During apartheid, as the Imam of Cape Town's Claremont Mosque from 1979, Solomon was active in the United Democratic Front and broader anti-apartheid movement.

[2] His mother was the great-granddaughter of Imam Abdullah Kadi Abdus Salaam, known in South Africa as Tuan Guru and a renowned figure in the history of political Islam in the Cape.

[2] He was active in anti-apartheid community organising in the area, as well as in the inter-faith solidarity movement, leading political marches with the Reverend Allan Boesak.

[3] From 1985 to 1991, Solomon lived in exile abroad in Saudi Arabia; he left South Africa to avoid undue police attention, particularly after he defied a government ban to attend the funeral of Gugulethu youth activist Sithembele Mathiso in August 1985.

[1] Upon his return, he helped the ANC re-establish legal structures in South Africa during the democratic transition,[2] and he accompanied Nelson Mandela on a visit to Saudi Arabia and Iran in 1992.