Islam in Rwanda
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Islam was first introduced into Rwanda by Muslim traders from the East Coast of Africa in the 18th century. Since its introduction, Muslims have been a minority in the territory, while the Roman Catholic Church, introduced to Rwandans during the Belgian Invasion , occupation and colonisation by French missionaries in the late 19th century has considerably more adherents.
Before the 1994 Genocide, Muslims were held in low regard, because they were seen as traders, in a land where farmers are highly regarded. The Muslim population before the genocide was 4% which was unusually low compared to that of neighbouring countries. This was due to the European occupation making it virtually impossible to live as a Muslim in Rwanda.
The number of Rwandan Muslims have increased after the 1994 Genocide. This shift is attributed to the sheltering of refugees - both Hutu and Tutsi - in Muslim villages and suburbs, as compared to the flight of both Catholic and Protestant clergy from their parishes (abandoning their parishioners in the process), and in many cases actively partaking in the Genocide by both Catholic and Protestant clergy[1]. Muslims now make up 14 percent of the 8.2 million people here in Africa's most Catholic nation, twice as many as before the killings began. [1]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Ten Years After Horror, Rwandans Turn to Islam by Marc Lacey, New York Times, April 7, 2004
- Rwanda's Religious Reflections by Robert Walker, BBC, April 1, 2004
- Conversions to Islam in Genocide-Stricken Rwanda Increasing IslamOnline
- Rwandans rejecting Catholicism for Islam - The Age, Australia
[edit] References
Islam in Africa | |
|---|---|
| Sovereign states | Algeria · Angola · Benin · Botswana · Burkina Faso · Burundi · Cameroon · Cape Verde · Central African Republic · Chad · Comoros · Democratic Republic of the Congo · Republic of the Congo · Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) · Djibouti · Egypt · Equatorial Guinea · Eritrea · Ethiopia · Gabon · The Gambia · Ghana · Guinea · Guinea-Bissau · Kenya · Lesotho · Liberia · Libya · Madagascar · Malawi · Mali · Mauritania · Mauritius · Morocco · Mozambique · Namibia · Niger · Nigeria · Rwanda · São Tomé and Príncipe · Senegal · Seychelles · Sierra Leone · Somalia · South Africa · Sudan · Swaziland · Tanzania · Togo · Tunisia · Uganda · Zambia · Zimbabwe |
| Dependencies, autonomies and other territories | Canary Islands (Spain) · Ceuta (Spain) · Madeira (Portugal) · Mayotte (France) · Melilla (Spain) · Puntland · Réunion (France) · St. Helena (UK) · Socotra (Yemen) · Somaliland · Southern Sudan · Western Sahara · Zanzibar (Tanzania) |
