Prosecutors profiling Muslims while turning blind eye to South Africans killing Palestinians in Gaza – AMPSA

Alameen Templeton
South Africa’s prosecuting authorities are targeting Muslims and trying to discourage sadaqah while turning a blind eye to hundreds, if not thousands, of South African citizens serving illegally in Zionazi Israel’s army.
That’s the view of the Association of Muslim Professionals of SA (Ampsa) that has slammed the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for bias, accusing it of religiously profiling Muslims in the country.
Arrested seven years later
Ampsa levelled the accusation after Sandton resident Ziyadh Hoorzook was granted bail in the Lichtenburg Magistrate’s Court this week.
The state alleges, on 30 November 2017, Hoorzook transferred money from his bank account to Luno, bought Bitcoin, and transferred the cryptocurrency to an organisation called al-Sadaqah.
He was arrested more than seven years later, on 3 January 2025, for allegedly contravening the Protection of Constitutional Democracy Against Terrorist and Related Activities Act (POCDATARA).
Hoorzook denies any wrongdoing, saying that he innocently donated money to what he believed to be a charitable cause at the time.
In comparison, the recruits for the Gaza genocide that has killed about 80 000 civilians so far are allowed to fly unobstructed out of South Africa’s airports to destroy a bit of Gaza and then to return for some rest and recreation, despite our government ostensibly being opposed to the genocide, Ampsa points out.
It begs the question: is there anyone in the national driving seat?
‘Disconcerting inconsistency’
Yet, when one ordinary Muslim donates R11 500 to an organisation calling itself Al-Sadaqah – that gets flagged by US authorities four years after the fact as a front for something else – our prosecutors throw the entire weight of the state’s resources at him.
“The inconsistency of the national prosecuting authority in this country that emerges ineluctably from a comparison of the two scenarios … is indeed disconcerting and has understandably raised serious concerns among discerning members of society,” Ampsa says.
It is alarmed at the sudden rush to prosecute once a Muslim appears to have stepped over a presumed line that undulates invisibly in a geopolitical fantasia that has taken up home in the minds of some of our prosecuting authorities.
How many South Africans are serving in the Israeli genocide at the moment? Thousands? Tens of thousands?
“We have yet to witness a single prosecution in this country of these Israeli combatants,” Ampsa says.
This is despite copious information about South African citizens and permanent residents who are enlisted in the genocide, Ampsa says. Prosecuting authorities have access to the information and have also been provided with more, Ampsa says.
Genocide funders walk free
It insists the South African genocidaires be prosecuted because their unauthorised presence in a foreign army’s ranks is a “flagrant contravention” of the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act.
“Unbridled funding to the tune of millions of rands and public calls for financial and other support for the murderous campaign of the Israeli state by individuals, businesses and corporations in South Africa have been widespread.
“Their calls for solidarity with Israel and their active contribution to the coffers of the murderous military machinery of the Israeli state has also not resulted in a single prosecution in this country,” Ampsa says.
So, why is Ziyadh Hoorzook being singled out for special attention, the association asks.
Ampsa says the “objective facts are that (Hoorzook) donated R11 500 in the year 2017 to Al Sadaqah, a charity organisation that operated in Syria (and which was not on the UN terror list at the time he made such donation), with the intention of assisting our brothers and sisters in Syria who were suffering untold hardship at the time at the hands of another tyrant and killer of humanity, Bashar al Assad.
A label soaked in prejudice
“That the prosecuting authority instituted a prosecution against brother Ziyadh in the year 2025 for a payment made in 2017, a point in time when Assad’s reign of terror was at its peak and thousands of civilians were being slaughtered in Syria, is deeply worrisome and justifiably raises serious concerns about duplicity and ulterior purpose,” Ampsa warns.
The association says “terrorism” is a political label soaked in prejudice and history is replete with examples of great statesmen who were once clad in the same cloth.
“The mere allegation of terrorism is enough to cause enormous hardship to the person or group that stands accused of it.”
So, any such allegation needs careful scrutiny with particular attention paid to the source, political context and nature of the allegation, as well as against whom it is aimed and the motive for making the claim, Ampsa says.
Seen in this light, Ziyadh’s prosecution must raise alarm bells, it says.
Ampsa excoriates suggestions by the Institute for Strategic Studies (ISS) and other experts that Ziyadh be thrown to the wolves in return for South Africa’s removal from the Financial Action Task Force’s “grey list” of countries with weak financial oversight of criminal and terror financiers.
‘Othering’ the Muslims
The ISS suggests his “successful prosecution” will dissuade “terror funding”.
“The messaging that is inherent in these comments is that Muslims are responsible for South Africa’s ills and cannot be trusted.
“The “othering” of the Muslim community by certain groups internationally and locally is increasingly orchestrated and prevalent – the stench of the hatred for Islam underpins much of the anti-immigration fervour that continues to sweep across Europe, North America and South Africa,” Ampsa says.
It calls on all Muslims, but South Africans in particular, to stand with Ziyadh against injustice.
“It is a responsibility we cannot and must not shirk. We call on the ummah to support the efforts being made to secure the withdrawal of all charges against Ziyadh, to remember him and his family in your supplications and to ensure that oppressors and persecutors (dhalimeen) all over the world, including those in South Africa, encounter an ummah of justice, courage, brotherhood, solidarity, resilience, steadfastness and perseverance.”