Hero pays the ultimate price in 'extremist' mosque attack

Mechanic Abbas Essop’s only crime was responding to desperate screams for help from a mosque across the road from his Ottawa workshop – an act of a valour that he paid for with his life.

Essop had charged headlong into the Imam Hussain Mosque in the small town‚ north of Durban‚ after three knife-wielding men stormed the building after midday prayers.

He became a collateral casualty in the attack‚ believed to be motivated by “extremist elements” intent on killing the resident Moulana and razing the building to the ground.

Essop - whose mouth was duct-taped and his throat slit - died in the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital on Thursday afternoon.

Moulana Ali Nchinyane suffered stab wounds to his upper body and the muezzin‚ Muhammad Ali‚ was disemboweled.

Essop’s friend‚ Ismail Bobat‚ said that his friend had heard Ali’s screams and reacted.

Bobat recounted how he’d found his bloodied friend in the carpark.

“When I went inside I saw him lying on the floor and there was blood all around him. I was just holding him and telling him to relax and that everything was going to be fine‚” he said.

Flagging from massive blood loss‚ Essop had begged for water while paramedics attended to him.

“All of his blood came out from his body and he was very weak‚” Bobat added. “Abbas was like a brother to me. I have known him for years. He was such a good man and whenever I needed help he was there for me. Before all of this happened we had been working together on a car.”

He said that he wanted justice for his friend who had died while trying to help people.

“I am a Muslim and our culture teaches us not to harm anyone and this is so sad that it happened at such a sacred place. Whoever they are I wanted them to face god… I want Abbas to get justice‚” he said.

The Hawks have taken over the investigation into the attack‚ with spokesman Captain Simphiwe Mhlongo saying that there were “elements of extremism” involved.

No arrests have yet been made.

The Muslim Judicial Council has strongly condemned Thursday’s attack. In a statement‚ the council reiterated that a core teaching of Islam was “respect for all human beings”.

“We remind South Africans that the makeup of our society is one of religious‚ cultural and ethnic diversity and tolerance‚” the statement read. “We call on all communities to remain law-abiding citizens and refrain from any and all forms of vigilantism.”

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