A local Catholic leader has warned of growing Islamization in Tanzania.
In an interview with international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Bernadin Mfumbusa, Bishop of Kondoa Diocese, said increasing Islamization could be seen in the way more and more itinerant preachers from Saudi Arabia and the Sudan were entering this East African country.
Local Muslims are also increasingly making political demands, according to the bishop.
"In many parts of the country, more veiled women than in the past can be seen, among them small girls. Verbal attacks are also on the increase," the Bishop reported.
“Furthermore, the number of Qur’an schools is growing, and in these the pupils are being influenced negatively with respect to attendance of regular schools, which is compulsory in Tanzania. But to date there had been no violent attacks in Kondoa Diocese. "
“In the church schools, which are also attended by Muslim children, we must be very sensitive and cautious to avoid any undesirable incidents," Bishop Mfumbusa explained.
In the semi-autonomous sub-state of Zanzibar, whose population is almost completely Muslim, sharia law is already in force, unlike in other parts of the country.
The bishop explained how efforts are also being made to not only apply sharia in civil law, for example, in matters of marriage and inheritance, but to also extend it to cover criminal law.
Demands are also being made that sharia not only be restricted to Muslims, but that Islamic law should be applied to every inhabitant. Otherwise Muslims would be able to avoid the law by claiming not to be Muslim.
"In recent times there has been a constant demand to introduce sharia into other parts of Tanzania which do not have a majority of Muslims," Bishop reported.
Of Tanzania's 45 million inhabitants a little more than 12 million are Catholics, and Christians overall make up more than half the population, while less than 31% are Muslim.
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