Al Azhar Mosque

The Al Azhar Mosque is the oldest mosque in the area once known as District Six, a neighborhood largely cleared of its residents during the apartheid era. While it shares its name with the famous mosque in Cairo, this local institution has a distinct history rooted in the Cape Town community. Founded in eighteen eighty-seven by Imam Kassiem Gamieldien, it became a central place of worship and learning for generations of residents before the forced removals that displaced tens of thousands of people between nineteen sixty-six and nineteen eighty.