Muslim Association of Malawi (MAM) chairman Sheikh Idrissa Muhammad has lambasted this year’s Ramadan convention saying it was aimed at bringing Islam into disrepute.
Speaking at Ndirande main Masjid, Blantyre in what he termed as his “national address” on eidul-fitri salaat, Sh Muhammad said the grouping gathered to map the way forward of bringing down Islam in the country.
“These people are saying that in this country there are no sheikhs and such that they want to take over the leadership of MAM. They didn’t invite you (ordinary Muslims) claiming the event was meant for them as academicians,” said the chairman.
He stressed that the plan to remove sheikhs from leadership of MAM will never materialize because the so called academicians are pushing their agenda purely for personal gains.
“They are selfish people. All of them have attained their studies through MAM scholarships which they were supposed to be paying back in installments. But they can’t even remember to pay back though they are in lucrative jobs,” he elaborated.
Since 1980s, MAM has been offering scholarships for Muslim needy students to further their studies in countries like Turkey with Financial assistance from Islamic Development Bank IDB including some of the facilitators of this year’s Ramadhan Convention.
But reports indicate that the scholarship programme is on the brink of collapse due to the failure of paying back the loan by the beneficiaries.
“So you can see that instead of finding solutions to the challenges we are facing as Muslims in the country, they are busy planning to complicate things. They received donations to fund that function in the name of Islam but what they outcome was unislamic,” Sheikh Muhammad lamented.
This was the second time for the convention to take place after the inaugural event took place in Lilongwe.
The concept is said to be borrowed from Uganda and is being implemented by those who attained their higher education in that country.
This is not the first time for some Muslims in the country to copy an idea from outside whose implementation has been a big challenge. Islamic Tarbiya Programme is also another initiative which according to the 2012 organizing secretary Dr Eric Umar “ is a thing that was being done elsewhere and the brothers in Malawi found it an important aspect to emulate.” But this programme which is under Muslim Youth Assembly (MYA) has been dormant since 2012.
Much as I appreciate the chair’s frustration, I do not see why this should be personalized instead of discussing this issues with the organizers of the function. am not sure whether the Chairman was invited or not and whether he accepted the invitation or not. If you bring politics in this whole thing, not much would be realized. The presenters were just invited and the fact that some were educated by MAM, does not mean that they can not point out on issues. We as youth should get lessons from practical and burning issues. May ALLAH guide all towards building a better community.
The MAM Chair seem to be short tempered. Him as a Sheikh should be differentiated from Academicians who think they know it all. The issue is to go back to their drawing board, do a SWOT analysis and see why most Muslims are blaming MAM for failures. I don’t support the renegade Academicians who view Sheikhs as failures in management, but the issue needs a clear insight and come up with concrete solutions for our problems. This internal fighting won’t help us and having the Chair at the helm of outbursts in retaliation will just make matters worse. Muslims of today take leadership not that they can manage our affairs but for individual benefits. Shame.