Muhammad Posted September 11, 2005 Rwanda's religious reflections By Robert Walker BBC, Kigali Twenty-year-old Zafran Mukantwari was the only person in her family who survived the genocide. I meet her sitting outside Kigali's Al-Aqsa mosque. She is tightly veiled and speaks softly as she tells me what happened 10 years ago. Her family were Catholic, she says. Those who killed them worshipped at the same church. At the age of 10, Zafran found herself alone and at first she continued going to church. She thought she could find support there. But then she began to question her faith. "When I realised that the people I was praying with killed my parents, I preferred to become a Muslim because Muslims did not kill." No protection Before the genocide more than 60% of Rwandans were Catholic. And when the killings started, tens of thousands of Tutsis fled to churches for sanctuary. But they found little protection there. Churches became sites of slaughter, carried out even at the altar. On the opposite side of Kigali from Al Aqsa mosque, is the church of Sainte Famille. As dawn mass is celebrated, the sound of hymns carries outside and floats across the waking city. During the genocide, hundreds of Tutsis crammed inside here trying to escape the horrors unfolding outside. But Hutu militias came repeatedly with lists of those to be killed. The priest in charge of the church, Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, is blamed for colluding with the killers. Discarding his priest's cassock, witnesses say he took to wearing a flack jacket and carrying a pistol. "Some members of the Church failed in their mission, they contradicted what they stood for," says Father Antoine Kambanda, director of the charity, Caritas, in Kigali. He acknowledges that while some priests and nuns risked their lives trying to stop the slaughter, others were implicated in the killings. "We are sorry for what took place, sorry for the members of the Church that did crimes, sorry for the victims who lost their lives. "But the Pope says the members who went against their mission are to answer for it. The Church cannot answer for them." Turning to Islam This position that blame lies with individuals, rather the Church as an institution, is still highly controversial, as Rwanda marks the tenth anniversary of the genocide. Muslims pray at Nyamirambo Mosque in Kigali The Church hierarchy in Rwanda supported the previous regime of President Juvenal Habyarimana. And they failed to denounce ethnic hatred then being disseminated. Some survivors like Zafran have since left the Catholic Church, unable to reconcile the Church's teaching with the actions of its most senior members during the genocide. Sheikh Saleh Habimana, the Mufti of Rwanda, is the representative of the country's Muslims. He says many turned to Islam because Muslims were seen to have acted differently. "The roofs of Muslim houses were full of non-Muslims hiding. Muslims are not answerable before God for the blood of innocent people." But after the genocide, converting to Islam was also seen by some as the safest option. "For the Hutus, everyone was saying as long as I look like a Muslim everybody will accept that I don't have blood on my hands. "And for the Tutsis they said let me embrace Islam because Muslims in genocide never die. So one was looking for purification, the other was looking for protection." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3561365.stm Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Animal Farm Posted September 12, 2005 After experiencing genocide of that magnitude, the people need a new visioning of life meaning and reasoning. After people got murdered in Churches people turned to Islam, because their Muslim counterparts were protecting them. Just shows how compassionate Muslims truly are --- if only the Christian Right can spare us their compassionate conservatism propaganda. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Haaraahur. Posted September 12, 2005 Truly Islam reconciles the broken hearts and replaces animosity with brotherhood. What a great religion Islaam is! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
QANCIYE Posted September 12, 2005 I run to some chick the other day, who I thought was a maryoley cuz of her cute face..lol. Anyhow, she happened to be from that part of Africa. Right after she told me she's married LOL..we've talked about the genocide. while I shared how ours as well took place and on. She did mentioned how so many ppl were saved by Muslim neighbors while the Christians were either doing damage for themselves or directing the militias wherever they cover. She told me her brother/sisters who was saved in a mosque, converted to Muslim Maansha Allah, after she shared other crazy stories, I told her the lunch was on me lol. I personally wished these types of stories were publicized/talk about by the world media, especially in western world..but then that wouldn’t happen cuz of them koofyadyar lol Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Baluug Posted September 13, 2005 This is only the work of the Most High,Allah,Subhanahu wa ta'ala.Masha Allah. Originally posted by Salaxuddiin: "We are sorry for what took place, sorry for the members of the Church that did crimes, sorry for the victims who lost their lives. "But the Pope says the members who went against their mission are to answer for it. The Church cannot answer for them." It is probably at least a small comfort for some that a leader of the church has acknowledged that some church leaders were involved in this atrocity,and I applaud him for the first statement because it takes real guts to say something like that. But I have to disagree somewhat with the second statement because while,even in Islam,people are not held responsible for the actions of others,it sounds like the pope is just trying to distance himself from this as if he's completely innocent.In every establishment,such as a business,family,or church,there is a leader,and that leader is going to take some of the blame for the actions of the people underneath them,that is part of the responsibilities of being the leader.Either way,that particular pope being referred to is dead,and is receiving his reward for his deeds,particularly,the false deity he associated with the One True God,Allah,SWT. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Muhammad Posted September 13, 2005 In History, there is no other institution that has done(or supported) more genocides than the catholic church. from the crusades, to the natives in latin America, to Nazis, the list goes on. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Warrior of Light Posted September 13, 2005 I am glad they are finding peace in Islam. Allah Akbar. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
