[size=14pt]Militant Islam in South Africa[/size]

While South Africa has a small Muslim population, comprising just 1-2 percent of its population, Islamism has a distinct presence in the country. The country is generally considered peripheral to the global war on terror, given its distance from the traditional hotbeds of Islamism. But in recent years, both transnational and domestic Islamist groups have been active on South African soil. Given the nation’s history of political violence, it faces a continued risk of Islamist-inspired violence. There were Islamist attacks in South Africa in the late 1990s and threats of attacks in recent years. Additionally, the country continues to confront significant obstacles that could raise its threat level, including considerable economic and social cleavages left over from the apartheid era, increasing crime rates, and high unemployment rates.1 If not successfully tackled, these factors could contribute to a rise in radicalism and violence in the future. South Africa’s liberal democratic government allows religious groups to be active in national politics. As a result, Islamist-inspired political parties and organizations that advocate for the imposition of sharia law are present in South African society today, although they do not enjoy mass support.
Islamist Activity

While South Africa experienced Islamist-inspired violence in the 1990s, the country remains on the periphery of violent Islamist activity worldwide. Nevertheless, global Islamist groups have periodically used South Africa’s territory as a staging ground, compounding the danger posed by native Islamist groups which have emerged within South Africa in recent years.

Al-Qaeda
Since the late 1990s, al-Qaeda has used South Africa as both a physical safe haven and a conduit of support. In 2004, a leaked U.S. Central Intelligence Agency report stated that “[a] new tier of al-Qaeda leaders is using South Africa as one of its bases,” with as many as 30 of the organization’s leaders “thought to be in and around Cape Town, Durban and the Eastern Cape.”2 It is unclear if those numbers remain the same today.

http://almanac.afpc.org/South-Africa