Publication

This paper discusses the rise and fall of the Islamic-oriented People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (PAGAD) in the Cape Flats area of Cape Town, South Africa. It surveys the organization's anti-drug and anti-gangsterism initiatives and then discusses its bout with terrorism. The author concludes that South Africa's nascent democracy was fortunate that PAGAD did not succeed in enlarging its social base beyond a minority within a minority within a minority - a militant minority within a Muslim minority within a Coloured minority.