Baptist church accused of discrimination

Roosevelt Park Baptist church has been accused of discriminating against other religions in the community.

Although one of the aims of the church is “building community” as professed by a sign at the entrance of the church, Farouk and Taahira Badat said the church and it’s pastor have treated them unfairly because they are Muslim and not Christian.

Farouk and Taahira approached the leader of this particular Baptist church hoping to hire their hall for a social event.

“My son is getting married in Durban this September and not everyone can attend the wedding because of the distance and the costs that may be incurred so we decided to have a small tea party after the wedding here in Johannesburg for all those who were unable to go,” said Farouk.

Subsequent to looking for venues, the elderly couple were told about the Baptist church, a mere kilometre from their home.

“We were happy when we heard about this venue because it is very close and convenient for us,” Taahira explained.

The couple got in-touch with the Roosevelt Baptist Pastor, who according to Taahira was very enthusiastic to help them.

“The pastor there was very nice and welcomed us and told us how much it will cost to hire the hall, the deposit that needed to be paid upfront for cutlery and car guards, we thought that everything was in order,” she said.

As the couple concluded their conversation with the pastor, they had a good night of sleep thinking that their son and his new bride would have a beautiful tea party on September 24.

To their surprise this whole situation changed after one mention of the word “Mosque”. A Mosque is a Muslim place of worship.

“When the pastor tried to set up a meeting with us for 12 noon on a Friday, I told him that I will be unable to make it as I will be attending Mosque. I could tell he was shocked because he had initially thought I was Christian,” Farouk recounted.

The pastor then told Farouk that he [the pastor] had to consult the church committee and would contact him.

Farouk patiently waited for the call, but heard nothing from the pastor. He then took the initiative to make the call.

“When I called he did not answer. A day later he called back to inform me that the committee had decided not to hire the venue out to me even though he had promised us that they would,” Farouk said.

“We were very disappointed because what changed this whole situation was race and religion, this is not how things are supposed to be.”

The accused pastor and the Roosevelt Baptist church refused to comment when approached by Northcliff Melville Times.

Do you think this is a case of religious discrimination or was the church within its right to say no to hosting an event for followers of a different religion?

Update: The article originally stated that the church had been “accused of racially discriminating against other religions…”. This has been corrected in the updated version.