By Omar Kalinge Nnyago

14^th Nov 2011: When new UPC president Dr. Olara Otunu announced his cabinet a few months ago, there was not a single Muslim in his “dream team”. Strange indeed since, historically, Muslims have been known to be more comfortable in UPC than in DP, the two historic parties.

It is inconceivable that there is a political party in Uganda today that can ignore the Muslim factor. The NRM has strategically managed to maintain Muslims in apparently influential positions since 1986. DP, once known to be a Catholic Party opened its doors wide open to Muslims to the extent that almost half of DP’s movers and shakers are Muslims. FDC too, strategically kept Dr. Suleiman Kiggundu as party chairman until his death.

Officially, Muslims are said to constitute 12.5% of the Ugandan population. (Uganda National Population and Housing Census 2002). Quoting the CIA factbook, The United States Institute of Peace records the Muslim population as 16% (United States Institute of Peace Special Report 140, May 2005). The Islamic website, Islamic Web.com, puts the figure at 36% of the population. There has not been any independent census of Muslims in Uganda.

Islam was introduced in pre-colonial Uganda by a merchant class at different periods. In West Nile and some parts of the North it was introduced largely from The Sudan. In the South, especially in the Kingdom of Buganda, it was introduced from the East African coast later in 1844. It was during the reign of Kabaka Mutesa I, that Islam reached its highest peak in pre-colonial Buganda.

From 1888, political parties based on religion- Bafransa (Roman Catholic), Bangereza (Anglican Protestants), Bawadi (Muslim)- armed themselves, united and overthrew the king of Buganda, Mwanga II. Their aim was not only to survive, but to grab power and formulate laws derived from their new religious beliefs. From then on, foreign religions in Buganda became a springboard for political mobilisation. (Kasozi, ABK The Social Origins of Violence in Uganda, Fountain Publishers, Kampala, Fountain Publishers), 1994: 27).

Formal education was introduced in Uganda by Christian missionaries to enable their converts to read the Bible and prayer books. Perhaps due to lack of funds, or expediency, the early British colonial administrators allowed the missionaries to control the supply of education and so facilitated the building of a Christian society in Uganda. Moreover, the government recruited functionaries – clerks, interpreters, police officers and other workers – from missionary schools. Most novices attending school were being prepared for baptism. Many of the schools shared the same grounds, if not building with churches.

Muslim parents were afraid of this kind of education because it exposed their children to Christian ideas and values and had the potential to lead to Christian conversion. This was the same in the whole of East Africa. A report on Muslim Education by Dr. Sergent found that Muslims all over East Africa were so backward in education that they needed special help. (Ahmed Abdallah, “Ambivalence of Muslim Education” East African Journal, February 1965).

Writing in the Uganda Journal (1965) Felice Carter stated that by 1960, Muslims had only one university graduate. When in 1964, two years after independence the African government opened all secondary schools to everyone irrespective of religious denomination, Muslims had only 1 secondary school as compared to 16 for Catholics and 10 for Anglicans (Kasozi, 1996). Today they have hundreds of schools and control or won three Universities.

Muslims have achieved disproportionate influence on economic, social and political activity in comparison to their numbers. However, a combination of historic transgressions and the conscious actions like that of Olara Otunnu drive the perception by the Muslim community that it is systematically marginalised.

Today’s Uganda seems unable to effectively mobilize commitment from the Muslim community to actively participate in building a democratic culture. As we have seen, discrimination against Muslims, which began in colonial missionary schools and continued in education and employment long after independence has played a big role in fostering Muslim dissatisfaction with successive post-colonial governments.

It is a fact that among the armed rebel groups that have waged war against the government of Uganda since 1986, most have been Muslim dominated. West Nile Bank Front (WNBF), Uganda National Rescue Front (UNRF), Uganda National Rescue Front-II (UNRF-II), Allied Democratic Forces, ADF. No discussion of politics, security, peace and leadership in Uganda is complete without the Muslim factor.

Among Muslim communities world over, there has been an important and highly visible resurgence of Islam. This affirmation of faith and identity is a powerful force in all aspects of human life and is reflected in clothing, changing social life styles and the arts, as well as the more visible arena of politics and political power. Concurrent with this resurgence is a growing demand for greater popular participation in the political system.

In an essay titled “Islam and the nation in the Post- Suharto Era”, Robert Hefner writes: “Since the late 1980’s the largest audience for democratic and pluralist ideas in Indonesia have been, not secular nationalist, but reform-minded Muslim democrats. Nowhere in the Muslim world have Muslim intellectuals engaged the ideas of democracy, civil society, pluralism and the rule of law with a vigour and confidence equal to that of Indonesian Muslims (Abuza, 2003: 68, quoting Hefner, 1999: 42).

His comments were based on the role that Islamic forces played in the pro-democracy movement in Indonesia. When the authoritarian regime still rested on their laurels, the world’s two largest Muslim organizations, NU and the Muhammadiyah with their young and progressive leaders such as Abdurrahman Wahid who later became president were already at the forefront of Muslim intellectual efforts to forge an understanding of democracy in an Islamic context. They argued that Islam should be the basis for the country’s democratic development and the building of civil society.

Going further than simply talking about the compatibility of Islam and democracy, they pointed out the ways in which Islam supported human rights, pluralism representation, gender, and equity, separation of religion and the state, as well as social justice. In their thesis, which have cast much influence on more than 70 million followers, democratic values are inherently rooted within Islam. Apart from research, they also engaged in very practical “ democracy education” for rural, poorly educated and often marginalized populations who had very little knowledge or experience with what democracy means, and even less understanding of how to participate in democratic governance (Huong) , 2005:9 quoting SAPC, 2004: 17-23).

When the time was right, resurgent Muslims were the single largest force in the pro- democracy movement that brought authoritarianism to an end in 1998 (Hefner, 2000:18). It was Islamic organisations that provided the bulk of the demonstrations against Suharto (Abuza, 2003:68). And it was well known Islamists such as Amien Rais, Abdurrahman Wahid and Nurcholish Madjid who emerged as the most prominent advocates of democracy at the time (Smith, 2005:100).

In global terms, however, the definition of “democracy” is closely identified with major elements of the political traditions of Western Europe and the United States. For many social scientists, the western experience provides the basis for definitions of democracy. Giovanni Sartori raises the question: “When we speak of western experience, is the key term “western“ or “experience”? In other words, can there be a non western path to democracy? (Giovanni, 1968). Yes. Islam is the non western path to democracy.

omarkalinge@gmail.com

This article was first published on Uganda Muslim Brothers & Sisters website