Islam In Uganda

In the chapter, we trace the history of Islam in Uganda and how Muslims have related with members of other religions. The history that is presented is discussed within the context of inter-religious and intra-religious contexts of Islam in the country. For over a century, Islam in Uganda has shaped the social, economic and political structures in the country encapsulating all different aspects of society. Thus in order to understand the dynamics of managing religious diversity, it is imperative for us to discuss key factors which I believe accounts for the nature of relations we have today. We seek to discuss the different experiences and phenomena that explain the cause and effect relationship of interreligious relations and diversity management.

Three decades later, it was followed by the Catholic Church and the Anglican Church. As the first religion to set foot in the country, it was able to leave a lasting legacy and influence that continue to the present day. By being the first Western civilization in Uganda, Islam became part of the Ugandan heritage in the same way as it was on the African continent as a whole . By implication, it infers that Christians who are currently the majority in the country cannot see Muslims as the ‘Other' with regards to national heritage.

At the very latest in 1844 , a convoy of Muslim Arab traders from the East African coast led by Ahmed Ibn Ibrahim arrived at the court of king Suna 11 of Buganda, the seat of what became present-day Uganda. The main motive of the caravan was trade, not carrying out missionary activities. However, upon arrival, these Muslim traders having earned the loyalty of the king embarked on a new mission of Islamizing the country and pursued this through teaching the king and some of his royal pages at the

This was marked by the arrival of Christian missionaries to the court of Muteesa who had earlier grown frustrated with a section of Muslims. Henry Morton Stanley, a Christian traveler arrived in the country in 1875 and paved the way for the coming of Christian missionaries the following year. Although the Christian party struggled to gain a strong foothold in the country in its early years, the professional missionaries that sent to Uganda proved effective later against the disorganized and trade-oriented Arab Muslim party. The events that followed 1875 were marked by the contamination of the king’s Islamic beliefs that it is reported that he began to practice both Islam and Christian religions. The traveler Stanley boasted of undermining Islam