Islam in Rwanda

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Islam was first introduced into Rwanda by traders from the east coast of Africa in the 18th century. It has long occupied a minority space in the country, in comparison to the long-dominant Roman Catholic Church which was brought by Belgian administrators and French missionaries in the late 19th century. Before the Genocide, Muslims were held in low regard, because they were seen as traders, in a land where farmers are highly regarded. The Muslim population before the genocide was 4% which was unusually low compared to that of neighbouring countries.

However, the number of Rwandan Muslims increased after the 1994 Genocide. This shift was attributed to the sheltering of refugees - both Hutu and Tutsi - in Muslim villages and suburbs, as compared to the flight of Catholic priests from their parishes (abandoning their parishioners in the process), and in many cases actively partaking in the Genocide by both Catholic and Protestant clergy [1]. Today, Muslims constitute 14% of the Rwandan population, and are generally held in higher regard by most Rwandans for their life-saving actions during the violence of 1994.

Muslims in Rwanda during the genocide composed of both Hutus and Tutsis but their common identity was religious, shaped by their shared faith in Islam, and not racial. This absence of racial identity is what led to Muslim Hutus not attacking their fellow Muslim Tutsis but also actively engaging in acts which saved the lives of Christian Tutsis.