Here's a bit more detail from Pretoria News.

-BambaLaye

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City Muslim clerics held and in Gambia

By Hanti Otto

A Pretoria father and son, both religious leaders in the Muslim community,
have been arrested by Gambian security forces.

The Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday confirmed that moulanas
(clerics) Farhaad Ahmed Dockrat and his son Muaaz had been detained in
Gambia.

The department, however, would not say when or why they were arrested.

Members of the Muslim community were earlier requested in mosques to pray
for the Erasmia pair's release, shortly after they failed to return to
South Africa on October 4.

Farhaad Dockrat, in his mid-40s, has been the principal of the Darus
Salaam Islamic College in Laudium for the past 20 years. His son, in his
20s, is a lecturer there.

Family member Ashraf Dockrat last night said the two men left South Africa
for Senegal on September 27. They were accompanied by a Gambian student,
Hafiz Omar Saikou Wally, who studied at the college where the two moulanas
taught. “Mr Wally would have taken them from Senegal to Gambia in a
vehicle to show them the teaching methods used in the Islamic centres in
that region,” said Dockrat, speaking on behalf of the family.

However, the father and son did not return home as planned.

“When they failed to arrive, the family contacted a person in Dhaka,
Senegal. This person followed their trail to a lodge, but there the trail
went cold. They had no contact with anyone in South Africa since they
left.

“It was also confirmed that Mr Wally had no contact with his family in
Gambia and they haven't received the parcel of textbooks Mr Wally was
supposed to give them,” Dockrat said.

The men's worried family contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs the
same day they failed to return home.

Yesterday the department informed them that the three travellers were
being held by Gambian security services.

A prominent scholar of the Tshwane Muslim School, who preferred not to be
named, said the family and community feared that the CIA might be
involved, claiming that any travelling Muslim was regarded as a terrorist.

A local businessman concurred, adding that Muslims were intimidated and
victimised everywhere, including in South Africa. He claimed all Muslims
were being blamed for the recent bombings in England and Bali.

Another community member alleged that the Dockrats were arrested because
one of Farhaad Dockrat's students, arrested in Pakistan last year, was
alleged to have had links with al-Qaeda. This could, however, not be
confirmed.

Ismail Zoubair was released along with another South African, Feroze
Ganchi, by the Pakistani authorities without being charged.

It was claimed at the time that Zoubair had studied under Farhaad Dockrat
in Laudium prior to Zoubair's arrest in Pakistan during a raid on a house
in which firearms, ammunition, explosive vests and maps were allegedly
found.

Foreign Affairs spokesman Nomfanelo Kota confirmed that departmental
officials had met with the family yesterday. She said they would keep in
contact with the family and inform them of any news on the father and son.

 Published on the web by Pretoria News on October 10, 2005.

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