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By Danstan Asif Kaunda, IOL Correspondent
LUSAKA
– The government in the southern African country Zambia is
currently concerning the deregistration of the umbrella Islamic
Council of Zambia (ICZ) on continuous leadership struggles and
violating its constitution.
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"Yes, Zambian Islamic
Council faces deregistering but they have made an
appeal against that decision," Home Affairs Minister
Mangani told IOL. |
"Yes,
Zambian Islamic Council faces deregistering but they have made
an appeal against that decision," Home Affairs Minister Lameck
Mangani told IslamOnline.net in an interview on Thursday,
February 18.
ICZ was
established in 1988 as an outcome of a National Islamic
Convention to promote and support the Islamic community in the
country.
It is a
loose Islamic organization whose establishment was supported by
the government as a way of uniting various Islamic individual
associations within the country.
It is
most dominated by native Muslims and that is why some other
Islamic societies with diverse race do not feel the need to
affiliate to it.
Various
Islamic associations, like the Lusaka Muslim Society, a main
representative body of Muslims in Lusaka, and other Islamic
professional associations, like the Muslim Lawyers Association
of Zambia, refused to join the council.
The
decision to deregister the ICZ was based on complaints from
within its members, such as the Matero Islamic Society, Muslim
Youth Forum –Zambia, Koomboka Mosque and B. Diawara Islamic
Centre.
"Efforts to call for elections within ICZ have failed and member
bodies have been threatened with expulsion if they tried to call
for election," claims Sheikh Shaban Phiri of the Matero Islamic
Society.
He
insisted that article two of the ICZ constitution stipulates
that the executive committee would have elections every five
years but this had not been the case.
Leadership quarrels and claims of violating the ICZ's
constitution had forced the government to re-look at its
registration.
"We are
currently looking at their appeal," said Minister Mangani
He
asserted that under the law, associations facing deregistering
by the Registrar of Societies have the right to appeal within 21
days to the Ministry of Home Affairs, which the ICZ has done.
This is
the second time the ICZ had been threatened with deregistration.
The
first was in 2003 when Christian televangelist Dr. Nevers Mumba,
who opposed minority religious group, was appointed
vice-president.
Traded
Accusations
Sheikh
Shaban Phiri said there had been gross violation of the ICZ's
constitution by its current leadership.
Salim
Dawood a Muslim at the Omar Mosque in Lusaka states that all
those matters within the Islamic Council of Zambia are based on
politics and race.
"There
is racism within the leadership of the Islamic Council of
Zambia, some prejudiced groups inside the council have been
controlling the ICZ for some time now," he told IOL.
"But
despite this leadership struggle within the Zambian Islamic
community, our Islamic faith for most of us Muslims in the
country will not be shaken. The only challenge or worry is with
the image of our religion in the country."
Felix
Phiri, a member of ICZ, expresses little hope of re-launching
the Islamic Council of Zambia after what it had gone through.
"Repeated internecine power struggles within the ICZ have
undermined its efficiency and its credibility, leading to the
defection of most of the affiliated associations. It is not the
overarching body it would like to be."
ICZ
President Rashid Phiri declined to discuss the issue because it
is before the Ministry of Home Affairs.
But ICZ
national co-coordinator Aadam Judas Phiri insists that the ICZ
is still intact and operating to promote Islam and its tents in
this country.
He
encouraged Muslim community in Zambia to continue advocate of
peace and unity.
"Those
in-fighting in the Islamic Council of Zambia are just created by
some of the disgrace Muslim brothers within the Islamic
community in Zambia," Phiri charged.
"And
others making those claims over the council’s constitution are
not even members in the Islamic Council of Zambia."
He
insisted that such infighting does not serve the interests of
Muslims in the African country.
"There
are other fundamental issues to talk about in the Islamic
community in the county instead of those making those claims in
the public."
Islam
first reached Zambia during the middle ages and the Omani rule
in Zanzibar by way of Muslim merchants who extended their
business from the Muslim cities which were established in the
East African coast to the interior regions.
Muslims
are estimated to constitute over 12 percent of the country's
12.5 million people.
In 1991
then president Fredrick Chiluba declared Zambia a Christian
state and amended the Constitution declaring Christianity as the
official religion of the country.
Source:
http://www.islamonline.net
Date: 2010/04/13
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