On Tuesday, August 25, a Rwandan pastor, Salim Mikdad,
conducted what is arguably the largest conversion of Christians to Islam
after he successfully got all 480 members of his congregation to switch
faiths, Africa Metro reports.
One of the church members revealed that they all turned
up for a church service only to be forced to convert to Islam by their
pastor. Mikdad also got the church converted into a mosque during the
conversion ceremony. It is reported that an Islamic cleric had preached
to Pastor Mikdad and succeeded in converting him to Islam.
According to Africa Metro, Rwanda is a predominantly
Christian country but of late, has seen a gradual rise in its Muslim
population. About 56.9% of Rwandans are Roman Catholic, 26% are
Protestant, 11.1% are Seventh day Adventist and only 4.6% are Muslim,
most of them being Sunni.
Islam started growing in Rwanda after the country’s 1994
genocide as both Catholic and Protestant churches helped to make the
killing of about 800,000 people possible by giving moral sanction to the
murders. Churches have longed played ethnic politics themselves,
favouring the Tutsi during the colonial period then switching allegiance
to the Hutu after 1959, sending a message that ethnic discrimination
was consistent with church teaching.
Source: Africa Metro
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