Al-Qalam 
By Al-Qalam Reporter
“A hero, a teacher, a struggle icon, and a great leader”, that is how the late anti-apartheid activist Imam Achmad Cassiem has been described by all who knew him.
On July 14, Cassiem sadly passed away at the age of 77. He dedicated most of his life to fighting in the struggle against apartheid – and was firm in his stance against global oppression.
Tributes continued to pour in from across the country for Cassiem whose janazah was held at the Habibia Soofie Masjid in Athlone, Cape Town.
Ebrahim Bardien, a close childhood friend of the late struggle hero, said he shared a remarkable friendship with Cassiem which spanned over six decades.
“I’ve known him since January 1959, a lengthy friendship of 64 years. While differences of opinion between us existed over that long period, it never ever resulted in the slightest severance of our brotherly relationship over those 64 years. May the Almighty pardon my dear brother and ease his return to the akhirah,” said Bardien.
“Achmat finished high school at Trafalgar. At the time, he was arrested, charged, and sentenced towards the end of 1964, so he couldn’t sit for his final matric exam at the end of that year. However, he matriculated during the earliest part of his incarceration on Robben Island. When I visited him on the Island, he was already busy with his UNISA degree,” said Bardien.
According to sahistory.org, Cassiem joined the armed struggle at the young age of just 15.
In August 1964, he was held without trial under the 90-day detention law. In December of that year, he was sentenced to five years in prison. And while imprisoned on Robben Island, he completed his matric as well as his BA in philosophy.
After five years, he was released from prison and immediately banned.
But Cassiem’s fight didn’t end there. In 1976, he was detained for allegedly inciting armed revolt whilst addressing students at a mosque in Surrey Estate. This resulted in him being banned again for a further five years. At the time he was a teacher at Westridge Senior Secondary School in Mitchells Plain. As his journey continued, in 1979, Cassiem became a key figure in the founding of Qibla, which was a movement dedicated to the fight for justice.
He was arrested for organising school boycotts against racist education and was released after 240 days in detention without trial. In 1984, he was arrested at a Jumu’ah (Friday prayer) with 56 other people. And in 1986, he was arrested under Section 29 of the Internal Security Act and Charged with ‘terrorism’.
At the time, the state cited certain Quranic verses that Imam Cassiem had quoted and declared that these verses were ‘subversive’. He was sentenced to six years imprisonment.
Although Cassiem had been released three years into his sentence, he remained under severe restrictions until 1993. By 1994, he had become largely instrumental in the establishment of the Islamic Unity Convention and later served as its chairperson. He then went on to lead the Pan-Africanist Congress in the Western Cape.
