By Faridah N Kulumba
Africa-Press – Tanzania. On Tuesday 31 May 2021, Zanzibar Grand Mufti Sheikh Saleh Bin Omar Kaabi while in Saudi Arabia visited the King Fahd Complex for the printing of the Holy Qur’an Madina.
The tour
Among the places Mufti Kaab toured were the facilities and production lines of the King Fahd Complex where he was briefed on the stages of printing the Qur’an and the work mechanisms of the complex.
Compliments
The Zanzibar Mufti congratulated Saudi Arabia for the perfect work and big efforts they offer to serve the Holy Qur’an and issue more than 345 million copies of the Holy Qur’an. King Fahd complex has witnessed a qualitative leap over the past few years through increasing the number of printed copies of the Holy Qur’an with a percentage exceeding 100 percent with a production volume of 20 million copies annually.
Interpretation
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its leadership in the Holy Qur’an interpreted the meaning of the Holy book in more than 75 international languages that were distributed to countries across the globe.
History of the post of Mufti in Zanzibar
The mufti is a supreme Islamic leader, on the island of Zanzibar the move to legalize the post of the mufti met with controversy. Two members of the island’s Islamic clergy were arrested by the authorities after threatening to hold demonstrations over the appointment. The sheiks (as members of the clergy are called in Zanzibar) contended that since Tanzania is a secular state, the Zanzibar government should not meddle in religious matters. They also wanted control over the choice of mufti, whereas the Tanzania government wanted the island’s community to forward a number of names of the post.
Islam in Zanzibar
Unlike mainland Tanzania, whose population is divided between Christians and Muslims, Zanzibar is 98 Between 80 and 90 percent of the Muslim population is Sunni percent Muslim, and the leading clergy clearly felt uneasy about an alliance with the mainland government. Government representatives, however, argued that they were merely seeking to legalize a position that has existed in an administrative capacity in the past years.
Petition
The clergy members decided to settle the matter through court of law rather than protesting after the police killed 23 of their followers in protest. The clergy told their followers that they would organize demonstrations if they lost the case, but the threatened demonstrations did not take place.
Mufti’s appointment
According to the law on Zanzibar, the President of Zanzibar appoints the Mufti, who serves as a leader of the Muslim community and as a public servant assisting with local governmental affairs. The Mufti of Zanzibar nominally approves all Islamic activities and supervises all mosques in Zanzibar. The Mufti also approves religious lectures by visiting Islamic clergy and supervises the importation of Islamic literature from outside Zanzibar.
Zanzibar-Saudi Arabia relations
Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous archipelago off the coast of Tanzania consisting of Zanzibar Island (locally, Unguja), Pemba Island, and many smaller islands. Zanzibar forms part of the union government of Tanzania. While Zanzibar has its own president, constitution, the court system, and legislature, Zanzibar is subject to the Tanzanian constitution and the religious freedom provision therein.
Tanzania and Saudi Arabia maintain close relations. Tanzania has an embassy in Riyadh and a consulate in Jeddah, and Saudi Arabia has an embassy in Dar es Salaam. Saudi Arabia is the third most important destination of exports from Tanzania to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) totaling USD20.7 million or 15.3 percent of the total exported with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) topping the Arab block totaling USD84.6 million or 62.8 percent pt the total according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Visits
The president of the Republic of Tanzania Damia Suluhu Hassan, last year in May, received Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, and his accompanying delegation, at the State House in Dar es Salaam. The officials reviewed bilateral relations and ways to enhance them in all fields, in addition to discussing regional international developments and issues of common interest, President Sami applauded the Kingdom’s tireless efforts in support of regional and international efforts to lay the foundations of the security and stability, advance development. and enhance investment.
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