Africa-Press – Uganda. Both the Masjid Noor and Masjid Khamis Shafie mosques that are among the oldest worship places in Luweero District are at the centre of a management wrangle and remain temporarily closed to the public.
At Masjid Noor in Lumole Zone, Bombo Town Council, a section of the faithful accuse the former mosque leaders of administrative mismanagement and running the institution’s affairs as a family issue against the will of majority Muslim faithful and the community.
“When the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) organised election of the Muslim leadership, the faction that had for several years denied the faithful an opportunity to elect their own leaders failed to participate. This particular group is now trying to disorganise the new elected leadership,” Mr Khamis Abdallah, a concerned member of the Masjid Noor mosque, told this publication on Monday.
Sheikh Ramadhan Mulindwa, the Luweero Muslim District Khadi, in an interview on Monday, revealed that while the leadership problem at the two mosques is not new, the factions that have reportedly imposed themselves on the majority faithful are unwilling to respect the newly elected leaders yet they failed to participate in an election where they had the opportunity to be elected.
“The leadership problem was reported to my office and several initiatives to have the wrangles resolved hit a dead end. I led the factions to the Office of the Deputy Mufti at the Uganda Supreme Council in 2022 with hope that they could resolve the problem but one of the factions remained defiant,” he said.
“When you impose your leadership on the majority faithful that recently participated in an election and elected their own leadership, you take the blame because an election is meant to have results. The other faction chose to stay away from the election but is now trying to have alternative leadership against the will of the majority faithful. The mosque is not owned by a particular family but the Bombo community,” Sheikh Mulindwa added.
Masjid Noor is one of the oldest mosques, constructed in the 1930s, but later got a facelift when former president Idi Amin visited the area in the 1970s.
One of the members of the opposing faction, Yusuf Abdallah, claims that their group is autonomous and does not subscribe to any top Muslim group in Uganda.
“We are not answerable to any of the top Muslim groups in Uganda but have our own structure. We refused to participate in the election organised by the UMSC because we are not part of that group. We know how to run our own affairs. We are fighting for our own rights,” he said.
Asked about the alleged leadership that only involves members of their respective families, Abdallah said the allegations are not true because Muslim faithful in Bombo are one family.
But Mr Asuman Mukasa, the local council chairperson of Lomule B Zone, where the Masjid Noor Mosque is, said the infighting is based on selfishness against the will of the majority faithful in the area.
“We urge the UMSC that is in-charge of the mosque to stand its ground and bring back sanity,” he said.
He added that the temporal closure will end because the majority faithful are seeking peace and subscribe to the UMSC leadership.
“It is unfortunate that a few members of our society want to disorganise the majority faithful at Masjid Noor,” Mr Mukasa said.
At Masjid Khamis Shafie in Gangama Zone, it is reported that the same group disregarded the recently elected leadership that was sworn in by the District Khadi Sheikh Mulindwa.
The Savana Region Police Spokesperson, Mr Patrick Lule, on Tuesday said the police were aware about the management standoff at the two mosques.
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