Event reports
Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) and her partner JUMUIYA YA WALIMU WA QURAN TANZANIA (JUWAQUTA) invited Muslim leaders and Quran teachers for a round of discussion. The main topic of the event on the 6th December was the question which role the Quran teachers should play in building peace, tolerance and stability in Tanzania and the whole region. The background of the meeting were religious clashes between Muslims and Christians on Zanzibar and the main land where churches were burnt and people got hurt. Some radical Imans appealed for protest because a religious leader of the unlawful organisation Uamsho had been arrested.
Religious radicalism and extremism can lead to violence. In the light of poverty, unemployment, bad education opportunities and a decreasing morality it is understandable that the people return to old and traditional structures. So there is a strong trend to return to an active religious life because of the comfort and support it provides. Especially radical groups are in vogue. To improve the relationship between Muslims and Christians and also within the religious groups and to build peace and stability it is necessary to start a dialogue. The intention of the event by KAS and JUWAQUTA was to develop a strategy to handle the current problems and to find solutions for the challenges the religious groups are facing.
As a way forward the participants recommended the following:
(1) KAS should support JUWAQUTA to work out on income generating strategies in order to bail of Quran teachers in Dar es Salaam region from poverty trap. (2) The JUWAQUTA leadership should work out all what it can to bring back Muslim followers in line with writing in the holy Quran. (3) Aware that poverty was fueling social disruption in the communities, it is important that religious leaders take a front seat in speaking against all kinds of wrong doing including graft by political leadership. (4) Given that some Quran teachers lack discipline and manners, time has come Quran teachers to lead by example in their appearance and life style within communities.