Muslims in the country have been urged to participate in different Islamic activities to promote the religion and arts in Islam.
Muslim Association of Malawi (MAM) Secretary General Al-Haj Twaibu Lawe made the remarks during this year’s Malawi Muslim Awards presentation ceremony which took place at COMESA Hall in Blantyre. Lawe represented MAM Chairman as a Guest of Honour who failed to show up due to some commitments.
Lawe said the event is very important and that the Malawi Muslim community has to embrace and accept it.
“First of all let me thank the organizers of this event. This is the platform where Muslims are acknowledged and appreciated for their effort in promoting Islam in the country. We have seen different people getting these awards from as far as Machinga which is a motivation to them. However, I am very concerned with the low turnout of Muslims for this event despite it being professionally organised and very colourful. This is not good. We need to support the organizers by participating in order to sustain the program,” said Lawe.
He also asked the organizers that they should not look backward but continuing organizing this event every year and said MAM is also ready to offer both financial and technical support for the next event.
“My message to the organizers is that they should not be discouraged with what has happened today. They should just look on forward. I am sure next time it will go on very well and MAM is ready to support the next year’s event. We failed this year because we had a lot of activities,” he said.
In his remarks Classic Events person responsible for Communication Bashir Amin said everything in terms of the awards has gone on according to their expectation.
“As Classic Events, our main mission is to appreciate different people who have done a great job in promoting Islam and we have presented all the awards to those people, which means we have accomplished our mission,” said Amin.
However Amin concurred with the concern made by Lawe on turnout of people for this particular event but he was quick to say this will not discourage them.
“Of course we are very concerned with the low participation and we have accepted that it’s what Allah planned for us. This has given us a morale next we will also organize this event and it will be more refined than this one since we promised people that we will be bringing new things each and every year and believe you me you can see that this year’s event was extraodinary,” he said.
When asked on the amount of money they have spent to organize this event he said; “this event has cost us more than 1.5 million Kwacha and let me also take this advantage to appreciate all the companies and organizations which supported us and some of them are Rainbow Paints, Gift of the Givers Foundation, Mia Foundation, Jack Shoppers, General Vision & Screen Printers and many more,” he concluded.
THIS YEAR’S AWARDEES
The presentation of this year’s event which had 12 categories, had more than two nominees except women Dawah group.
A well known artist Ishimael Katawala for the second time was awarded as the best nasheed artist for the year of 2015 after winning the same award in 2014.
Ngwapachanya, a Tumbuka nasheed which was composed by Khadhaf Ahmed Pilo was voted as the best nasheed of the year 2015 defeating other Nasheeds; Chiwa by Wallace Salanje and Lonjezo by Ishmael Katawala as other nominated nasheeds.
Yusuf Bamusi the composer of Mashia, Mavalidwe and Ijitma ku Salima was awarded as the best poet of the year a category which had two nominees with Sulaimana Saiti of Mdima Waifa fame.
On the best comedian, the category had two nominees; Abdul-Rahman Enock Chitemwe and Hussein Gopole but the award went to Chitemwe who also got the same accolade last year.
On Dawah category, there were two dimensions which is Men and women Dawah groups of the year and on men had three nominees like, Kuunika, Alhidaya and Asalasesi and Kuunika Dawah group ruled this category while on the side of women, it was only Kanjeda sisters who had no other competitors.
On best learners the organizers also identified two learners who went away with the bicycles; Lucius Steven from Chiradzulu district was identified as a male best learner while Aisha Adam from Machinga was awarded as the female best learner of the year 2015.
The award of best journalist of the year has gone to Hashim Msusa a columnist of Discovering Islam and Islamic Focus in Sunday Times and Nation on Sunday respectively and he is also a publisher of Islamic magazine of Al-haqq which is published every month.
Sheikh Abdul-Rahman Faduweki from Machinga was awarded as the best Sheikh of the year while Muslim Alumni Society was recognized as the best Initiative of the year.
Big Bullets defender Bashir Maunde defeated Muhammad Sulumba for Wanders FC and John Lanjes for Civo united to be the best footballer of the year. Finally to be awarded was the best organization of the year whereby the nominees were Islamic Zakat Fund, Asian Muslim Relief Agency and Mia Foundation. Mia ruled this category.
This is the second event of Malawi Muslim Awards in the country and the first event took place last year on 28 July at Sports Complex, College of Medicine in Blantyre.
