POLICE RAID MOSQUE OVER SHEIKH MURDER

Muslims protest as a police armoured vehicle takes away some of their colleagues who were arrested during the yesterday morning raid. The raid followed a complaint to Gen Kale Kayihura by one of the Muslim factions after the murder of Sheikh Mustapha Bahiiga, the Kampala Muslim Amir, on Sunday. Photo by Faiswal Kasirye 

By  AL-MAHDI SSENKABIRWA

KAMPALA- At the dawn of New Year’s eve, police raided the Tabliq Masjid Noor mosque on William Street in Kampala on the directive of Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura to reinstate the old leadership of the mosque, but the mainstream Tabliq leadership resisted the takeover.

The raid followed complaints to Gen Kayihura by one of the Muslim factions that the murder of Sheikh Mustapha Bahiiga, the Kampala Muslim Amir who was killed on Sunday, was connected to the current wrangling over the control of the mosque.

Trouble started in the wee hours of Tuesday when police, with the help of Sheikh Haruna Jjemba’s group, entered Masjid Noor to remove the Sheikh Kamoga group but the latter resisted.

The Haruna faction had blocked worshippers from accessing the mosque for the early morning prayers. An eyewitness said police and the Haruna faction first sealed off all roads leading to the mosque before entering the building through the rear door.
“Police should not hoodwink us to think they are ignorant of who attacked this mosque,” Sheikh Siraje Kawooya, told irate Muslims shortly after the attempted takeover.

Calls by Muslims outside the mosque to open the building fell on deaf ears.

The charged Muslims started calling their colleagues who trooped to the mosque. By 7am, the number had swelled and they started chanting Allah Akbar (God is the Greatest). As demands for immediate opening of the mosque increased, police led by Kampala Metropolitan Police Commander Haruna Isabirye were seen making frantic calls seeking to calm down the situation.

The mosque was reopened at 10am following protracted negotiations between the Tabliq Muslim leaders and Mr Andrew Kaweesi, the director of police operations.

It took police and the Tabliq leaders close to six hours to agree on whether to close the mosque until today or reopen it and arrest the attackers and let Muslims occupy the building.

Six men were removed from the mosque while covered with veils and dressed in women hijabs. They were driven away in a police armoured cars. Two months ago Sheikh Kamoga sacked four members of his executive from running the mosque, including Sheikh Swidiq Ndaula, Sheikh Mustapha Bahiiga (R.I.P), Hajj Najib Ssonko and Sheik Hassan Kirya.
The sacking followed complaints from worshippers mismanaging the money collected from the mosque.

The worshippers elected Jjemba as their Amir (leader), which escalated the divisions among the Tabliqs.

During special prayers for Sheikh Bahiiga, Jjemba’s faction told Kayihura the deceased could have been killed because of the current wrangles between rival Muslims factions. They demanded that the old management of the mosque under Jjemba be reinstated and the new one under Kamoga removed.

Gen Kayihura subsequently ordered Kampala Metropolitan Police commander Haruna Isabirye to remove the Kamoga group and reinstate Jjemba administration.

Police spokesperson Fred Enanga said they had gone to Masjid Noor to oversee the transfer of power since Sheikh Kamoga had been voted out of office.

“After the death of Sheikh Bahiiga there was an understanding that the status quo should be restored. When we went to oversee that transition, the group of Sheikh Sonko was not cooperative. They brought a group of 15 people, I don’t think they were even Muslims because they entered with shoes. We removed them and left the mosque. We returned the mosque to Kamoga group,” he said.

CREDIT SOURCE: DAILY MONITOR