By Halima Athumani
OnIslam Uganda Correspondent

KAMPALA – Fearing increasing number of assassinations targeting Muslim imams in Uganda, leaders of the religious minority in Uganda are still scratching their heads to find who is baying for their blood.

“I was informed by the Officer in Charge of the Parliamentary Police that the commandant of the Parliamentary Police had written to the officer in charge of VIP asking for my protection,” Ugandan legislator Al-Hajji Latif Ssebagala told OnIslam.net.

Ssebagala was away on Ummrah in Makkah when he first got information that the police were looking for him.

Al-Hajji Latif adds, “When I asked them what kind of protection and why, they told me that they had got security information that there are people trailing me for unknown reasons.”

In a letter to the director of parliament police, from Uganda Police Force VIP Protection Unit commandant Elias Kassirabo, the legislator was offered two police constables to protect him.

In his instructions, to the Director of Parliament Police Kassirabo stated, “I hereby deploy the officers to take up his security with immediate effect.”

However the Police did not indicate if Al-Hajji Latif was on the list of the ongoing assassination of Muslim leaders.

He says the Parliamentary Police insisted that, “This is the information we have got and we won’t take it lightly due to the fact of what’s going on.”

Not used to having body guards around him, the legislator who is also the Parliamentary Mosque Imam tells OnIslam.net that, “I asked them whether I had an option of saying no because am not under threat and I have never been under threat, they said no you have no option.”

Still perturbed by the developments, he says, “I don’t know whether these threats are real and where the information is coming from, If they are real, are they political or religious, I still have many questions.”

Some of the prominent Muslim Scholars were assassinated and several others escaped assassination attempts throughout the nation over the past two years.

Relating the Muslim killings in Uganda to those in Kenya, Al-Hajji Latif doubts, “I don’t think they are because of the conflicts we have, we always have had wrangles and none of them have ended up in killings and assassinations.”

Vulnerable

 The legislator contends that Muslims in Uganda are a vulnerable group and that is why he has used his position to push for policies and matters affecting them.

“There are very few people who can speak out in as far as Muslim issues are concerned, and that is why we now have a Parliamentary mosque and hold annual iftar dinners,” he told OnIslam.net.

Al-Hajji Latif also petitioned the Ugandan speaker to include Muslims in the search for top judiciary positions in the country last year.

“It is a Muslim’s right to serve in every position because gone are the days when they said we would not serve because we lacked the qualifications,” he said.

He has also spearheaded the collection of signatures in Parliament to have the anti-homosexual bill re-tabled after it was annulled in court in 2014.

“I will continue to push for laws that not only ensure good governance but our morals culture and belief and none of these condones homosexuality,” Al-Hajji Latif said.

“Those who have the belief that I should live in fear because I’ve been spearheading this, I have no option but to stand firm.”

The legislator is not the only Muslim leader under threat. In Eastern Uganda, in less than three weeks, two sheikhs survived assassination attempts.

Sheikh Siraj Mwenyi’s troubles began immediately after the killing of Sheikh Rashid Abdul Wafula.

Sheikh Rashid Wafula was a proprietor of three Islamic schools and officer in charge of Daawa and a member of the College of Sheikhs in Uganda.

Sheikh Mwenyi tells OnIslam.net that, “After his death and burial, I was asked to take over leadership of some of the Muslim schools.”

A few days later, two Police officers were arrested in relation to the murder of Sheikh Rashid Wafula.

But Sheikh Mwenyi says some of the leaders promised the culprits that they would be released in two weeks time which did not happen.

“They then returned to the suspects and claimed I was the one failing their release.”

This was just barely two weeks after another failed assassination attempt on another Sheikh Hassan Mujasi, who is also under Police protection.

So far nine Sheikhs have been killed in similar circumstances in Uganda since 2012 and several others arrested in connection to the assassinations.

The Uganda Inspector General of Police General Kale Kaihura has on several occasions blamed the Allied Democratic Forces group, led by the recently arrested Jamil Mukulu who is now facing murder charges for the same.

However, Muslim scholars are still perturbed that the assassination attempts continue despite the arrest of Mukulu.

Source: OnIslam