Causes for concern

At the time, I had no idea what the scale of the problem was but thought it probably best to agree with them anyway. And now I know. Crime is so high here that the Government has not even released national statistics for the last 10 years. And everyone I speak to has either been the personal victim of attack or knows someone directly affected. Given that in many parts of the UK you can safely leave the car boot or even the front door open all night (yes, these strategies have unfortunately been personally, albeit unintentionally, tested) it all requires a bit of a change of mindset.

In the UK, we teach our children that if you ever have a problem (or of course, you want to know the time), you can always ask a policeman. But I was shocked that at the very first session of the Johannesburg ‘Mums and Tots’ group Amaani and I attended, we were all warned about people attempting to enter and ransack houses by masquerading as the police. Thank God for Mums and Tots… 3 weeks later four ‘policemen’ came by in an unmarked car to ask me various questions regarding a previous owner, and despite the children’s excitement at potentially getting visitors, I knew just enough not to let them in.

Another concern here is car-jacking. As our experience of this in the UK is fairly limited, I went on a hijack prevention’ course to understand a little more what to do before and during such an event. Consequently, I reorganised the way the children sat in the car, so they could all get out of the car in the fastest possible time if necessary. Safiyya thought this was great, as this meant she got to sit in the front passenger seat whenever available. Asim was not convinced it could ever happen anyway: ‘But they need to ask us first if they want to take our car. And anyway don’t they know Allah is watching them?’ he asked, indignantly. I had to explain that perhaps they had forgotten about God and these kind of people are very rude people who don’t ask first before taking things. Amaani reacted defiantly: ‘Well there is no way I am letting them take my mango’ she asserted, clutching her dried fruit close to her little chest, and completely missing the point.

Then there is AIDS, the main cause of typical male life expectancy being only 47 years old. When we first went to our local Aids village, Safiyya did not even want to get out of the car in case she caught it. Since then, I have had to explain to her a few selected ways you can get infected. The most immediate consequence of this is that Safiyya knows she can help herself to a plaster even for the most minor of cuts – and she takes full advantage! Happily for Muslims, recent large-scale research in Africa shows male circumcision reduces the HIV/Aids infection rate amongst men by around 60% - but as Asim is still only 4 years old, I am hoping this will not be something I need to explain to him for quite a while.

But other security and safety issues that we used to hear about in the UK, such as paedophiles and terrorism, do not seem to feature here. Teachers, both male and female, can and do hug the children without fear of retribution. Schools and parents can make videos of the performances of the young children and distribute them as they choose. We can ask for our excess restaurant food to be packaged up for taking away without the restaurant being apprehensive we will sue them for food poisoning. Muslim women’s clothing certainly does not feature anywhere in local people’s lists of security concerns. And Muslim men are free to carry their possessions in backpacks without arousing the slightest suspicion.

The closest I have come to terrorism even being mentioned here was when Asim’s swimming teacher telephoned. ‘Your son can swim’ she told me excitedly: ‘He is swimming like a terrorist’. This perplexed me - I didn’t know terrorists were renowned for their ability to swim ‘doggy-paddle’, but it sounded like an accolade I was meant to be proud of, so I tried to sound enthusiastic. It was not until many days later that I realised she had been telling me he was swimming like a terrapin.

So now we have a little more understanding of what ‘security’ really means, we can make a few minor adjustments to our lifestyle and then carry on normally. Nevertheless, the children and I are making a team effort to keep the car boot shut and the front door locked, just in case the terrorists appear on land instead of in the water.

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