Sunday, April 20, 2014

Killing of Fr. Mushi: religious bigotry or?

By Elias Mhegera, Feb 2013
The death of a Catholic Priest Fr Evarist Mushi has just been a catalyst for a serious discussion on religious bigotry in Tanzania which was neglected for quite some time.
Opening a two days seminar discussing the preservation of peace in Tanzania on 20 and 21 was the Resident Director of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), Stefan Reith who called for religious leaders from all sects to work on peace as a necessary prerequisite for development and harmony.
“Tanzania has a big history of peace and harmony, people of all religious have been living together without confronting each other, the recent developments are worrisome, we should overcome emotions when dealing with religious matters,” he said.
But during the main discussion accusing fingers were directed towards the two Governments both the Union and the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar because religious rallies attacking other faiths have been there for quite some time but no tangible action was taken.
The seminar that was convened by KAS in collaboration with Inter-Religious Council for peace Tanzania (IRCPT), in the name of Interfaith Dialogue in Tanzania proved to be a milestone in recent times.
In question was the timing of commotions that were unprecedented before with many analysts pointing external elements due to the nature commotions and extent of damages that these tensions are causing to this country.
Rev Mushi who passed away on February 17 is a victim of negligence and unequivocal long term ill plans by criminals who are camouflaging themselves as proponents of certain religious interests.
Condemnations from all over the country including the USA, and European Union indicated that this killing has been given due weight in many circles domestically and internationally as well.
Efforts by the KAS and IRCPT have been there for long time but the tempo now has changed due to this event. For instance this seminar went hand in hand with the launching of a book on Peace, Love and Development being a reflection of a similar meeting that was convened last year immediately after commotions in Mbagala which led to destruction of church properties.
Ms Jacqueline Aisaa student at the Institute of Financial Management (IFM) says that she has been hearing incitements for a number of years but she never thought they could read to such catastrophic results.
“Whenever I pass along some corners in Dar I hear people preaching and even rebuking other faiths but I do not take those nasty incidents seriously, even if my religion is being attacked, but today I can understand to what extent these unauthorized rallies are devastative,” she confesses.
She was referring to the rallies which are common in the Dar es Salaam city particularly in densely populated areas like Mwenge, Buguruni, Ubungo, Mbagala, Manzese and other outskirts where the common grievances of Muslims are aired every now and then.
The common cry of Muslims as frequently addressed by their ‘activists’ spate from the education sector in that Muslims are lagging behind because they are neglected or deliberately segregated. Another claim is that the Islamic Kadhi courts are being objected in an attempt to turn a deaf ear to this faith.
Moreover it is the claim that it is the leaders from the Christian denominations which influence for the failure of the Tanzania Government to join the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), and therefore this is a hindrance to their developments.
Frank Chuwa a representative of the youth of the Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC), he says he has been hearing devastative campaigns from ill motivated propaganda.
Campaigns that some churches own big portions of land could cause natural hatred of people belonging to the condemned churches. He warned that it was high time that these religious rallies are banned indefinitely.
In one instance one cleric from the Christian denominations admitted that there is a proliferation of new churches which some lack a requisite background and therefore could be agents of some foreign elements, today in Mbeya alone there are more than 200 of these denominations,” he commented.
When this commentator finished his contributions there were claps and banging of support from the Muslim clerics who found this self confession from Christians was a good omen.
But it was Khamis Ali Mohamed from the GNRC-Africa who warned that even in the Islamic faith there are preachers who have been using house of worship as halls for political agenda he cited Uamsho in Zanzibar as being an organization which was registered as a religious entity but it has turned itself into a political movement.
This did not augur well with some clerics from the Zanzibar isles who were not satisfied with these utterances and would justifiably conclude that they are sympathetic to the Uamsho cause.  
From the Ahmadiya Islamic wing was Abdulrahman Ame who defended one Mohamed who had previously condemned the Uamsho group “whoever defends Uamsho wants to demolish the whole Islamic faith, this is inacceptable,” he concluded and in away revitalized the whole debate.
Photo

Fr. Evarist Mushi who was shot dead in Zanzibar on February 2013
 

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