RARELY do we in South Africa have a year in which someone does not touch someone else on their religion, race, culture or ethnic heritage.
RARELY do we in South Africa have a year in which someone does not touch someone else on their religion, race, culture or ethnic heritage.
Sometimes, they even touch each other on two or more of these sensitive categories at the same time.
We reported on once-off specials such as the Great Hot Cross Bunfight of 2012.
We also reported on recurring disputes such as the spat overfireworks during Diwali every year.
Through it all, we've learnt that religious matters never fail to ignite debate. The bunfight took place in April 2012 when a Cape Town Woolworths customer noticed that a pack of spiced rolls bore a halaal certification symbol to assure Muslim consumers that the product was not prohibited for them. A complaint against the certificate went viral. Believers from both Abrahamic religions got upset.
A woman claimed the use of an Islamic symbol on an item associated with Christianity was blasphemy.
Christian Network International president Lazarus Pillay dismissed the hoo-ha as "insignificant", and Islamic scholar Moulana Rafiq Shah called it "ludicrous".
Pillay said: "There's nothing holy about hot-cross buns. It is pure commercialism."
The Diwali fireworks debate was less of a laughing matter.
In 2002, Hindu vets Vis Pillay, Ramona Rambally, Sanil Singh and Vis Govender - who lost an eye during a fireworks display - called for a ban on "big bang" fireworks.
Their call followed the tabling of an Explosives Bill, with Hindu leaders Ram Maharaj and Ashwin Trikamjee blasting policy-makers for not consulting the Hindu community before declaring that people wanting to use fireworks would have to apply for permits.
Trikamjee is the president of the South African Hindu Maha Sabha and Maharaj the president of the South African Hindu Dharma Sabha.
In 2007, the bill was still being debated, and by 2013 nobody was sure whether a national ban on the use of fireworks at private homes was in place. Religious leaders asked celebrants to restrict fireworks use to municipality -approved displays in controlled environments .
Sometimes the debate got ugly, even racial: when Ballito beauty queen Caroline Ashworth posted a Facebook rant in 2012 saying she hated Indians who celebrated the Hindu festival. She later apologised for her rant.
At the time, University of KwaZulu-Natal law professor Karthy Govender called for local governments to resolve the issue.
In 2013, animal rights activist Jessica Singh waded into the debate on behalf of Pawfect Nation, campaigning for "a complete ban on the private use of fireworks".
Singh, a Hindu, said her organisation continued to lobby for the ban to protect animals from the effects of fireworks displays and to curb injuries.
She "laughed off" claims that she was betraying her heritage. She said Pawfect Nation was working with the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government to ensure that the only fireworks displays allowed in future would be in controlled environments.
Conflicts over religious issues have not been restricted to adults. Children have often found themselves at the centre of religious and cultural battles, mostly at schools.
In November 2012, we reported on a row over a Johannesburg private primary school exam set on the same day as Diwali. The matter was reported to the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities by a mother whose son attended the school.
To shield her son from victimisation, she declined to comment. A parent who did agree to comment did so only after insisting on anonymity for the same reasons.
Does their situation not teach youngsters that ours is a country where some cultural identities matter more than others? And that those in the minority must apologise for who they are?
Commission CEO Pheagane Moreroa said at the time that the matter would be cited in a report that would form part of the recommendations for a Public Holidays Act, which would propose seven more religious holy days converted to public holidays. The act remains in the works at the Home Affairs Department.
Last month, a Durban Hindu mother wrote to the South African Hindu Maha Sabha to report that her seven-year-old son was being converted to Christianity at his former Model C school.
"About two months ago, while we were praying to our Krishna deity, my son told me he looked like a devil. I was horrified and baffled as to where he was getting this from," she wrote.
The state school denied that its institutionalisation of practices such as reading Bible passages to pupils, but not from the books of other religions, was discriminatory. Muzi Mahlambi, spokesman for the provincial education department, backed the school's claim.
In April last year, the timing of a matric dance at a former Model C high school caused strife between the school and more than 15 of its pupils and their parents. The matric dance coincided with Ramadaan, the Islamic month of fasting.
In 2006, the schoolwas embroiled in a legal battle after banning a matric pupil, Sunali Pillay, from wearing a nose stud. The Constitutional Court case made waves and is still referred to in similar cases. In his ruling, then chief justice Pius Langa cautioned against indirect discrimination through, for example, school rules, "because it allowed certain groups of learners to express their religious identity freely, while denying that right to others".
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