Former ambassador to Egypt Jafari Mussa has asked Muslims in the country to purge the receiving syndrome and be committed to develop Islam in the country. The former parliamentarian said this at Iqra Islamic Propagation Centre in Blantyre on February 23,2014.
Mussa said that there is hope that Muslims can have their own university and hospital just like their Christian counter part if they change their mindset.
“Muslims in the country have the potential to develop if they change the mindset. There is a problem in Malawi, Muslims here believe in receiving rather than giving. If we can start thinking about giving what we have for Islam, we can develop,” said Mussa.
The former cabinet minister further wondered why Islam in Malawi is the poorest amongst the major religions in terms of infrastructure development, which does not reflect well on the status of the religion in Malawi.
“According to Muslim Association of Malawi statistics, there are over 4 million Muslims in the country. If every Muslim can be contributing just MK100 it means we can be making about MK400 million every month. Just imagine what can we do with that amount of money every month?”
The former ambassador therefore asked Muslim association on Malawi to lead the initiative for it to be successful and transform the image if Islam in Malawi.
“Let’s resuscitate the spirit of giving amongst the Muslims in the country. We need to engage in a very serious civic education campaign for us to be successful. We must tell people the advantages of giving in the course of Islam. If 4 million Muslims can contribute MK100 for few months we can start a new chapter in Islam,” observed Mussa.
“For such activities to be successful we need our leaders and those who will be doing the job to be transparent and accountable for every activity.MAM should hire people with high integrity and reputation in order to win the trust,” he said.
In his remarks chairperson of Muslim association of Malawi sheikh Muhammad Idrissa said that it is a good idea and need to be taken into consideration.
When I became the chairman of MAM few years ago, I told Muslims in the country to contribute MK50. But the response was very pathetic. Only Muslims from Ntcheu managed to raiseMK600 thousand. This time we need to be serious and change our mindset in order to develop,” said Idrissa.
Muslims in Malawi have largely depended on foreign donations for their infrastrusture developments and it is very rare for indegenous populace to contribute in cash or kind to Muslim organisations in Malawi.
