Kaka Mohamed Saidi nashukuru sana kwa majibu yako mazuri na ya kusisimua kuhusu Al Marhum Sheikh Kassim Bin Jumaa Imamu wa Msikiti Wa Mtoro!
Kama ulivyoahidi naomba utujuze na hayo mengine nanukuu tena:
Jee, Almarhum Shekh Mohamed Ali Burhi aliyekuwa katibu Mkuu wa Bakwata nini kilisababisha ajiuzulu Ukatibu Mkuu? na Jee, Al marhum Tewa Saidi Tewa alifariki lini? maana mara ya mwisho kumuona Mpigania uhuru huyu ilikuwa mwaka 1991 ktk ukumbi wa Nkrumah Chuo kikuu dar ktk harakati za kuleta mabadiliko Bakwata!
Jee, Mohamed, ktk vitabu vyako umewakumbuka wapigania uhuru wetu wa huku Moshi kama akina Mzee Yusuf Olotu, Osman Farah, Mariam baiskeli, Mama Halima Selengia (bado yu hai), Liwali Musa Mwinyijanga na wengine? hawa Wazee ni watu muhimu sana hasa kwa huku Moshi walishiriki kikamilifu ktk kuchangishana fedha Misikitini na fedha hizo kupewa Tanu ili ijiimarishe! lakini wote wamesahaulika na hakuna mtu anaewakumbuka hata kwa dua!
Natanguliza Shukrani kwa muda unaotumia kutushibisha na historia sahihi Alla akujaze kila la kheri!
Bi. Zubeda,
Nakuwekea hapa chini vipande muhimu kuhusu kujiuzulu kwa Sheikh
Mohamed Ali Buhri:
Warsha began to implement education programmes initiated by the
EAMWS butwere left to die after its demise.
Warsha turned four schools built by the EAMWS which were under
BAKWATA into Muslim seminaries that from there on the schools
would only accept Muslims.
Within a short period of time, discipline was restoredinto the schools
and it was compulsory for students to observe prayers and for girls to
dress in
hijab.
Mussa Mdidi and Burhani Mtengwa were fully involved in this project.
Warsha conducted a social research project which no Muslim organisation
had attempted before.
It commissioned its educationists to write a research
paper to show why Muslim students were lagging behind in education.
When these s findings were made public and distributed to throughout the
country it came as a shock to Muslims and the government.
For the first time it was revealed that there was a system in the Ministry of
Education supported by Christian functionaries which was discriminatory to
Muslim youths, purposely barring them from institutions of higher learning and
the president of the country Julius Nyerere and the Catholic Church was not
unconnected in this plot.
Such accusations and disclosure, particularly coming from Muslims, threatened
national unity.
The government did not want to find out whether those findings on education
were correct or not.
Its interest was to know the brains behind Warsha isolate them from Muslims
and then persecute them. The government was unprepared for such revelations
and was worried by the direction which BAKWATA was taking.
BAKWATA was now serving the cause of Islam.
This was not what Nyerere had bargained for when he subverted the EAMWS
and helped to found BAKWATA.
Sheikh Mohamed Ali as secretary of BAKWATA was taken to task for allowing
the organisations to be hijacked by were perceived to be hot headed youths.
Warsha were accused of being anti-government, anti Christian and perpetrating
animosity between Muslims and Christians through their writings.
President Nyerere ordered Aboud Jumbe the Vice President to close down the
Muslim seminaries.
A meeting between Aboud Jumbe and BAKWATA was held at Jumbe's official
residence at Laibon Road.
In attendance were Rashid Mfaume Kawawa, Adam Nasibu, Sheikh Mohamed
Ali and Sheikh Abbas Makbul a representative of
Darul Iftar.
The stand of Sheikh Mohamed Ali was that if those Muslim seminaries have to
be closed then the decision to take that step should be laid upon the government.
This was a difficult step to be taken by the government as such an act would
provoke Muslims.
The meeting left the decision to close the seminaries upon BAKWATA.
[1]
BAKWATA took a unilateral decision and reverted the schools back to its original state.
Warsha not agreeing to BAKWATA's decision called a meeting of all Muslims to discuss
the problem.
What Warsha was strategising was to draw Nyerere and his government into direct
conflict with Muslims.
The government saw through Warsha's plot and the Christian lobbyused its powers and
a crisis was fomented.
The government issued a directive to reinstate the schools takenover by Warsha to their
former secular status, that is, any Tanzania irrespective of faith should have access to
them.
The Christian lobby through the state- radio issued a warning that the meeting called by
Warsha was illegal and any Muslim attending that meeting would be arrested.
For effectiveness this announcement was read by the Director of Radio Tanzania,
[2]
David Wakati.
The government accused Warsha of trying to divide the country along religious lines.
The government saw the two Muslim seminaries which were established less than a year
as divisive but turned a blind eye to 19 Christian seminaries which were in existence for
almost a hundred years.
Adam Nasibu meanwhile in connive with of the government travelled to Moshi and the
reason he told the BAKWATA headquarters was that he was going to Kilimanjaro Christian
Medical Centre (KCMC) for treatment.
But that was not the reason.
Once in Moshi with thehelp of Sheikh Senare the BAKWATA chairman in Kilimanjaro and
Sheikh Jambeni from Tanga and other few handpicked BAKWATA members he called a
secret meeting the agenda which was how to oust Sheikh Mohamed Ali from leadership.
It was decided by conspirators that a special meeting should be called in Dar es Salaam
immediately to discuss what had transpired in BAKWATA since the banning of Muslim
seminaries.
The government put at its disposal its manpower and resources to make the meeting a success.
Members of the BAKWATA Central Committee were sent invitations through police message.
This type of communication is usually used by the government for urgent messages because of
its efficiency.
The meeting was called and Sheikh Mohamed Ali was accused of flouting the BAKWATA constitution,
conducting elections under an invalid constitution and in collaboration with Warsha, for "mixing religion
with politics."
Sheikh Mohamed Ali was therefore expelled from BAKWATA and Warsha "banned."
[1] See article by Burhani Mtengwa, ‘Mikutano ya BAKWATA ni Njama za Kuhujumu Uislam" in
Mizani 18-31
Januari, 1991.
[2] In the EAMWS crisis of 1968 the state owned radio was used very effectively as a propaganda tool
against Muslims
