Friday, Aug 27, 2010
Gulf News
Tushosi studies Islam in madrasa home
NAME: Tushosi ?Abdullah?AGE: 9?COUNTRY: Rwanda?
Compared to east African countries like Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda, the history of Islam in Rwanda is relatively modern, said the father of nine-year-old Tushosi Abdullah, the youngest participant at the Dubai International Holy Quran Award.
His father Abdullah said that Muslims are a minority in the country, while the Roman Catholic Church, introduced to Rwandans during the Belgian colonisation and by French missionaries in the late 19th century, has considerably more followers.
According to him, estimates can’t be verified since in the wake of the genocide, the government has banned all discussion of ethnicity in Rwanda. He believes there are about eight per cent Muslims in his town and around two per cent in the country.
According to a 2002 census, the Muslim population constitutes 4.6 per cent of the total population of Rwanda. Abdullah, the father, lost his wife due to an illness, which is rampant in some of the poor rural areas.
Tushosi was only two years old when he lost his mother. He has a younger sister who is also memorising the Quran at her father’s madrasa.
“My children are lucky to have the opportunity to freely practice their religion. In my time it was a struggle. But it’s a tradition that was passed from my father and now I am teaching my children,” he said.
The humble former tradesman converted his home into a madrasa (traditional Islamic school) for Quran memorisation. “It is much easier for us to practice our religion now and we do enjoy equal rights despite being a minority,” he said, adding that it falls upon individuals efforts to preserve Islamic practices, and not the state.
Abdullah’s school is sustained by individual donations from the community “as I am helping them to preserve our Islamic culture. If we don’t do that Islam won’t spread, our children will lose their Islamic identity, and Muslim Rwandans will migrate to other places where Islam is practised.”
There are few madrasas in Rwanda, thus he accommodates many students as young as four from other neighbouring countries and villages to stay at his madrasa. “We cook, sleep, eat, and memorise the Quran together,” said Abdullah.
His madrasa is composed of four rooms with 15 students per room.
One of his boarding students comes from the West African country of Guinea-Bissau to memorise the Quran and another from Sierra Leone since they don’t have places for Quran memorisation.
These boys do not attend state-of-the-art schools or have transportation to class. What drives them is their passion to preserve their religion, and Islamic culture, he said.
Abdullah has converted his madrasa into a khalwa-like school, which is considered one of the most traditional centres for the teaching of the Holy Quran and Arabic in Africa.
It dates back more than 400 years. Its presence has historically played a crucial role in maintaining the religious values of a country and served as main centres of educational opportunity for many rural people during the 1970s and 1980s, especially in northern Africa.
- Central Africa, east of Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- Population: 10,746,311.?- Population of Muslims: between 300,000 to 1.1million (4% to 14%)?- Islamic introduced by Muslim traders from east Africa in 18th century. ?- Muslims present among Hutus as well as Tutsis.
- First mosque built in 1913?- Muslims were marginalized under colonial rule but have full rights now
My children are lucky to have the opportunity to freely practice their religion. In my time it was a struggle. But it’s a tradition that was passed from my father and now I am teaching my children.”
Abdullah
Tushosi’s father
By Siham Al Najami Staff Reporter
Gulf News 2010. All rights reserved.
