Lamenting the current crisis in Muslim communities around the world, Dr. Esack contrasted this with the South African Muslim community which has had considerable success in the post-apartheid era. "We are not more than one per cent of the Country's population yet we hold 12% of all elected positions. The Chief Justice of South Africa is a Muslim; so is the Speaker of the Upper House of Parliament. We have Muslim cabinet Ministers", he added.

He pointed out that along with the Muslim community of South Africa, the Hindus and Jews play a prominent role in the country; much more than their share of the population. Explaining this phenomena, the Mawlana from South Africa said "our success is precisely because of our vision of going beyond our own narrow concerns of "my community" and our participation in the struggle for a Free South Africa for all the people. We worked for the destruction of apartheid and so today we are involved in building a new society. Muslims occupy prominent positions in South Africa not by virtue of our identity as Muslims... that is meaningless. We occupy prominent positions because of our role in the liberation struggle of South Africa."

Referring to his involvement in the anti-apartheid struggle along with his role as a Muslim cleric, South Africa Gender Equality Commissioner said , "I have no problem working with non-Muslims, at the end of the day, all human beings are the creation of God. As our Prophet Muhammad said 'the best among you those who behave properly towards God's creation' and at the end of the day it is God who is the judge between people and their religion and it is not for me to pigeon hole people and say 'I will work with you and not work with you'." Addressing the issue of multi-religious and multi- ethnic societies, Dr. Farid Esack said, "in a society where people are struggling with poverty, hunger and injustice and the abuse of women ... all of us, both as perpetrators of these crimes and as victims are caught up in the same web. You cannot unbake the cake. You cannot now separate the sugar from the flour; the raisin from the water and the vanilla; you cannot separate the marginalised Christians of Pakistan from the marginalised Muslims of Toronto; you cannot separate marginalised Sikhs from marginalised Pakistanis; all of us are caught up in the same problems".

Talking about the Muslim presence in South Africa, Dr. Farid Esack who grew up in abject poverty on the flats of Cape Town, said "Muslims were brought to Africa as slaves and political exiles since 350 years and as such we have crossed the threshold of survival...we don't ask ourselves 'how do we keep our identity, how do we keep our culture. We don't have this mentality where we say 'can we pull the wagons and turn into ourselves...we are comfortable with ourselves...we are South Africans, there is no other 'desh', there is no other Watan. South Africa is the only country we know and we identify with this as home and at the same time the commitment that comes from our iman, our faith in Islam. This combination which is a very dynamic interaction between our South Africanness on the one hand and our faith in Islam which leads to a very positive image for ourselves and helps in our work for a new society.

The South African scholar also touched on the current crisis in the Muslim World ."The Muslim World is undergoing a very difficult period. On the one hand Muslims are the victims of a new demonisation which has come about in the absence of the Red Threat. I think the Arms Industry requires an enemy out there and people willingly or unwillingly; knowingly or unknowingly have identified Muslims as this new threat. This is a real problem. But the problem is also that very often that our response to global issues allows other people to caricature Muslims in this way. We come across as angry, we come across as resentful, we come across as people who are only capable of protesting, only capable of terrorism. Our responses to world events are not rooted in compassion; it rooted far more in anger and I also believe Muslims suffer from what I call 'The Broken Ego'. This resentment that other people are controlling the world and we ought to be controlling it. And so all of this paralyses us. We become insular and engage in navel gazing. We don't seem to understand that the problem in this world is not that people are anti-Muslim but that the space for religion and religiosity is gradually diminishing. And that out own survival does not depend on whether Muslims survive but on what extent religious communities throughout the world survive".

Dr. Esack spoke about the problems arising out of the domination of corporate rule over the world and its effects on religious communities. He said Muslims do not realise that they are not alone in the marginalisation of religious communities. Criticising this global commercialisation, he said "the McDonaldisation and Cocacolanistaion of the world effects all of us. In our short-sightedness we laugh and rejoice at the lack of religiosity in other communities and don't realise that if they come for the Jews and Christians at night, the forces of anti-religiousness, by God, tomorrow in the morning will come for the Muslims. So a short-sightedness and lack of vision for the long term future of Islam, a lack of preparedness and an inability to see how our survival depends on making common cause with other people who believe in the same core values of human dignity and respect for human beings. These people may be animal rights activists or environmentalists; immigrant rights workers. People who would make common cause with Muslims in fighting against police injustices; people who are running around for Bosnia and Kashmir. There are people supporting us and want to be in the trenches with us."

The Muslim theologian who is a strong proponent of pluralism and political activism also touched on the lack of democracy in the Muslim World and its effects on the psyche of the Muslim population that suffers oppression. He said "the lack of democracy in the Muslim World has be debilitating for Muslims economically, spiritually and theologically. It has left us impoverished. You have a situation where the Mosque, the public discourse is controlled entirely by government. Governments that are immune from public scrutiny; governments that can't be voted out of office unless there is a coup d'état and at the end of the day what has happened is that Muslims have become uncritical, they've become unthinking and this filters down to the very ordinary level where people come to the Imam or Mawlana to ask for specific answers to their questions. The ability to think creatively, the ability to manage our own lives... all of that is missing".

The celebrated author of a new book "On Being a Muslim" told the Muslim Chronicle on CTS TV that the lack of democracy in the Muslim world is affecting the family and social behaviour of the Muslim world. He described how this filters down to the family level. "You (the Muslim male) are pushed around by the government. You come home and you replicate your being pushed around, your being bullied by a policeman on the road or by some security staff. You replicate the oppression you experience at the public level at home. You now become the Sultan, you now become the bully because you are now in control. This leads to spousal abuse, the abuse of your own children. So this has a stifling effect both at an intellectual level where there is little critical debate; no development of the arts; no development of culture; no critical thought and so people burn books rather than reading them." He said that Muslim World seems to be unable to engage in the critical issue of the day not because they don't have the resources but simply because Muslims don't understand what the critical issues of the day are. "Issues of malnutrition, issues of poverty, issues of underdevelopment, issues of discrimination on the basis of race, of sex, of sexual orientation, of gender; ... we don't care about these things. We have lost a sense of empathy, we've lost compassion. We only know how it is to be controlled and in turn all of us try to become mini tyrants and carve out our own fiefdoms. In the absence of having cultivated a civilised discourse on how to negotiate differences; how do you differ with somebody while holding the same person in esteem. These are the kinds of things that we have lost because of an absence of meaningful participation in the government of Muslim countries.

Dr. Farid Esack who is the author of "Quran, Liberation and Pluralism" has faced criticism from conservative Muslim groups who do not endorse his strong involvement in South Africa's political affairs and who stayed away from the anti-apartheid struggle. Dr. Esack has travelled widely and lived for eight years in Pakistan where he received his religious education. In Pakistan, he was quite outspoken for his defence of the country's Christian population.