Islam gains ground in Rwanda

Islam is gaining ground in Rwanda, where Muslim preachers are travelling around the country's villages and talking to people about Islam.

Rwanda:A former pastor at the Christian Methodist Church has been travelling around Rwanda to preach, inviting people into Islam. Haji Suleiman Kamana has been travelling around the country for more than 15 years to preach Islam and convert people. A convert himself, Kamana joined Islam 17 years ago after leaving the church in 2004. He was partly driven out the door by the 1994 genocide, the horror in which an estimated 800,000 people were slaughtered.

Islam has been gaining ground in Rwanda in recent years and mosques have sprung up across villages.

In Karongi, there were only a few Muslims in the past, but today there are several hundred Muslims because of the work of preachers like Kamana. Before the coronavirus pandemic, preachers could gather many people in one place but the virus has forced them to change their strategy. Preachers are instead travelling from village to village to preach Islam, even stopping on the road to talk to people about the religion.

"We are in a difficult period (because) of the coronavirus. There is no way to gather people to preach, it is difficult," Kamana says. The pastor-turned-preacher says "there is a big difference" in the way Islam was seen before and after the 1994 genocide, during which Muslims helped hide victims' families.

At the time, Muslims represented only 1% of the Rwandan population and although no census has been taken, that number is believed to have multiplied.

In villages across Rwanda, preachers like Kamana can be spotted preaching with zeal and trying to find people who are ready to convert to Islam. Today, Muslims are contributing to the development of the country and have built schools and health centres.

In mosques, schools are being organised to teach people how to read and study the Quran, Islam's holiest book.