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Feb. 17 (UPI) -- The world's first openly gay imam in the Muslim faith was shot and killed in what local authorities say may be a hate crime. Police are "hot on the heels" of the alleged suspects and an investigation is underway behind the shooting death of Muhsin Hendricks in Bethelsdorp, South African Deputy Justice Minister Andries Nel told Newzroom Afrika TV.
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Hendricks, 57, and an unidentified driver were seen on Saturday inside a gold-colored Volkswagon TRoc on Haley Place near Extension 24 at around 10 a.m. local time. A silver-colored Hilux double cab truck stopped in front of the vehicle and "blocked them from driving off," the Eastern Cape provincial police wrote in a statement.
The South African Department of Justice stated it was "saddened" and pledged to "track and monitor that justice is dispensed" if his murder is ultimately confirmed to be a hate crime.
"Two unknown suspects with covered faces got out of the vehicle and started firing multiple shots at the vehicle," officials added. "Thereafter they fled the scene, and the driver noticed that Hendricks who was seated at the back of the vehicle was shot and killed."
However, a motive is unclear.
The South African constitution was adopted in 1994 after the end of Apartheid's white-minority rule. It became the first nation on Earth to protect citizens from discrimination because of sexual orientation despite ongoing bigotry and a high murder rate.
The cleric in 1996 became the "first imam in the world to come out as gay," the advocacy group International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association said on Saturday.
Meanwhile, South Africa in 2006 became the first country in Africa to legalize same-sex marriage.
"The ILGA World family is in deep shock at the news of the murder of Muhsin Hendricks, and calls on authorities to thoroughly investigate what we fear may be a hate crime," Julia Ehrt, the ILGA World's executive director, wrote in the statement.
Hendricks was founder and executive director of the Al-Ghurbaah Foundation in Cape Town, a human rights organization which provides support to "Queer Muslims helping them to reconcile Islam with their Sexual orientation and Gender Identity," according to its website.
On Sunday, the Muslim Judicial Council of South Africa (MJC) said in a statement it "unequivocally" condemned the "shocking killing" despite his sexuality.
"It has been alleged that the killing may have been motivated by hatred towards Muhsin Hendricks due to his views on same-sex relationships," the MJC says. "While the MJC has consistently maintained that Muhsin's position is incompatible with Islamic teachings, we unequivocally condemn his murder and any acts of violence targeting members of the LGBTQ community or any other community."
Amid death threats, Hendricks was the subject of a 2022 documentary called The Radical which followed his journey to establishing an LGBTQ+ mosque. "The need to be authentic was greater than the fear to die," he said in the film.
This followed the murder of Imam Hassan Shariff in January 2024 outside a Newark mosque in New Jersey.
Hendricks, however, was outspoken on interfaith dialogue, mental health and trauma faced by persecuted individuals within religious communities.
"It is important that we stop to look at religion as the enemy," Hendricks said in Cape Town last year at the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association World Conference.
Hendricks was "a South African that we can all be proud of, a South African that we can all aspire to be," Nel, the deputy justice minister, said of the religious leader.
