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Tanzanian President Threatens to Use Force Against Muslims
DAR ES SALAAM, Sept 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - In a veiled threat to the Muslim opposition, Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa warned that people creating what he described as "chaos in the name of religion", were now allegedly compelling his government to use force to restore peace in the country, news agencies reported Saturday.
"All along, the nation was guided by religious tolerance and everyone cherished solidarity," Mkapa said, quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"Only then, everyone enjoyed peace and opportunity to worship their own creators at will, a right granted to all by our constitution," Mkapa added in his monthly address to the nation late Friday.
The Tanzanian president's remarks came after recent riots in the Tanzanian capital where riot police armed with batons, tear gas and water canons clashed with hundreds of Muslim demonstrators protesting an 18-month jail term handed down in July to a Muslim preacher for allegedly disparaging Christianity by saying that Jesus was not God. The sentence against Khamis Rajab Dibagula has since been revoked.
Police arrested 171 Muslims after the banned demonstrations.
Forty-one Muslim demonstrators were charged in a magistrate's court for rioting and illegal assembly.
At least 30 of them were badly injured and appeared in court wearing bandages and bloodstained clothes. One Muslim demonstrator had to have his left leg amputated, AFP added.
The accused all pleaded "not guilty" to charges and were remanded until September 5th, when a ruling on bail is due.
The High Court in Dar es Salaam notably reviewed the Islamic preacher's sentence and set him free on grounds that the sentence was "manifestly excessive" for such a minor offence.
Muslims have said that the conviction was unfair and infringed on freedom of worship and the right to profess one's religious faith in public.
"Who said it is illegal to profess your religious conviction in public?" asked Maryam Jibril, secretary general of Al-Muballighat, one of the Islamic groups protesting.
"Where is the law saying it is crime for me to say that Jesus Christ is not God?" she added in a statement.
Muslims reject the divinity of Jesus, known in the Qur'an (the Muslim holy book) as 'Isa (PBUH), and believe that he was a prophet who received revelation from God and preached monotheism. Islam affords him great respect.
Tanzania has been spared internal strife based on ethnic and religious grounds, divisions which have plagued many African states. However, it remains one of the poorest countries in the world, heavily reliant on foreign aid as many of its people live below the World Bank declared poverty line.
Islam and Christianity are the two main religions in this African country of 32 million people.
Some Muslim groups had called for another demonstration on Friday to press for the release of those facing charges, but hundreds of police - in an apparent show of force - were deployed around Dar es Salaam to stop any such attempt, AFP said.
Tanzania's mainland ethnicity is 99% native African (of which 95% are Bantu consisting of more than 130 tribes) and 1% other (consisting of Asian, European, and Arab); Zanzibar is mainly Arab, mixed Arab and native African.
On the mainland, 45% are Christian, 35% Muslim and 20% follow indigenous beliefs. In Zanzibar, more than 99% of the population is Muslim.
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