Al-Qalam 
By Imam Dr. A. Rashied Omar
When a Cape Town Moulana posted a video on social media about his second marriage, little did he realize that he would face a backlash from the community due to the sexual and sexist innuendos it contained.
For Moulana Dawood Sampson, the video about his marriage plans was intended to be funny, but his unsavoury choice of words came to bite him.
Trouble started brewing after the popular Imam spoke during his social media pulpit that he was planning to marry a second wife.
In the video released after jumu`ah on Friday 14 August, Moulana Dawood Sampson proudly announced his forthcoming marriage which was to take place on the significant date of the first day of the lunar year Muharram 1442. In the video post, which went viral, Moulana Dawood Sampson says he chose to assert his Islamic right to polygyny, and also encouraged other Muslim men to do the same in gratification of their sexual animalism and prowess.
He said: “My dear friends in Islam, as I told the men, if there is (sic) men that still got it, go and propose and get yourself a lovebird. Like a cock have two or three hens, come on men, we are cocks maybru (my brother), and get those hens inshallah.”
This provoked the ire of many women as well as men within the Cape Muslim community. After an unprecedented backlash on social media, the Western Cape `ulama body, the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC), felt compelled to issue a statement expressing their disappointment in the post and called on Maulana Dawood to apologize.
The apology from Moulana Dawood came via a new video posted on social media on Sunday 16 August, 48 hours after the release of his first video message announcing his upcoming nuptials. While many welcomed Moulana Dawood’s apology, others pointed out that he did not acknowledge his denigration of women nor did he take ownership of his distasteful words but instead accused his detractors of “misconstruing” his words.
Furthermore, they pointed out that Moulana Dawood has a long and notorious track record of objectifying women. He is on record as encouraging men to marry uneducated women, complaining about women executives who earn high salaries, and describing virtuous women as being mute. The outrage over Moulana Dawood’s derogation of women led to the creation of an online petition, which called on the Muslim Judicial Council to address the misogyny and toxic masculinity amongst Muslim leaders.
Broadcast
While Moulana Dawood Sampson’s public broadcast was littered with carnality and sexual imagery, one commentator said he was at least honest enough to publicly state his reasons for desiring a second wife. “Most Muslim men who practice polygyny, however, often do so secretly and without informing their first wives or their immediate family, who only find out months or years later through the grapevine”, one commented.
Commenting on the furore, Cape Islamic Scholar Imam Dr Rashied Omar said: “The solution to the deceptive manner in which some Muslim men engage in polygyny – both in the often-secretive act of marriage and in the non-fulfillment of the conditions thereof – is to regulate Muslim marriages in South African law so that men who insist on claiming their right to its practice are as honest as Moulana Dawood is.”
“Moreover, as is the case with Moulana Dawood, polygamous men need to provide evidence that they have consulted their first wives (mashura) and are able to afford the maintenance (nafaqa) of a second wife. In some cases, they may be necessitated to divide the estate at the point of a second marriage so that the first wife has her share.
“They may even have to issue a legal garnishing order to ensure that the first family is not neglected, and that all the Shari`ah conditions are fulfilled. Such regulations will make the practice of polygyny honest and transparent, and should be built into renewed efforts to have Muslim Personal Law enacted.
*See Letter to the Editor on Page 10.
