Now Muslim radicals rename Musa mosque in Mombasa

By ISHAQ JUMBE  and Benard Sanga

Mombasa, Kenya: Radical Islamists have renamed the controversial Musa Mosque as Masjid Shuhadaa or Martyrs’ Mosque in a new act of defiance against the State.

The police appear to have been caught by surprise by the renaming of the mosque in Mombasa’s Majengo, but sources told The Standard that the change was made on Sunday to honour slain clerics.

Most people interviewed claimed that they only learnt about the new name yesterday.

“We came to learn about it (change of name) yesterday (Tuesday),” said

Mombasa County police Commander Robert Kitur said  the renaming may have been done by  either he mosque’s committee or militant youth.

In the afternoon, Mombasa County Commissioner Nelson Marwa told The Standard that he was not sure if the mosque’s committee had been reconstituted following the February 2 storming of the worshipping place in which a policeman was killed.

The county security committee had planned to shut down the mosque over alleged links to Al-Shabaab and Al Qaeda, but shelved the plan after it was agreed that the mosque will operate under a new committee. The previous committee resigned in October last year when radical followers of the late islamist Sheikh Aboud Rogo tried to expel moderate imams.

Meanwhile, The Standard has established that besides painting the new name prominently where Masjid Musa was,  the radical youths have restored the so-called Shuhadaa Podium from where the late radical islamist Sheikh Aboud Rogo and his successor Sheikh Ibrahim Amour delivered incendiary lectures.

Restless youth

The podium was removed in October last year after the killing of Sheikh Ibrahim as the mosque’s committee tried to contain jihadist preaching there. Restless youth tried to restore it in a failed takeover bid that pitted the radical youth against moderate leadership.

Yesterday, Mvita MP Abdulswamad Shariff said that the change of name should not be a pretext to launch a new raid on the church as various Muslim personalities gave different opinions on the change of name.

While some consider the new developments a show defiance against the State, others have dismissed it as a harmless act that does not contravene any tenet of Islam.

Terror suspect Sheikh Abubakar Shariff alias Makaburi supported the change of name arguing that it was done to honour 15 clerics associated with the mosque including Sheikh Rogo.

“The late Aboud Rogo used to preach at the mosque. Other clerics who were associated with the mosque include Samir Khan, Sheikh Shaaban, and Sheikh Ibrahim all of whom were murdered,” says Makaburi.

The Mvita MP, who spoke to The Standard on phone, denied that local leadership promised the government that they would oversee constitution of a new committee to replace the previous one.