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YAOUNDE (AFP) - The Sultan of Bamoun, a traditional chief based at Foumban in western Cameroon, has sacked several Islamic prayer leaders at the Foumban mosque to end religious squabbles. Sultan Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya dismissed religious figures in his own Tijjaniyya community to stop "trouble and warring among brotherhoods," a member of the Bamoun ruling class, reported saying. In a letter addressed to the district administrator, Tijjaniyya brotherhood leaders in July accused the sultan of "seeking to turn the Bamoun people away from the path traced by their ancestors regarding religious belief." The accusation was an incendiary one in a community of some 100,000 people, according to a member of the local elite, who said it was part of a power "struggle taking place for several years among the Tijjaniyya, Wahhabite and Koulkounou brotherhoods." Sultan Mbombo Njoya, who had urged peaceful coexistence among different Muslim brotherhoods, announced the dismissal of the Foumban imams when he addressed a gathering of the people last week. "We have already had to draw attention on all sides to the risks some imams are taking by stoking up fires they will not be able to put out," the chief was quoted as saying. "Cohabitation among the different religious brotherhoods is imperative and almost 90% of the Bamoun don't feel drawn into the propaganda campaign waged by just a handful of people," he added. The sultan also dismissed from public office one of his palace aides, Prince Zouneidou Njankouo Njimoluh, who had signed the letter the imams sent to the local administrator. Never before since the foundation of the current Bamoun kingdom in the 17th century has its sultan taken such measures to quell unrest, observers noted. Foumban, some 400 kilometers (250 miles) west of Yaounde, is a town steeped in tradition, whose ruler, according to local historians, can trace his ancestry back for seven centuries. |
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