Islam in Zimbabwe

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The Islam in Zimbabwe is a minority religion. The number of Muslims in Zimbabwe is, according to serious estimates, around one percent of the population, which corresponds to around 100,000 to 120,000 people, according to other estimates, 200,000.

pendant

According to the US State Department, the Islamic community consists primarily of immigrants from India and Pakistan who came to the country during British colonial rule . In addition, civil war refugees from Mozambique and poverty refugees from Malawi who have brought their faith with them have immigrated in recent decades . Almost without exception, the immigrants from Malawi belong to the Yao tribe .

Proselytizing

Small groups within the Muslim community also represent a few immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East, as well as locals. There are 18 mosques in the capital Harare , 8 in the city of Bulawayo , and there are also smaller mosques in rural areas. The Muslim community receives support primarily from the Africa Muslims Agency (AMA), which has its headquarters in Kuwait .

The AMA carries out a number of humanitarian aid projects in rural areas of the country. After the expulsion of white farmers in Zimbabwe at the beginning of the 21st century, the supply situation in the country has deteriorated rapidly, the former breadbasket of Africa has been transformed into a poor house. In some rural communities, chiefs and tribal leaders are said to have converted to Islam because of the help that Muslim aid projects have given them.

In 1996 a dispute broke out between evangelical Christians and Muslims when representatives of the Christian majority called for a boycott of meat that was slaughtered according to Muslim custom halāl . This slaughter method was introduced for economic reasons in order to be able to export meat to countries with Islamic dietary rules. Now evangelical Christians put the religious significance of the meat so produced in the foreground. Behind the conflict is the fear on the Christian side that the Muslims could demand more political influence, and on the Islamic side the accusation that Zimbabwe should be turned into a Christian state.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ CIA World Factbook: Zimbabwe (English), compare: Islam, continued ... adherents. com
  2. ↑ Ecumenical News International: Report on the Dialogue between Christians and Muslims in Zimbabwe ( Memento from June 20, 2001 in the Internet Archive ) 1998
  3. ↑ Munetsi Rutsivo: Evangelical Christian-Muslim Relations in Zimbabwe. Interreligious Insight, January 2008, pp. 27–36 ( Memento of the original from January 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 266 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.interreligiousinsight.org

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