Verulam mosque attack victim to be buried on Friday

The family of the thirty-four-year-old victim of Thursday’s Ottawa mosque attack ,Abbas Essop , is struggling to accept his passing.

His brother Farouq Essop has told the SABC that Abbas died while helping those in need. Abbas Essop heard the screams of worshippers from the mosque near Verulam – north of Durban and rushed to assist.

His throat was slit by the attackers who stormed the mosque and he later died in hospital. Two other victims were injured. Farouk Essop describes his brother as one who fought for justice and the rule of law.

” It’s untimely, the whole family is distraught under the circumstances that he’s gone, he has left us. It’s definitely untimely, it’s sad the way he is gone. The person that he was, he’s got a death the way he lived. He always stood for justice, he always stood for the rights and justice of an underdog. He died the death of going to help and assist someone else. The mosque was in trouble, the moulana of the mosque was in trouble, the caretaker was in trouble and he assisted, he left his workshop for someone else’s justice and in that process he died,” says Essop.

Meanwhile, Essop’s funeral service will take place at five o’clock at the same mosque, Imam Husayn Mosque in Ottawa, Verulam. Friday prayers at the  mosque were suspended earlier.

Meanwhile, the Muslim Judicial Council, (MJC) is calling for the strongest punishment of those responsible for the attack.

“As a South African community of South African citizens, we are a multi-religious and multi-cultural society. Having said that, we’ve also been co-existing with each other harmoniously by respecting each others religions. We are calling on the government through its different structures for them to do their job, so that they can act very swiftly and apprehend the guilty parties, as soon as possible and for the law to mete out to them the strongest punishment that South African law allows,” said MJC Secretary General Shaykh Isgaak Taliep.

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