[dropcap style=”1″ size=”3″]T[/dropcap]wo parallel committees that were formed to be responsible for this year’s Ijtma have merged following the meeting held yesterday.
The meeting which took place at Malawi Sun Hotel agreed to have one committee that will be responsible for the annual event which is scheduled to take place in Blantyre.
Following this development, Lilongwe’s business magnet Biton Ajawa has maintained his chairmanship role with Al Manasik Tours and Travel Director Sheikh Aman Matiya as his deputy. Yahya Mmadi is the secretary general and is being deputised by Omar Ndeketa.
Disagreements arose following two separate and different media announcements by the National Islamic Ijtmah. One committee was headed by Central Region MAM chairman Richard Banda, endorsed by MAM national chairman Sheikh Idrissa Muhammad while the other was headed by Biton Ajawa who is also the association’s executive member, endorsed by concerned Muslims.
The development brought confusion in the Muslim community as Muslims were unable to understand what was happening.
This forced the two parties to initiate talks that led to successful negotiations.
However, during the talks, it was observed that the disagreements arose as the result of difference in opinion between Ajawa and the MAM national chairman on administrative issues.
“It was also observed that the disagreement was taken over by what seemed to be individuals with their own agenda and inflated it out of proportion for one side or the other for perceived, real or imagined favours,” said Onile the National Ijtmah Committee Publicity Secretary.
The full list of the members for the new Ijtmah committee will be released soon.
