Re: More converting out of Islam than to Islam (split)
For our little Hindu BJP\RSS racist Cynic, burn little man…
Enjoy the growth of Islam…
http://www.timesdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20021107&Category=API&ArtNo=211070870&Ref=AR
KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) - After the sliver of the new moon
had been sighted, Saleh Habimana joined the growing
ranks of Muslims in this central African nation and
began the daylight fasting that marks the holy month
of Ramadan.
Later, Rwanda’s leading Muslim cleric joined men in
embroidered caps and boys in school uniforms to pray
at the overflowing Al-Fatah mosque - more testimony to
the swelling numbers of Muslims in this predominantly
Christian country.
Though Muslims remain a small percentage of Rwanda’s 8
million people, Islam is on the rise eight years after
the 1994 genocide brought 100 days of murder, terror
and mayhem. More than 500,000 minority Tutsis and
political moderates from the Hutu majority were killed
by Hutu militiamen, soldiers and ordinary citizens in
a slaughter orchestrated by the extremist Hutu
government then in power.
"For Hutus, conversion to Islam was like purification,
a way of getting rid of a stigma," Habimana said.
"After the genocide, Hutus felt that the society
perceives them as having blood on their hands."
Arab merchants trading in ivory and slaves introduced
Islam to Rwanda in the 18th century. The faith grew
after 1908 when waves of Muslims flowed in from
Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Sudan at the beginning of
European colonial rule.
For nearly a century, Muslims remained on the fringes
of Rwandan society. The faithful in Kigali were
restricted to Biryogo, a dusty neighborhood where the
Al-Fatah mosque now stands. They needed permits to
leave.
During the genocide, Muslims were among the few
Rwandans who protected both neighbors and strangers.
Elsewhere, many Hutus hunted down or betrayed their
Tutsi neighbors and strangers suspected of belonging
to the minority.
But the militiamen and soldiers didn’t dare go after
Tutsis in Muslim neighborhoods like Biryogo, said
Yvette Sarambuye, a 29-year-old convert.
"If a Hutu Muslim tried to kill someone hidden in our
neighborhoods, he would first be asked to take the
holy Quran and tear it apart to renounce his faith,"
said Sarambuye, a Tutsi widowed mother of three who
survived the slaughter by hiding with Muslims. "No
Muslim dared to violate the holy book, and that saved
a lot of us."
For many Hutu extremists, Muslims were regarded as a
group apart, not to be targeted in the genocide.
Although the Christian clergy in many communities
struggled to protect Tutsis and often died with them,
more than 20 Roman Catholic and Protestant priests,
nuns and pastors are facing charges related to the
killings. Rwandan courts already have convicted two
Catholic priests and sentenced them to death.
As Sarambuye hid in Muslim homes during the slaughter,
she watched them pray, learned about a faith that
previously was alien to her and grew to admire it.
"For these people, Islam was not a label, it was a way
of life, and I felt an urge to join them," she said.
Tutsis also converted to Islam for practical reasons -
seeking protection from renewed killings by Hutus who
continued to attack Rwanda from refugee camps in Congo
after Tutsi-led rebels ended the genocide and
overthrew the Hutu government, Habimana said.
Conversions tapered off after 1997 when the government
was able to guarantee security, and Islam was no
longer regarded as a vital safe haven, Habimana said.
But the religion still attracts converts. There are no
official figures on how many Rwandans are Muslim;
estimates vary from 5 to 14 percent.
Most Muslims in Rwanda belong to the majority Sunni
branch of Islam, said Jean-Pierre Sagahutu, a
35-year-old Tutsi who converted to the faith.
"After the genocide, a small group of Islamic
fundamentalists, funded by Pakistanis who flew to
Rwanda frequently, took control of a mosque and
started to organize themselves," he said. "But they
were kicked out by the official Muslim organization
concerned about the spread of radical Islam."
As Rwandan Christian Tutsis and Hutus try to
reconcile, their Muslim countrymen believe they could
learn something about tolerance and solidarity from
Islam.
"Reconciliation is not necessary for Muslims in
Rwanda, because we do not view the world through a
racial or ethnic lens," Sagahutu said