Don’t provoke us, Galabuzi tells Kamoga

By Jafar Mugera

The Supreme Mufti, Sheikh Muhammad Shaban Galabuzi, has urged Imams aligned to the Kibuli-led Muslim administration to carefully reflect on Sheikh Muhammad Yunus Kamoga’s recent call for Tabligh clerics to “penetrate” mosques under Old Kampala and Kibuli.

At the beginning of this month, The Friday Call reported that Sheikh Muhammad Yunus Kamoga, the Amir Ummah, told a gathering of Tabligh Muslims in Kanyanya, near Kampala, that they should explore ways of spreading the Salafi Aqeedah (creed) to mosques under the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) and the Office of the Supreme Mufti, but cautioned them against attempting to forcefully take over leadership in those mosques. His remarks were, however, received with contempt by the Kibuli faction.

“I don’t know whether you have deeply reflected on what is hidden in those statements or you simply took them literally,” Sheikh Galabuzi told a gathering in Kawempe last weekend. “That is how it started in the early 1990s — they deposed established mosque leaders after branding the Imams as mushrikin (polytheists), mubtadi (innovators) or kafir (disbelievers). We moved past that, and we should not slide back,” he added.

He urged Imams who subscribe to the Kibuli leadership not to risk inviting Tabligh clerics. “Just as they cannot allow us to preach or lead prayers in mosques under their control, they should keep away from ours,” he said.

Pointing to the presence of multiple mosques within the same locality, Galabuzi said this reflects differences in schools of thought that must be respected. “The reason we have two or more mosques in some places is to avoid conflicts. We do not all follow the same madhahib [schools of Islamic jurisprudence]; some of us follow the Shafi’i school, others are Malikis, Hanafis or Hanbalis. We shouldn’t confuse our people,” he said.

“For instance, they do not recite the Basmallah, which is part of Surat Al-Fatiha as we do, and they do not pray for their people after swalah. The danger in this is that Muslims are increasingly drifting away and joining churches where they are prayed for,” he added.

Citing the case of a Muslim who recently appeared before Omukama Ruhanga Owobusobozi Bisaka, a self-proclaimed god, to be prayed for, Galabuzi warned Imams against reneging on their duties to the communities they lead.