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11 October 2005

Malawi Muslims tell president theirs is not a 'Christian country'

Frank Jomo
Blantyre, Malawi (ENI). Muslims in Malawi are trying to get President Bingu wa Mutharika to stop making utterances that the southern African nation is a Christian country, saying such remarks can trigger religious tensions.

The Muslim Association of Malawi has called on Mutharika to clarify his position on the separation of religion and state. The association's secretary general Imran Shareef told The UDF News, a publication owned by the former ruling United Democratic Front, that Muslims are concerned with public utterances made by Mutharika on three occasions in which he has declared Malawi is a Christian nation.

"He should come out in the open and tell the Malawi nation what he wants ... We advise him that what he is saying is unconstitutional in a secular state," Shareef said. He added that Malawi's Muslims do not want religious laws, whether Islamic or Christian, imposed on the country.

The president's office declined to comment on the issue of Christianity and the nation.

The country's constitution states merely that "Malawi is a God-fearing nation", although 80 per cent of the 12 million people in the landlocked nation bounded by Zambia, Mozambique and Tanzania are Christians. Muslims account for about 13 per cent of the people.

Since Mutharika fell out with the man who chose him, former president Bakili Muluzi, a Muslim, the Malawi media has reported his relationship with adherents to Islam in the country has been prickly. Still, Malawi's vice president Cassim Chilumpha is a Muslim, but the two do not see eye to eye. The Malawi constitution is seen keeping them together as it does not allow the president to fire his second in command.

Chilumpha has openly criticised Mutharika's government despite being part of it. At a recent Islamic rally he countered those who accused him of not working in harmony with Mutharika, arguing he was put into office on a UDF ticket and cannot dump those who put him in there. Mutharika also came to power on a UDF ticket, but he dumped the party to form the Democratic Progressive Party, which Chilumpha has declined to join.

Many Muslims support Bakili Muluzi, while Mutharika, a Roman Catholic, is known to have strong Christian support.

© 1994 - 2006 Ecumenical News International.

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