04/07/2020
I write to raise my concern and the seemingly deliberate ignorance of a leading daily newspaper over a matter that goes to the heart of Ugandan society, on a matter that’s deeply sensitive yet treated carelessly.
It begins with an eye catching and shouting headline - https://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Who-is-funding-Uganda-s-new-high-rise-mosques-/688334-5587294-hwnckm/index.html taking the reader into a melee of quotes by imams and district leaders who will have been innocently interviewed without revealing the real motif at the heart of what’s meant to be an investigative story. The story wastes all ink and space to actually lead to its intended conclusion - linking new high rise mosques to terrorism funding.
It’s very careless of DM to associate by deliberate error of inclusion and misrepresentation, of the minister for the presidency, hon Esther Mbayo over NGOs funding illegal activities and connecting that to Muslims and mosques.
It’s very carelessly ignorant of the NMG to not bother to even establish the position of a mosque in Islam which would help explain the sudden increase in mosques.
I’ll labour to educate you a little, if you’ll care to want to learn. A mosque holds a central positon in Islam and in a muslim’s life to the extent that ‘ whoever builds a mosque on earth, God will build a house for them in paradise’ according to prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). As a result, any deserving Muslim, with some extra means, yearns to build a mosque. In the 60s and 70s when muslims had a lot of monies from trading on coffee and the magendo businesses, many would individually build mosques. As they became less empowered especially with the advent of the ‘new economy‘, to which they had less access, the issue resorted to fundraising but within the community to continue this important and noble aspect of mosque construction.
Increasingly, there’s a big and growing Muslim diaspora, who, aware of the importance of the mosque, and with better economic
While some of the mosques have been built with support from Muslim development partners, others have been constructed by local communities.