Idi Amin Dada Post Independence Uganda

In 1971, president Apollo Milton Obote was overthrown by the military in a military coup. Idi Amin Dada, a Muslim became the president. Amin Dada became the first and only true Muslim to rule Uganda, for the man who replaced him following a bloody civil war; Yusuf Lule had reverted to Christianity while at school and had become a negative influence on Muslims who feared to take their children to Christian elite schools to avert what happened of Lule.

Religion was a key factor in post-independence Uganda and its management required a specialised institution. Thus Idi Amin set up the Ministry of Religious Affairs to handle religious issues. The state policy recognized the traditional faiths which included the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican church (Church of Uganda), the Greek Orthodox Church, the Seventh Day Adventists and Islam However, during this time several new churches sought to establish themselves but faced reprisals from the state These churches, commonly known as the Born Again Churches included evangelicals and Pentecostals would later become influential after the fall of Idi Amin.

For Amin Islam was an asset he used to attract support from Arab countries. He became a close ally of Libya and Saudi Arabia which catered for much of the country’s budgetary support. This is because shortly after attaining the presidency Amin fell out with the British and Israeli governments. He had

Ethno-religiosity and the danger of ethnic cleansing

One of the main factors that often inhibit the spread of religious violence is the lack of a specified ethnic group to target. When different religions are shared across ethnic groups and races, it becomes difficult to identify members to subject to mass violence like ethnic cleansing, genocides, and persecution as second class citizens. This can partly explain the absence severe of interfaith violence in Uganda because the religions were absorbed into many tribes without anyone belonging exclusively to one