Police in South Africa are “hot on the heels” of the suspects behind the killing of Muhsin Hendricks, dubbed the world’s first openly gay imam, Deputy Justice Minister Andries Nel has said.
The 57-year-old was in a car when he was shot dead in broad daylight in the coastal city of Gqeberha on Saturday.
CCTV footage of the incident shows a hooded figure running out of a pickup truck that was blocking Hendricks’ vehicle and then firing shots through the window.
The imam was well known for his work in creating a haven for gay and other marginalised Muslims, and his killing shocked the LGBTQ+ community and beyond.
An investigation is underway but Nel told the Newzroom Afrika TV channel that it was too early to say whether it was a hate crime.
Without giving further details, Nel said he was told by Deputy Police Minister Polly Boshielo that officers were tracking down the suspected killers.
Hendricks’ work challenged traditional interpretations of Islam, which oppose same-sex relations.
While being clear that it did not agree with Hendricks, South Africa’s Muslim Judicial Council (MJC), one of the country’s main religious bodies, condemned the killing.
South Africa’s constitution, adopted after the end of white-minority rule in 1994, was the first in the world to protect people from discrimination because of their sexual orientation and, in 2006, became the first country in Africa to legalise same-sex marriage.
But despite a thriving LGBTQ+ community, gay people still face discrimination and violence. The country also has one of the highest murder rates in the world.
Hendricks came out as gay in 1996, which shocked the wider Muslim community in his home city of Cape Town and elsewhere.