Jasusi,
Nilichukua likizo ya siku saba.
Lakini kwa hili nimeona nirudi kazini lau kwa siku moja.
Hebu ona na hii hapa chini kutoka ''The Life and Times of Abdulwahid Sykes...''
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About two-thirds of East African Muslims reside in Tanzania[1] which is the most populous of the East African countries, i.e. Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
This includes Zanzibar-a predominantly Muslim country with a 99% Muslim population and once the centre of Islamic learning in East and Central Africa.[/TD]
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According to the 1957 population census, Muslims outnumbered Christians at a ratio of three to two.
This, at that time, meant that Tanzania was a leading Muslim nation South of the Sahara.
But in the first post-independence census of 1967 the total figures for Tanzania Mainland were 32% Christian, 30% Muslim and 37% local belief.
These figures show Pagans as a leading majority in Tanzania.
The 1967 census has not been able to show the reasons for the sudden decrease of Muslim population nor the growth of animists amidst believers in the span of the last ten years.[/TD]
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This was the last population census showing religious distribution.
It is widely believed that the figures for the 1967 census were doctored for political reasons to show that Muslims were trailing behind Christians in numerical strength.
There is evidence that the government in 1970, having realised that Muslims were a majority in Tanzania, directed the Statistical Department to destroy all the 1967 census results. [2][/TD]
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Unfortunately power sharing in the political system in Tanzania is very much skewed against Muslims, although it is known that the stability of any nation depends on proper balancing of these factors.
Different sources provide different Muslim-Christian religious distribution figures.
These conflicting figures are as a result of sensitivity of the issue.
Among African countries with sizable population of Muslims and Christians, like Tanzania and Nigeria,[3] the inquiry as to which faith commands a leading majority, is a source of potential conflict and controversy.
Tanzania is of no exception. D.B. Barret[4] gives figures which shows Muslims as a minority in Tanzania.
The Muslim population is purported to be 26%, Christian 45%, local belief 28%. Tanzania National Demographic Survey figures for 1973 put Muslims in Tanzania slightly above Christians at 40%, Christians 38.9% and local belief 21.1%. But according to Africa South of The Sahara, [5] Muslims in Tanzania are a leading majority at 60%. This figure has remained constant in all its publications since 1982.
Since research by Tanzanian Muslims on Islam is scant or almost non-existent, the issue of Muslim population has yet to be tackled from an Islamic point of view. [6][/TD]
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Distribution of authority and power sharing is a factor which should not have been a cause of conflict in independent African countries.
Ironically this has become a point of controversy only under indigenous governments.
It is a sensitive issue because ethnicity, religious identity and clanship is an important factor in independent African states.
Power distribution and numerical strength has also to be reflected in the sharing of political power along those lines.
During colonial rule, distribution of power under ethnicity and religious bias in Africa by colonising powers were not perceived as so serious a breach of trust by subjects as to warrant civil upheavals.
Fortunately tribalism is not pronounced in Tanzania, but religion has been a factor of discrimination since colonial days.[/TD]
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[1]August H. Nimtz Jr, Islam and Politics in East Africa, University of Miannapolis,1980,p.11.
[2] See Family Mirror, Second Issue, November,1994, p. 6.
[3] Ali A. Mazrui, African Islam and Competititive Religion: Between Revivalism and Expansion, in Third World Quarterly Vol.
10. No. 2 April, 1988, pp. 499-518.
[4]D.B.Barret, Frontier Situations for Evangelisation in Africa ,Nairobi,1976.
[5]Africa South of The Sahara, Europa Publication, London, No. 20, 1991, p. 1027.
[6]The only conclusive Muslim research is by Dar es SalaamUniversity Muslim Trustee (DUMT), see 'The Position of Muslims and
Islam in Tanzania,' in Al Haq International (Karachi)September/October 1992.