across the world.  Every meal shared and every drop of water given, revives a life, uplifts a soul, and draws us closer to the mercy of Allah.

And as we reconnect with our purpose, we also reconnect with the millions of families across the world whose lives are intertwined with ours in ways we may never see.

When a donor gives with sincerity, and a recipient receives with dignity, Allah places unseen barakah in between — transforming an act of giving into an act of worship.

This reconnection is already unfolding across the world, in the remote locations reached by AMA, with your generous donations.  It is seen when a mother prepares suhoor because you cared enough to give a grocery hamper, when a child drinks from a new water well and says ‘Alhamdulillah,’ and when families break their fast at a community iftaar sponsored through your generosity, knowing they were remembered by a stranger far away.

Through iftaar packs, grocery hampers, community iftaars, water wells and orphan sponsorships, your contribution becomes a bridge between hearts, a thread stitching communities back together with hope, dignity, and faith.

We encourage you to give with generosity to countries far away, and also to join us across South Africa as we set iftaar tables in our own neighbourhoods, inviting you to reconnect with your community, serving and sharing in beautiful acts of iba’dah. 

A single plate of food, a drop of water, a simple intention — each becomes a means of mercy. 

This Ramadaan, we are asking you to feel the meaning behind each act of giving. Reconnect with compassion, Reconnect with purpose, Reconnect with the people whose lives your generosity will touch in ways you may never witness, but Allah surely does.

On behalf of AMA, our teams, volunteers, and the millions we serve, we invite you to join us this Ramadaan.  Let us reconnect — with each other and with the Divine — as we strive to bring mercy, dignity, and hope to every home we can reach.

May Allah accept from you and from us.

AMA Media Team

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As the blessed month of Ramadan graces us once again, As-Salaam Educational Institute extends heartfelt Ramadan Mubarak to our learners, parents, staff, alumni and the wider community.

Ramadan is a sacred month of reflection and return, a return to Allah, to the Qur’an, and to the purification of our hearts. Through fasting, salaah and charity, we are nurtured in taqwa and reminded that true success lies not only in knowledge attained, but in faith lived and character refined.

During this blessed month, our school actively embraces the spirit of Ramadan through meaningful programmes and activities. These include collective Qur’an recitation, increased emphasis on salaah, Islamic talks and reminders, charity drives and outreach initiatives, as well as iftaar programmes that bring together learners, staff and members of the community. Through these efforts, Ramadan becomes a living classroom, shaping hearts as much as minds.

Ramadan also plays a vital role in nurturing the character of our young learners. Through fasting, children learn patience, self-control, gratitude and empathy for those who go without. They are taught the importance of sincerity in worship, kindness in speech and action, and the value of giving and sharing with others. These lessons lay a strong foundation for moral development and lifelong Islamic character.

As we observe Ramadan, we remember in our du‘ā those facing hardship, hunger, oppression and displacement across the world. This sacred month calls us to compassion and generosity, reminding us to share our blessings, stand for justice, and uplift those in need wherever they may be.

Within our own community, Ramadan strengthens unity, forgiveness and mutual care. It is a time to reinforce family values, support one another, and guide our children through positive examples and shared responsibility.

We make du‘ā that Allah accepts our fasting, our salaah, our charity and our sincere intentions. May He grant relief to those in distress, protect our learners, bless our community, and allow the lessons of Ramadan to guide us long after the month has passed.

Ramadan Mubarak.

As-Salaam Educational Institute

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Through fasting, we are taught discipline and self-restraint, learning to rise above unchecked desires, passions, and distractions. It is a training of the heart and soul that brings clarity, humility, and mindfulness into our daily lives.

This blessed month allows us to walk, even briefly, in the shoes of those who endure hunger and hardship throughout their lives. In doing so, we develop a deeper empathy for the less fortunate and come to understand the true meanings of mercy, love, peace, and compassion.

Ramadan is also a time of deep reflection and sincere self-assessment. Families and friends gather more often, hearts draw closer, and our focus shifts from the self to the collective good. It is a season filled with increased prayer, remembrance, contemplation, and unity.

It is a month of forgiveness — forgiving others, seeking forgiveness for ourselves, and letting go of anger, resentment, and negativity. Through our words, actions, and conduct, we strive to embody the light of peace and goodness. This sacred gift comes from our Lord, who says: “I am as My servant expects of Me.”

May this holy month bring immense benefit to our lives. May our hearts be filled with serenity, mercy, and compassion for all mankind. May our fasting and acts of worship be accepted, and may Allah bless us abundantly. May Ramadan be a truly transformative experience for us all, Insha Allah.

Ramadan Mubarak. 

Dr Ebrahim Dada
National Executive Director – Islamic Dawah Movement Of Southern Africa

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The Invisible Violence

While critics condemn “lethal repression,” they remain silent on the “silent killing” occurring in Iranian hospitals. Comprehensive sanctions targeting the financial and oil sectors have created a blockade preventing the import of life-saving medicines for cancer and rare diseases. The skyrocketing prices of basic goods and currency volatility are intended outcomes of a “Maximum Pressure” campaign designed to immiserate 90 million citizens. To demand “irreversible reforms” while a state’s lifeblood is drained by a global financial blockade is not a call for justice; it is a call for total surrender.

The Instrumentalization of Dissent

In a sanctioned environment, every internal grievance becomes a vector for foreign exploitation. The Iranian government is in a perpetual “full-scale war” against cyber-sabotage, information operations, and the arming of fringe elements by foreign adversaries. Labelling the maintenance of order as “repression” while ignoring coordinated attacks by foreign-backed provocateurs betrays the principle of ʿadl (justice). Justice requires viewing Iran as a sovereign nation under siege, preserving its independence against an order that treats its resistance as a crime.

The Reality of Security and Civil Society

Internal security policies are defensive responses to state subversion. They are anchored in Amanah, the sacred obligation to protect citizens from foreign-engineered fragmentation. When protests escalate to the killing of security personnel and the burning of buildings, they become a paramilitary threat. State responses, including internet restrictions, are calculated as “securitization” measures to break the command structures of external agitators.

A Moral Contradiction

Sanctions destroy the middle class, the foundation of stable civic space, forcing a population into survival mode where “moral clarity” is a luxury. Freedom for Iran is not being “postponed” by a regime; it is being stolen by an international order refusing to allow Iran to exist on its own terms. Meaningful change can only emerge once the external knee is removed from the throat of the Iranian economy, allowing the people to determine their own destiny free from the weight of a global blockade.

M. Murshid Obaray

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The Trump Plan does little more than provide a distracting smokescreen for ongoing genocide with its newly announced ‘Board of Peace’, accelerating the pace of the entrenchment of a concentration camp in Gaza on the rubble of what is increasingly being referred to as a Zionist holocaust. This plan, like others before it, is designed to normalise and perpetuate oppression, not to deliver justice or peace. We take our lead from the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and echo its call for a global wave of resistance to the US empire, which must begin with ending Israel’s genocide. 

We are deeply outraged that the chief engineer of the genocide, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, against whom the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for war crimes – has accepted an invitation to join the laughably named ‘Board of Peace’. But even before the announcement of his inclusion, the Board represented naked racist imperialism. It is led by an executive stacked with fascistic, hyper-racial capitalist, pro-Israel war mongers and includes not a single Palestinian member.

Among those appointed to the executive are: 

• Ultra right-wing US Secretary of State Marco Rubio; 
• US Special Envoy and longtime friend of Trump, Steve Witkoff, who has no foreign policy experience;
• Trump’s son-in-law, real estate developer Jared Kushner, who has championed the total expropriation and settlement of Gaza for the development of ‘waterfront property’; 
• Former UK Prime Minister responsible for the massacre of over a million Iraqis, Tony Blair; 
• Billionaire investor and funder of pro-Israel propaganda, Marc Rowan; 
• World Bank President and former Chief Executive of Mastercard, Ajay Banga and; 
• Trump’s national security advisor and loyal aide Robert Gabriel.

Trump has also invited States to buy a permanent seat on the ‘Board of Peace’ for the sum of 1 billion USD. The ‘Board of Peace’ accompanies a technocratic committee to govern Gaza, installed and overseen by the colonial administration.

In the words of Palestinian South African scholar Haidar Eid, the Trump Plan ‘is nothing but the antithesis of the Palestinian right to self-determination for which thousands of men, women, and children have sacrificed their lives’.

Since the announcement of the first ‘ceasefire’ phase on 10 October 2025, Israel has continued its massacres, killing at least 451 Palestinians from Gaza and injuring 1,223.  Between 10 October 2025 and 15 January 2026, Israel violated the ceasefire agreement at least 1,244 times. This is a systematic decimation of international law in service of Israel’s settler-colonial expansion. 

In the course of the ‘ceasefire’, Israel has also banned 37 aid organisations, and is continuing its attempt to settle and strangulate Gaza via starvation. This is a direct violation of the International Court of Justice Order in South Africa v. Israel, which, on 28 March 2024, held that, ‘[t]he State of Israel shall take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.’

This is not a ceasefire; it is a continuation of genocide by other means. As the BDS movement asserts, U.S. imperial power is the primary sponsor of this genocide. By rebranding genocidal belligerence as ‘diplomacy’, Israel and the U.S. are gaslighting the world, providing Western media an excuse to look away and fostering a false sense that justice is being served.

Our Jewish conscience, our shared humanity, and the lessons of the South African anti-apartheid struggle compel us to action. We heed the BDS call for a global escalation of pressure to dismantle the structures of empire and apartheid. There can be no peace without justice.

We therefore call for:

• Sustained and escalated global grassroots pressure, in support of BDS, to hold Israel accountable and end all complicity in its genocide.
• Immediate, full, and unconditional opening of all crossings for humanitarian aid and commercial goods.
• The opening of the Rafah Crossing to allow the wounded and critically ill to access medical treatment.
• A recommitment to working ferociously towards a free Palestine, from the river to the sea, where all its people live in dignity, justice, and equality.

The struggle for the liberation of Palestine must be led by Palestinians. Only they can lead the way towards peace and justice, rather than having their future dictated to them by a committee of warmongers and imperialists seeking to profit from their suffering. We therefore reaffirm our commitment to the BDS movement and will continue working towards a free Palestine in our lifetime, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. 

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From the Ottoman era and long before, Palestine upheld a civic pluralism that protected the dignity of all who lived there. 

That legacy was shattered in 1948, when a state built through dispossession and imposed without consent was declared on Palestinian soil.

The two-state formula, celebrated by diplomats as a pragmatic compromise, asks Palestinians to legitimize this rupture. 

It reduces a century of expulsion and occupation into a cartographic puzzle, two states living “side by side”, while ignoring that one state was created through force and the other is denied sovereignty. To accept this framework is to accept inequality as destiny.

The two-state solution rests on assumptions that have never reflected reality: equal partners, contiguous territories, and a fair international community. Decades of settlement expansion have fractured Palestinian land into disconnected enclaves. 

Calls for Hamas to relinquish authority reveal a deeper hypocrisy: democracy is defended only when it produces leaders the West approves of. Palestinians alone have the right to choose their government, free from coercion or veto. Even Gaza’s reconstruction is being shaped by figures like Tony Blair, a man whose decisions helped devastate Iraq, now repackaged as a neutral advisor for Palestinian futures. 

This is not justice; it is colonial management.

A single, democratic Palestinian state is not a rejection of Jewish life. It is a rejection of Zionist exclusivism and a return to the region’s historical norm: coexistence under a civic order that protects everyone equally.

Such a state must guarantee full rights to Muslims, Christians, Jews, and others. It must also uphold accountability: the right of return for Palestinian refugees, the removal of settlers implanted through colonial expansion, and legal consequences for those who orchestrated or carried out atrocities.

To stand for Palestine is to stand for universal principles: dignity, equality, and unambiguous justice. Any solution that legitimizes occupation or erases historical truth perpetuates the very harm it claims to solve.

The two-state framework has failed because it was never designed to confront the core injustice. A single democratic Palestine, unified, accountable, and rooted in equality, is the only moral and sustainable alternative. 

Salim Mohamed Badat
Durban writer, exploring the intersections of faith, politics

The post One Palestine: ‘Why the Two-State framework has failed’ appeared first on Al-Qalam.