After Muslim Association of Malawi (MAM)’s elections, which saw Sheikh Idrissa Muhammad winning the National Chairmanship with a landlisde victory, there has been disagreement between the new leader and his rival Dr Sheikh Imran Shareef who also contested the same position.
At the beginning, people thought that Dr Shareef was just bitter because he lost the elections without realising the root cause of the problem.
However, Malawi Muslims Official Website tried to trace the root cause of these misunderstandings and has this story to tell.
Prior to 2011 MAM polls, Dr Shareef asked the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and Muslims World League (MWL) to assist the Muslim community on several developments
The donors then ordered him to send title deeds as well as other relevant documents, which he did. The proposal again was accepted and by realising that he could not handle the whole project alone, the committee was formed headed by Dr Salmin Omar. As people from Saudi Arabia needed the assurance of security, the committee also engaged Mia from the government side. Mia is also the Deputy Chairman of MAM’s Board of Trustees.
However, the time when all these things were happening, Sheikh Idrissa had already agreed to support Shareef and opted to vie for the regional chairmanship position.
Since they were in the same camp, Dr Shareef forgot the proverb of saying ‘there is no art to find mind’s construction in the face’ and revealed to his colleagues (Sheikh Idrissa and Salmin and Mia) the projects were campaigning tools for him to attain the chairmanship position of MAM.
In a twist of events, Mia allegedly then asked Sheikh Idrissa to discard the idea of becoming a regional chairperson but eye for the National Chairmanship role.
Sheikh Idrissa agreed to the suggestion since Mia offered him financial support.
Reports indicate that Mia took this action because he strongly believed that Dr Shareef was a United Democratic Front (UDF) sympathiser and that it would have been difficult to turn Muslims of which majority of them are said to be linked with the opposition party into then ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
After Idrissa had agreed, they all decided to pull out from the committee saying they would resume it after the elections, to the disgruntlement of Dr Shareef who had no option but to contact the donors to halt the projects until further communication.
However when the battle line was drawn with both Dr Shareef and Sheikh Idrissa vying for the leadership role at MAM, Dr Salmin Omar who was also a close ally to Dr Shareef after being promised to be offered the SG role remained with one foot in Dr Shareef’s camp and another one in Sheikh Idrissa’s camp.
However, after also promised the chairmanship role in Sheikh Idrissa’s camp, it is alleged that Dr Salmin started leaking information from Dr Shareef’s camp to the Idrissa’s side.
After the elections were conducted and eventually Idrissa becoming the leader of the Muslim’s mother body Sheikh Salmin was awarded his current role at MAM – to the surprise of many Muslims in the country, for his effort of disrupting Shareef who has been his close friend to attain the top position.
This did not go well with Dr Shareef and the battle between the two camps began.
After seeing that he has nothing to do, Dr Shareef grabbed Supreme of Ulamah Council’s Chairmanship position from Mufti Abbas Cassim (though he says proper procedure was followed), presumably with an intention to fight against the new MAM leadership.
This was witnessed after MAM had failed to organise the Ijtmah last year. Dr Shareef went on Radio Islam saying his organisation would be responsible in organising the event starting from this year.
Last week, he revealed to this website that his organisation still geared to hold the Islamic gathering this year.
Dr Shareef and his team are also planning to register the council, which is currently working under the banner of MAM.
Kumangokhala kulakwisa kwathu munthu ukatenga mpando nkumalimbana ndiamene analipo poyamba. Asiyeni agwile ntchito limozi this its not politics za chipembezo izi we are together
Thanx 4 a well researched article.its so sad that all the problems @ MAM are due to selfish motives by few individuals who think they are bigger than MAM itself.
this website is for muslims and i hope that there is acuracy in whatever is writen.
my actual concern is the tendency to form pararel groups when not in agreement with the leadership.
no matter the quarels, people must learn not to divide institutions for personal ego.e.g here, Sheikh idrisa Muhammad was chosen by the muslim community by whatever factors anyone may mention.in islam we say Allah chose him.so what happened behind the curtain has nothing to do with the running of our beloved mother body.this i comment because you are informing us that Brother Shareef and his crue intend to register Majlisul Ulama which is currently under MAM.it's true that those that lost in the elections got posts at the Ulama council afterwards.so if they want to register the organisation, it means they are destroying islam in Malawi.i swear by Allah, Allah is not on their side.in islam leadership is centralised.this is why we had the khaliphate.afterall, all these organisations are under MAM to show that we want oneness in our operations.we want sensualised leadership.so we as Muslims must not let such to happen because we will suffer greatly in the future.we shall never have a chance of bringing oneness again.just like the mangochi women who formed their own MWO, we must stop all such things.everyone is breaking away.didnt you see what happened in Libia.islam is against rebelion(Alkhawarij).islam says that of the people to be under the shelter of Allah on the day of judgement are those that say the truth before the unjust ruler.this implies that you can criticise but you can't rebel.the prophet emphasised that no matter what, you shall not rebel ! so the Brothers are rebelling by trying to hold power of one of MAMs subsidiaries so they can also be influensial.ask the sheikhs what the prophet said about rebelion?he would kill all that rebel if he were to be there.
so no matter the grudges btwn you, please let MAM be MAM.five years from now, you will have your chance to compete again, but dont divide Muslims.
What is wrong with these so called sheikhs?
surely, positions are more important to them than the well being of ISLAM? So, if this article is true to its cole, this Dr Shareef asked the donors to do some projects there in Malawi not for the sake of Allah but for personal gain. To be a campaign tool. What kind of a sheikh is he then? He wants to ride on the back of Islam to gain fame in this world? Is the akheera not important to him any more? He did well to ask those who wanted to sponsor his projects to stop because if the projects took off, am sure one day he was going to claim them as his personal projects and would take over. I have seen such happening where I am. Africa Muslim Agency closed a Mosque in Lusaka claiming that it was built on their property. Just because at the time of closure, they were not in good terms with The Islamic Council Of Zambia now The Islamic Supreme Council Of Zambia. Now am doubting these people's intention when doing their so called charity works. This is wrong brothers and sisters.
I hope and pray that Dr Shareef will reflect on his life,actions and let him not forget that it is this Islam he now wants to destroy that made him who he is today. Is because someone without selfshiness worked hard in charity works there in Malawi that he was given the scholarship to go study abroad. Imagine, if those people acted the way he is alleged to have acted (stopping projects) because he was not supported to become a MAM chairman, wolud he be who he is today? Sheikh, you are not doing these things to anyone else but yourself. You are destroying your own reputation sheikh. It takes a long time to build a good reputation but it can take a few actions to destroy all that you have built in all these years.
May Allah build us to become good people. May Allah guide us and help us use the knowledge we have acquired in a constructive way. a way that will uplift us in this world and the here after.a way that will uplift this beautiful religion-ISLAM. O! ALLAH accept our prayers and all good deeds that we purely do for you sake. O! ALLAH purify our hearts and let not the worldly things lure us into betraying your DEEN YA ALLAH! ALLAHUMA AMEEN
They are all corrupt and needs to shut up. They have trust deficit. The so called Dr Shareef ate with Muluzi while Salmin ate with Bingu. Idrissa is just another puppet who is caught in the middle and has no brain to use commonsense. The so called MAM Chairman is brainless who has been surrounded by corrupted people. Shame!
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