For a long time Muslims in the country have been complaining about lack of effort by our leaders to own an Islamic university. To my understanding Muslim leaders are trying hard looking for funds which can be used to construct state-of-the-art University which can accommodate a large number of Muslim students at once.
It is not easy to get the funds at once for this multi-million Kwacha project and if no other options and alternatives are taken, the song of having an Islamic University will never end. It is easy to have this University within a year if the Muslims are serious about this issue which has been discussed for decades.
Muslims in the country already have enough existing plots and infrastructures which can be easily converted into university. Let’s try to follow what the Christians or the government does if they want university. Catholics in the country have the Catholic University in Nguludi but if one can trace the history of this university, one will find out that it was a teacher training college called Montfort but just because they wanted to have their own university they just converted it into one.
The same with the Seventh Day Adventist Church. They had no any other university in the country until they turned the Adventist Mission into university which is now called Lake View University which is in Ntcheu at Njolomole area, not only that even if we trace the history of University of Livingstonia which is own owned by CCAP. It was not a university in the first place but it was turned into a university as a possible solution to the problem. Even the government also adopted the same system whereby it converted Mzuzu Training College into Mzuzu University (Mzuni). Now the question is why don’t Muslims in the country follow suit?
Muslims in the country have three good areas which are already available for the University if we can follow the system which others use. Appreciation should also go to Sheikh Saad who had a vision when buying land for the Islamic Centers. He was buying large pieces of land since he knew that some other development activities will take place in the future.
Muslims can have a University in Mangochi which has a large Muslim majority. Mangochi has a very good land with learning environment at Mangochi Islamic Center which has over 50 Hectors of land. This can also motivate Muslim youths in this district to work hard in primary and secondary education so that they should also go to university which can be closer to them.
It’s not only in Mangochi where there is the available space for the University but also in Zomba where there is Zomba Islamic High School. It can be a good promotion if this infrastructure becomes the Islamic University in waiting for the funds for the real project. Maybe these two campuses are not really convincing but what about Blantyre Islamic Mission? This place is also good for the University since there is enough space.
My appeal to all the stakeholders out there is to use every resource at their disposal to turn the dream of having an Islamic University in Malawi into a reality.
