Muslims in southern Malawi have been burning Bibles in protest against their distribution in Islamic schools by Gideon’s International, a senior Muslim Association of Malawi official said yesterday.
“That annoyed some parents and other leaders who have resorted to burning the holy books … in protest,” said Sheikh Imran Sharif, the association’s secretary general according to Gulf Times.
He said the burning of Bibles was carried out by a few Muslim fanatics and the association has ordered them to stop.
Malawi has 1.7mn Muslims, mostly living in the south of the country, that has a population of about 15mn.
The Muslim protest has been widely criticised in secular Malawi, which has had little religious friction.
Reverend McDonald Kadawati, a leading Christian clergyman asked Muslim leaders to ask followers to stop burning Bibles.
“This is a sad case of religious intolerance and we condemn it in all uncertain terms,” Kadawati said. He called on police to arrest those involved.
Inspector General of Police Peter Mukhito said police have launched an investigation but did not say how many Bibles have been burnt.
Gideon’s International, which is dedicated to providing copies of the Bible to people around the globe, said on its Website it has distributed about 90mn Bibles in 22 countries in eastern Africa.
The incident in Malawi comes after US President Barack Obama appealed for religious tolerance last month in response to a Florida pastor’s threat to burn copies of the Qur’an, which sparked an outcry in the Muslim world.
Let me hear this was done by little educated lads. At least we Muslims are supposed to tolerate; we are the minority of-course, though I, personally don’t believe all these figures that I see about the Muslim's population in Malawi. Everybody knows that Islam and Muslims are beleaguered everywhere at every occasion in the world; so in this case, we are not supposed to react in the way that would rate our reputation too low. Burning a book which is believed by other people is not a solution to the matter. Of course the burning of the Qur'an long time ago stirred up our minds and was believed to be a lack of knowledge, but we should not reach at this level; instead we need to teach them wisely and they will understand easily although they don't plead guilty openly. I pay tribute to Islamic comparative Dawah groups in the country; they provide light for these people to understand what they are and what they are supposed to be.
Of course this is part of their weak dawah.Bibles are good because they are full of islamic principles.Most passeges whose word are by Jehova and his prophets are pro muslims therefore it is a third referral book that comes after Quran and Hadeeth.However my plea to the distributors is that they should distribute them to elders and not kids.If a kid is unable to retain or keep safe a notebook and a pencil that is useful on daily basis,i don't think a bible can be safely looked for that is if kids were involved.But it could be a very unfortunate if adults were the ones who did the evil thing and we condemn the act at all cost.Don't you know that if dawah programmes have erapt promptly in Malawi is because of these bibles.I encourage the Gedions to distribute the full bibles not new testaments only to the elderly for their own islamic references.Bibles are expensive nowadays mwe!Do not burn their book because in turn they might burn your holy Quran which is the book of Allah;so that lest Allah punish you as the ones who have caused the burning of Allah's book.
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