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Ugandan Muslims recently marked 170 years since the arrival of Islam in Uganda.

Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by Tanzania. The southern part of the country includes a substantial portion of Lake Victoria, which is also shared by Kenya and Tanzania.

According to the National Census 2002 Islam is practiced by 12.1 percent of the population.

According to MuslimPopulation.com in 2011 Muslims constituted 35% of the population which would amount to about 12,080,000 people.

Further, Islamicweb puts the figure at 36%.

According to an IINA news report dated June 31, 2001 the Mufti of Uganda speaks about problems faced by the Muslim community.

The Mufti of Uganda, Sheikh Sha’aban Ramadhan, has outlined some of the problems facing the Muslims here, and told IINA that there are six million Muslims out of Uganda’s population of 21 million. He said there are 6,700 mosques, and in practically every mosques there is a Qur’an Study Circle, plus there is one Islamic University, and it comes under the aegis of the of the Jeddah-based Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC).

As for Christian missionary activity, the Mufti said that while there are 60 missionary radio stations in the country for calling people to Christianity, there was only one Islamic radio station, known as the Bilal Station, which is supported by Saudi Arabia and by the Makkah-based Muslim World League (MWL).

As for Islamic action to counter Christian activities, Sheikh Ramadhan said that such countries as Libya, Saudi Arabia and Egypt have their Daawa activists in the country, but that these were not adequate to the task. He said that at the moment there are 60 Ugandan students studying at the Azhar, and at Saudi Islamic universities there are at present 100 Ugandans studying on scholarships from the MWL. He said that this year there were 25 student Daawa activists who graduated from the Azhar, whose expenses were paid for by the Azhar and the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs in Egypt.

The Mufti, however, appealed to Muslim states to increase their help to Uganda’s Muslims.

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Uganda Celebrates Islam Arrival
OnIslam Staff
Monday, 05 March 2012 14:19

KAMPALA – Marking the arrival of Islam to the East African country, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has praised Muslims for their spirit of tolerance and contributions to the society.

“I wish to congratulate all Muslims upon marking 170 years of Islam in Uganda,” Museveni said in a speech at an event co-organized by the Muslim Centre for Justice and Law and the Uganda Muslim Network (UNNet).

“I thank the Uganda Muslim Network for organizing this symposium, which does not merely commemorate 170 years of Islam, but sets an agenda for enhancing better organization in key areas of socio-economic development.”

Addressing the event themed “170 Years of Islam in Uganda: Way Forward for the Muslim community”, Museveni said Islam spread in Uganda through Arab traders and preachers.

“We started getting in touch with the Arabs through the East African Coast, in Zanzibar in 1844,” he said in the speech read out on his behalf by Vice President Edward Sekandi on Friday, March 2.

“This was Uganda’s first contact with outsiders. Until then, our people worshipped their own traditional African gods.”

He said though Islam has no formal structure like Christianity, the Islamic faith spread quickly in the African country.

“Islam spread from informal conversion activities by Arab traders and local preachers,” he said.

Museveni praised Ugandan Muslims for shunning extremism and fanaticism.

“Extremism, egocentrism and chauvinism have no place in modern day society; co – existence and symbiosis are paramount.”

Muslims comprise some 14 percent of the predominantly Christian country's 32-million population, according to the CIA Factbook.

Empowering Muslims

The Ugandan president lamented that previous governments had divided the Muslim community for political gains.

“As we celebrate 170 years of Islam in Uganda, it is important to note that previous governments in Uganda did not actively encourage Muslims to come to the fore. Instead they were used for political purposes,” he said.

“It is surprising that a community that is held together by pillars of Islam was so divided for flimsy reasons of leadership.

“A conflict was created amongst Muslims that was so intense and yet unprincipled,” Museveni said.

The Ugandan leader noted that his government is working to empower Muslims to help bolster the country’s socio-economic and political structures.

"The NRM [National Resistance Movement] government aided the reconciliation process and took some bold steps to empower the Muslim community in the country,” he said.

Museveni said interaction between Muslims and non-Muslims in Uganda has helped better clear the face of the Muslim community.

“There has been an increasing understanding of the needs of the different religious communities,” he said.
“The non-Muslim community has now come to understand the Muslim community better as a result of interaction among the different communities.”

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From Wikipedia:

History

Islam had arrived in Uganda from the north and through inland networks of the East African coastal trade by the mid-nineteenth century. Some Baganda Muslims trace their family's conversion to the period in which the kabaka Mutesa I converted to Islam in the nineteenth century.

Islam after independence

When Idi Amin, a Ugandan Muslim, became president in 1971, his presidency seemed to be a victory for Uganda's Muslim community. Then in 1972, Amin's expulsion of Asians from Uganda reduced the Muslim population significantly. As his administration deteriorated into a brutal and unsuccessful regime, Uganda's Muslims began to distance themselves from those in power.

After Amin's overthrow in 1979, Muslims became the victims of the backlash that was directed primarily against the Kakwa and Nubian ethnic groups who had supported Amin. Yusuf Lule, who served a brief term as president from 1979 to 1980, was also a Muslim (and a Muganda). He was not a skillful politician, but he was successful in reducing the public stigma attached to Islam.

In 1989 President Yoweri Museveni appealed to Uganda's Muslim community to contribute to national reconstruction, and he warned other Ugandans not to discriminate against Muslims. But at the same time, Museveni admonished Ugandans to avoid "sectarian" allegiances, and this warning was directed at the Islamic community as well as other ethnic and religious groups.

The Islamic University in Uganda is one of Uganda's premier institutes of Islamic teaching. It is located in Mbale in the foothills of Mount Elgon.

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We need to work closely with every muslim community in this world, in order to strengthen each other, and then we will be capable of opposing the kuffar. Allah unites us.

Wassalam.