JESUS LOVES MUSLIMS TOO – UNDERSTANDING ISLAM FROM A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE 004- THE RAPID SPREAD OF ISLAM IN AFRICA
THE ROLE OF ISLAMIC ORGANIZATIONS IN AFRICA
LESSONS OBJECTIVE
To correct negative stereotypes about Muslims
To better understand Islam and its origins
To appreciate positive aspects of the Islamic religion and culture
To Foster meaningful harmonious relationships between Muslims and Christians
To challenge Christians to break religious and cultural barriers and reach out to their Muslim neighbors with the love of Christ.
HUMANITARION AID
Until the 1960’s, European power controlled much of Africa; as result, millions of Muslims were under foreign control. Muslims viewed the colonial power not only as western but also as Christians. This foreign occupation and isolation African Muslims from the rest of the world Muslim community; consequently, African Muslims received minimal help for communal development and religious education. They lacked the resource to cultivate and spread their religion; however, two developments suddenly changed their situations.
The first development was liberation from colonial power that led to the birth of new African states. Muslim communities also experienced the relief of independence. At the same time, Western countries were becoming increasingly dependent on oil, which seemed to exist in vast deposit in the depths of Middle Eastern soil .Arabs had discovered “black gold” They owned the one commodity that was most valuable for the survival of the industrialized west-oil! Seemingly overnight, Arab nations became rich, earning billions of dollars from the sale of oil. They used this money not only to strengthen their own economy but also to spread Islam.
With the new breath of independence, Muslim countries united to form world organizations .At this point, they had the financial resources to expand their influence. So in 1969, Muslims established their own kind of “united nations,” which they called the Organisation of Islamic Conference {OIC}.By 2005, this organisation had a membership of fifty-seven countries. It serves Muslims worldwide and also promotes Islamic values and teachings to non-Islamic regions.
In December of 1991, the OIC met in Dakar, Senegal in that conference delegates affirmed their support for the uplift, the development, of the AFRICAN people. They particularly referred to the underdeveloped countries of the Sahel region. They viewed the development of this area as a necessary step for making all of Africa Islamic. The delegates also called for necessary resources to finance dawah activities and religious education.
Another conference of Muslim world leaders was held in Saudi Arabia in December of 2005. Again there was a special declaration of support for the development of Africa. The conference delegates affirmed their support for the newly formed organization CALLED NEPAD (New Economic Partners for African Development). These Muslim Leaders hope that humanitarian and development aid will attract many other Africans into to House of Islam.
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
Another means of attracting Africans to Islam is education. One of the primary elements of Islamic education is the madrassa, the religious school. Muslims provide elementary teaching or madrassa education for young people, often in the local mosque and claim they are education centers for the community. This strategy has become very evident in Africa. We also note with interest that Kuwait, Libya and Saudi Arabia have financed the building of mosques throughout African towns and villages.
Between 1991 and 1993, Muslims built 500 new mosques in Ethiopia, and 1999 Malawi’s president asked Muammer Gadafi of Libya to build mosques and Islamic centers in Malawi. In Zimbabwe, Malaysian Muslims financed the construction of housing colonies that featured their own mosques and Islamic centers in Malawi. In Zimbabwe, Malaysian Muslims financed the construction of housing colonies that featured their own mosque buildings. They also built Islamic schools and provided scholarships for new converts, a practice that leads to another strategy.
In addition to building mosques, oil – rich Muslim countries are granting scholarships. For example, Islamic bank (backed by Saudi Arabia) offers free education to AFRICANS who study at Islamic institutions abroad. This Africans not only receive religious education, but also are trained to return to Africa to teach secondary schools and universities. In this way, they are able to infuse Islamic values into the education of African students.
In the second Islamic conference of 1974 (in Pakistan) delegates introduced a proposal to establish two Islamic universities in Africa. Muslims build one Niger 1986 to meet the needs of West African Muslims. They build the other in Uganda to meet the needs of central and East Africa Muslims. In 1988, the Uganda University began with Just 80 students, but by 2005 its student enrolment grew to three thousand.
RELIGIOUS PROPAGATION THROUGH THE MEDIA
Another strategy that Muslims use to spread Islam is through the media: Radio , Television , Literature, and the internet. In 1966, for example, Muslim leaders met in Pakistan ways to propagate Islam. Since one of their main targets was AFRICA, they planned to establish radio stations in strategic areas throughout the continent. Years later, in 2001, the supreme council of Kenyan Muslims launched IQRA Islam broadcasting station, and both Libya and Saudi Arabia helped to finance the project. The IQRA Islam broadcasting was the first major Islamic radio station in East Africa, transmitting Islamic programmes in Kiswahili, Somali, Urdu and English. In Zimbabwe , Malaysian Muslims financed the construction of a television recording studio and provided the funds in exchange for free airtime to televise Islamic broadcast. Muslims use religious literature as another means to spread Islam. The Supreme COUNCIL for Islamic affairs in Egypt has provided most of the dawah literature for Africa. In Durban, South AFRICA, the Islamic propagation center international distributes free literature and videos for English speaking communities in AFRICA. Its founder Ahmed Deedat, was famous for his debates with notable Christians.
THE REALITY OF MILITANT ISLAM IN AFRICA
Orthodox Muslims believe God intends for Islam to rule over the world. In Practice, this means that everyone must submit to Islamic law. Most Muslims attempt to spread Islam and its laws through peaceful means; so they work in-conjunction with established systems to achieve their goals.
By contrast, other Muslims reject the idea of spreading Islam through channels of existing governments, both their own governments and foreign governments. As Africans gained their independence in the last century, there was a rise of nationalism and many new nations were born. A new hope emerged for African renewal and progress; however, many economic and social problems remained and some cases grew worse. This was true of Muslim countries as well; as a result, some Muslims blamed failure on politicians and accused them of simply adopting western colonial systems of government.
This Muslims insisted that an Islamic government was the only solution; so their resentment against existing regimes gave birth to Islamic reformists movements. Some of this movement had existed during the colonial period, and one example is Salafiyyist movement in Morrocco that surfaced in the 1920s. Members of this movement advocated a return to the religion of Salfas (ancestors), which meant a return to the seventh century religion of Muhammed and his community. This is basically the objective of fundamentalist Muslims: They want to return to the Islamic faith that Muhammed actually practiced and taught.
One of the champions of fundamentalist Islam was Hasan al-Banna, who established the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan Muslim) in 1928 in Egypt. Sayyid Qutb succeeded al-Banna and wrote articles that expanded al-Banna’s teachings. Sayyid Qutb stressed the need to change Islamic society by returning to original Islam, and he believed this required the removal of secular governments. Only then, he asserted, could Islam rule over every aspect of community and private life. In his view of true Islam, there was no room for separation between church (religion) and state (politics).
While Qutb agreed that Islam speaks of peace and justice, he insisted that the implementation of justice at times requires the forceful removal of injustice that may require physical combat. He labeled the Egyptian government an unjust system because it did not rule entirely by Islamic law. As a result, the Egyptian government executed Qutb in 1966. Although he died, his teachings lived on and became the fuel for more Islamic reforms and revolutions.
Perhaps the most notable Islamic revolution in recent times erupted in Iran in 1979 when Muslims overthrew the Shah of Iran. In addition, they ended relations with the West and established their own Islamic theocracy. The successful revolution in Iran sparked a new fervor in Islamic fundamentalism worldwide, including Africa.
HOTSPOTS IN AFRICA
By the end of the twentieth century, the African continent was essentially free from colonial rule; however there was a legacy of resentment against the former colonizers. Since the colonial powers were Christian countries, many Africans looked to non-Christian nations as a source of help; however, they needed foreign resources to fund development and education. As you might Western religion and they found their solution in Islamic countries. During the late colonial period, Muslim countries provided support for anti-colonial movements. Then, after independence, they provided Africans with strict morals, a non-western system of law, and madrassa education. Muslims growth so that today Africans hear loudly and clearly the slogan, “Islam is the solution”.
As Africa opened its doors to Islam, the Muslim fundamentalists rushed in with the goal of making Africa entirely a Muslim continent. Along with them came the militant Muslims who believe that the only way to achieve their goal is by armed force. As a matter of fact, Islamic militants have influenced the direction and politics of several African countries, and the results have been brutal and deadly.
UGANDA: For a while during his rule over Uganda, Idi Amin acted as chairman of the Organisation for African Unity. At that time, he vowed to make Uganda a Muslim state – even though Uganda was 6% Muslim – and declared Islam the official religion. To fulfill his vow, he carried out a vicious campaign to exterminate thousands of Ugandan Christians.
ALGERIA: In 1991, fundamentalist Muslims in Algeria rallied in support of Islamic Salvation Front, their national Islamic Salvation organization. They entered the political process by competing in a democratic election, but it soon became evident that the Islamic Salvation Front was winning the election. So the military forces staged a coup and stopped the election; however, militant Muslims reacted in violence that claimed 40,000 lives.
SUDAN: In 1956, Sudan gained independence from Britain. At that time, Muslims attempted to force Islam on the nation of Sudan. Contesting parties, however, formed a coalition government, which granted religious freedom to Christians in the south. However, in 1985, the government under Nimeiry declared Sudan an Islamic Republic, annulled the former agreement of freedom for Christians, and imposed Islamic law on the south. This led to the breakup of the coalition government in Khartoum, and it also led to an extended civil war between the Muslims of the North and the Christians of the south, an armed conflict that claimed a million lives. As a result, millions of refugees, Christians and animists, fled to Khartoum where social upheaval still plagues the nation of Sudan.
Sudan is one of the largest countries in Africa and Arab people compromise 45% of its population. Fundamentalist Muslims see Sudan as vital link in the strategy to win the Horn of Africa for Islam. Djibouti and Somalia are already Islamic and if South Sudan falls to Islam, the door will be open for further expansion. It will increase the possibility of winning Ethiopia (currently have appointed the first Muslim Prime Minister), Eritrea, and Kenya to the cause of Islam.
NIGERIA: By the time of British rule, Islam was deeply rooted in Nigeria. The nomadic Fulani people, who were Muslims, were primarily responsible for this. In the nineteenth century, they conducted holy wars with intent of removing all traces of African traditional religion from other Muslim communities. Although the British arrived at beginning of the twentieth century, the Fulani were able to preserve their orthodox strain of Islam. At that time, most Muslims lived in the North and most Christian lived in the South.
Although Nigeria gained her independence in the 1960, the nation suffered a long period of instability marked by military coups. Then, in 1975, General Murtala Muhammad took control of the government and strongly urged making Islam the official religion of Nigeria. He changed street names from Christian names to Muslim names, and he redesigned Nigerian currency to include Arabic inscriptions and Islamic symbols. He also tried to take control of Christian schools and hospitals.
In 1989 the “Islam in AFRICA”, CONFERENCE convened in Abuja, Nigeria and in this conference Muslims delegates resolved to establish Islamic Law in their respective states. This was the first step towards their greater goal – to make Nigeria an Islamic state. After the conference, states in the northern Nigeria began to impose Islamic law, which included expelling Christians and demolishing church buildings. In addition, Saudi Arabia sent strict Islamic (Wahabbi) teachers to stir up Islamic fervor in Nigeria. These drastic actions led to violent riots between Christians and Muslims and thousands of people were killed in the fighting. The situation became even worse when Nigerians elected a Christian Leader to be their president in 1999.
Radical Muslims continue to exploit the outbreak of violence in the northern Nigeria and to call for the death of all Christians until Islam is firmly established. Fundamentalist Muslims see Nigeria as a strategic part of their plan to bring West Africa under sway of Islam. This is true because Nigeria has the largest population of any African nation, and in the year 2000 it ranked sixth among oil-producing nations. Nigeria thus represents a large reservoir of human and financial resources that can be used in the quest to bring all of Africa under Islam.
Africans have seen what militant Islam and terrorism can lead to. For example, the first major terrorist attacks in Africa took place in 1998 when a car bomb exploded outside the Untied States Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. At the same time, terrorists attacked the United States Embassy in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. Then in 2002, Islamic militant in Kenya launched a missile attack an Israeli passenger plane, and 2003 they carried out a suicide bombing in Morocco.
Clearly militant Muslims will go to any extreme to fulfill their objective. Most African Muslims know very little about Orthodox Islam, and they don’t know the Arabic Language or how to say their prayers. Neither do they keep the fast. In fact many are steeped in witchcraft, and many are influenced by African Sufi teaching, which ignores Islam. As a result, most African Muslims recent orthodox Islam. Why? Because they don’t like other Muslims forcing them to learn Arabic and follow strict rituals. Furthermore, they resent orthodox Muslims severely criticizing their traditional practices
SUMMARY
The African Church is alarmed and has focused her attention on the growth of Islamic fundamentalism, which is natural. However, the church must also focus her attention on the millions of African Muslims who are NOT FUNDAMENTALISTS. The African church should see the present wave militant Islam as a divine opportunity to share the love of Jesus Christ with the millions of moderate non-fundamental African Muslims.
MAIN TEXT FROM : MUSLIM MINISTRY IN THE AFRICAN CONTEXT By Harry Morin
Compiled by Pst. Willy Ochieng.
