Africa: the only Muslim continent

Islamic organizations like the Muslim World League (MWL) International Relief Organization (IIRO) and World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), which basically work as NGOs throughout the World , have drawn special programmes for Africa.

Africa is one continent which is always in the news but mostly for the wrong reason. The moment Africa is mentioned, the picture that comes to One's mind is that of hunger, death, destruction, violence, civil war, HIV/AIDS and everything negative that one can think of.

The so called civilised or western world which controls money and the media, never fails to condemn the killings and chaos that is wide-spread not just in one country but the whole region. The Donations and Charities occasionally sent to the African countries, are widely publicised but no one talks about the lethal weapons that are abundantly, though secretly, supplied to population ever fighting for the control of meagre resources. No one asks how the arms industry of the west is flourishing when there is apparently strict control on the sale of weapons in open market. No action is taken against a western bank which refuses to reveal the account details of corrupt African leaders.

It is the same western world which in the past had colonised the whole of Africa and exploited the hapless masses as slaves. (I wonder how they became slaves in their own mother land ).

Contrary to this, this, Arab merchants reached out to Africa with Universal Message of Islam on the basis of equality and brotherhood. Arabs never sought to colonise or exploit them. As result of the majority of Africans not only embraced Islam but also adopted Arabic as a religion as their main language. Today sixty to seventy percent of Africa is said to be Muslim and more than ten African countries have Arabic as an Official Language.

Africans were introduced to Islam almost immediately after its advent in the seventh century AD. The Africans realised that this religion makes no distinction between races and emphasises that God judges people on merit and on race. Hajj (the annual Muslim pilgrimage) to Makkah was another way in which contacts increased with people outside their own world.

The traders who came into contact with the Africans were highly respected because they treated them justly and with respect. Besides, they were fair in their dealings and were eager to pass on their knowledge to anyone willing to acquire.

The Arab tradition or to speak broadly Islamic tradition continues till today. While the greedy west is busy exploiting the chaos in Africa, the Islamic world Islamic world is doing everything to help them out of their crises.

Islamic organizations like the Muslim World League (MWL) International Islamic Relief Organisation (IIRO) and World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) which basically work as NGOs throughout the World, have drawn special programmes for Africa. Because they realise that currently Africa is passing through a difficult phase of its history. Poverty, corruption, misrule, disunity, internal feud and political instability among other things have become synonymous with the region. Therefore , the need of the hour is to unify Africa by bringing calm to the continent. This requires proper education and training of people and also a plan to address their basic needs. Today this situation is so pathetic that in many areas people don't get even clean drinking water. So, one of the programmes of WAMY and other Islamic organisations is to dig wells in remote African villages.

According to an official of WAMY as a youth organisation it organises Muslim youth locally, educate them on Islam and encourage them to undertake social work. Recently, WAMY held a ten-day training course in Islamic studies for women in Nigeria. The course was aimed at raising their religious and cultural awareness. A group of 75 women of different categories such as teachers, university students and house wives, attended the course, which was held in Kano northern Nigeria and focused on familiarising the participants with the true message of Islam.

In the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, WAMY has a training centre where it keeps on organising computer training and other vocational courses for university students. In 2001, it organised more than ten computer courses including one specially for girls which attracted seventy students. Besides an Islamic course designed for women benefited 100 teachers.

This year the Riyadh-based youth organisation arranged a seminar in Cameroon which was attended by over 100 university students. According to Abdulwahhab Nurwaliyy Assistant Secretary General of WAMY the seminar focused on the role of university students in the betterment of society and featured a number of programmes aimed at educating them on Islam. During the seminar, he said "many other values have been achieved including learning and emphasising Islamic moral values existence between Muslims and learning through the quiz method."

According to its officials, all the course that WAMY sponsors have special emphasis on tolerance and peaceful co-existence with Muslims and non-Muslims. Though this has been the policy of WAMY ever since its inception in 1972, it has specially been important after September 11.

In Rwanda, also this year WAMY organised a month-long training course for neo-Muslims. A total of 70 people between the age group of 17 and 54 years participated in this programme. The converts were given training to familiarise them with the principles of Islam and help them implement its tenets in a practical way. They were also engaged in a series of open discussions which concentrated on comparison between Islam and other religions and peaceful consistence between Muslims and non-Muslims.

WAMY also organised two medical caravans in Rwanda which covered eight rigions and offered free medical treatment to more than 10,000 patients. A medical camp was also organised in Kenya. During the the two week camp more than 500 surgical operations including eye, ear and throat were performed.

Besides, da'wa works, education and medical camps, WAMY also builds mosques, schools and offers scholarships to needy students, because in WAMY's own words it has been playing "an important role in promoting the unity of Islamic Ummah (nation) through social,educational and cultural programmes. It provides. It provvides a platform for the Muslims around the world to exchange ideas and benefit from this interaction. Such a cross-fertilisation of ideas is concusive to the reweakening of Muslim Ummah."

The individuals and organizations engaged in Da'awa work in Africa see good potential in the whole continent. They report that the Africans have a very humble heart and they see the truth easily. That is why they are embracing Islam in large numbers. Islam is no alien to Africans.

For example it is not known to everyone that the indigenous population of Africa at present is about 80 % Muslim. So Africa is a Muslim continent as it stands, not to mention the other factors , for example the increasing reversions to Islam that is taking place on daily basis. When we mentioned to them that the first Hijrah {migration} of persecuted Muslims from the Hijaz, in Arabia was to Christian King in Abyssinia {Ethiopia}at the time. So Africa was cradle to the growing baby of Islam. And when the persecution came to an end and the Muslims went back, the king of Abyssinia, Najjasi, {Negus} at that time, became a Muslim according to our tradition because he saw there no difference between true Christianity and Islam. This could be one of the reasons why the Africans are on to the fold of Islam and they do not Islam as aliens. There could be several other reasons as they are disenchanted with Christianity.

This is why the ideology of trinity seems to be confusing, which does not make sense to them at all; and the fact that Christians and the colonialist worked together - the gun in one hand and the Bible in the other -always giving them the notion to bear patiently all your troubles and you get reward in hereafter.

There is some similarities between Islam and Africans' belief in their own traditional African religions which makes it easier for them to embrace Islam.

In their religions, although they believe in ancestor worship , ultimately there is one God. One of their definitions of is Alaa (Mandingo language) Alla (Hausa & Fulani languages), meaning the only creator.

One can see from this point how identical Islam is to our traditional African religions &cultures, although admittedly they believe in ancestors who came as intermediaries. But they have some practices also that are familiar to Islam. For example, some tribes practice circumcision; in some tribes, the women are covered. In the days before white man came, fornication and adultery were major crimes, although things have changed the advent of white men in Africa.

In Sierra Leone , my country, the incident of a pastor who converted to Islam was a big surprise to the entire Christian community. Pastor Moses, who was later named Musa, was the regional evangelist of the New Apostolic Church in Sierra Leone. He was paid by the mission, in foreign currency that's equivalent to three times of the salary of any top civil servant in that country plus living for him and his family. With all these, this gentleman washed his hands out Christianity once and for all on his own freewheel.

When people asked him including some of his Christian colleagues, why he decided to become a Muslim, " A child was physically visiting and telling me that his father told him to tell me, not to continue Christianity as a religion, but I was so reluctant to accept his message. He then started punishing me severely", he said.

ALIE Y. KALLAY
E-MAIL: aykallay@yahoo.com