Catholic priests on Thursday said there are some people who are behind Malawi Muslim pupils’ bible desecration and they believe that “there must be some awful training given to these youths.” Malawi Muslim Official website can reveal.
Fr. Medrick M. Chimbwanya, a local priest told Catholic News Agency that since the incident, Catholics have feared violent attacks from some Muslim groups and he believes that there is a possibility that “we may have dangerous militants in Malawi in the near future.”
“The behavior of the youths has been an indicator of a danger in our midst. Normally, the primary school youth in Malawi would not have the courage of tearing up any book in the presence of their teacher, let alone a Holy Book,” he said. “My conclusion is that there must be some awful training given to these youths which if left unchecked, means that we may have dangerous militants in Malawi in the near future,” he said.
Representatives of the Gideons Bible organization have been distributing Bibles in a Catholic primary school in a predominant Muslim area, Mangochi and the pupils torn apart Bibles and then throwing torn pages on the streets while describing the movement as an “insult to Islam.”
However, Fr. Chimbwayna called on a grassroots dialogue with Muslim representatives in order to end misunderstandings and start to work together.
“I expect that there will be opportunity for us religious leaders in the area to sit together to discuss on how we can work together in this area without clashes,” said the priest.
Sheikh Disi, the leader of the Muslims in the region, called upon all the students to respect the faith of others. However, other Muslims were not happy, according to the CNA.
The CAN also reports that the Diocese of Mangochi, where the Bible desecration took place, is predominantly Muslim but has about half a million Catholics served by 59 priests. It has 255 primary schools, 34 kindergartens and 27 secondary schools, all of which are also attended by Muslims.
