Solution to Coast problems lies with religious groups, government

A cleric assesses the damage after youth torched Salvation Army church in Mombasa during protests. [PHOTO: FILE/ STANDARD]

By DANIEL WESANGULA

MOMBASA, KENYA: In October last year, evangelical pastors in Mombasa decided to take matters into their hands. One of their own had been shot dead in cold blood while praying in his church.

Witnesses said Pastor Charles Mathole was kneeling down in prayer in a church when a lone gunman shot him at the back of his head. The following day another pastor, Ibrahim Kithaka, was found dead in Kilifi. Christian leaders were swift to blame Muslim youth as the attacks occurred amid protests within the city.

“Then, we thought the solution lay in arming ourselves,” says Gladys Mwadziga, a Mombasa resident and faithful of the island’s Redeemed Gospel Church.

At the height of the killings, Ms Mwadziga’s parish priest, Lambert Mbela, under the auspices of a conglomeration of Coast-based churches had asked the government to arm churches with AK-47 rifles.

“Our many churches are not under any protection. They do not have walls or gates. The Government should issue AK-47 rifles to every church so that we can stop them from being burnt, our property from being looted and our pastors and Christians from being killed,” said Mbela at a Press conference.

“We had to take a stand and let our people know that they were safe,” she says. Muslim leaders condemned the incident and distanced themselves from the killings. The police say investigations are ongoing. However, experts believe that issues affecting Mombasa have little to do with religion.

“We are far from an intolerant society. All faiths, including the indigenous religions have coexisted for decades. Why start fighting now?” says Mombasa-based activist Sheikh Juma Ngao. “But this is not to say that we cannot get to that situation.”

The key to the co-existence of these two faiths lies within a Muslim tenet that has been subject to different interpretations or misinterpretations depending on who speaks on the matter. Each side vehemently pushes its argument.

Whenever she hears the word Jihad, Mwadziga’s heart skips a beat. “To me, this means persecution and elimination of Christians. It means that whoever speaks it and confesses to it is on a mission to convert, forcefully or otherwise, anyone who does not profess Islam. That is what has ruined many of our young people… they think they are fighting some holy war, which is not really the case,” she says.

Therein lies what Hussein Khalid terms a religious lie.

“Granted, teachings are open to interpretation. Some see Jihad as fighting for the religion while others see it as a fight within your soul between wrong and right. That is all. All the upheavals around the city have no religious intonation to it but rather an ideological root,” Mr Khalid says. He argues that it is ignorance of the Muslim faith, by Muslims and non-Muslims that has led some Coast residents to turn the issues into a religious war.

“Just because the OCPD who ordered the raid on a mosque is not a Muslim, they tend to think all Christians are bad… and just because a Muslim youth was seen demonstrating in the streets we think all Muslims are bad. We need to change this dialogue from extremism and radicalism into a human rights abuse debate,” Khalid says.

He explains that the elephant in the room is that of a growing perception that mosques, such as the Masjid Musa, are used as Al Shabaab recruitment dens and as sources of intolerant preaching from a section of Imams and Sheikhs.

“We cannot run away from that fact. For instance Rogo, with what the state claims to be Al Shabaab links, provided a way out for these youth to escape the vicious cycle of marginalisation. This has left our people vulnerable to recruitment into all kinds of ideologies. If it were a uniquely Muslim thing, how would you explain the Mombasa Republican Council situation? Its members are not fished from mosques,” Khalid says.