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In fighting youth radicalisation, Rwanda turned to mosques, schools

Wednesday November 29 2017
Salah

Muslims praying in Kigali. The Rwanda Muslim Council, working with others, has sensitise young people about religious extremism. PHOTO | CYRIL NDEGEYA | NATION

By EDMUND KAGIRE

In December 2015, Yassin Irakoze met a middle-aged man while attending Friday Jumu’ah prayers at Biryogo Mosque in Kigali. The two exchanged pleasantries and went on with the prayers.

Little did he know that that chance meeting would almost land him in trouble in ways he could not have thought possible.

Several meetings later, Irakoze, who was then 20, and on school holidays, was impressed by the man’s knowledge of Islam and his exposure to global issues.

The man, known as Juma, later encouraged Irakoze to read more about religion and directed him to several websites. To make it even better, Juma handed Irakoze Rwf10,000 ($12) to pay for browsing the Internet at a cybercafe. He also left his telephone number with him.

Juma didn’t stop there. He invited Irakoze for prayers at Kimironko Mosque, rather than the one at Biryogo where they met, which is near his home. He also promised to get him a scholarship to a prestigious university in Saudi Arabia or Kuwait.

Short-lived friendship

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This marked what would be a rather short-lived friendship between Irakoze and the stranger he only met in the mosque. The links provided by Juma turned out to be of Jihadi groups mainly based in Middle East.

“The more I opened the websites and watched teachings, the more curious I became and sought to know more,” says Irakoze, who at the time thought of pursuing Islamic theological studies instead of electrical engineering, his preferred course from childhood.

“The more I read, the more I felt Islam was under attack. I started feeling a certain kind of anger. I wanted to do something to defend Islam,” says Irakoze.

However, things would take a turn for the worse on January 25, 2016. As Irakoze sat listening to the news, he heard reports that Muhammad Mugemangango, a deputy imam of Kimironko Mosque, had been shot dead while trying to escape from police custody.

The police said the imam had been arrested earlier on suspicion of terrorism. He was accused of radicalising Muslim youth and recruiting them to join terror groups.

“I recalled that I had attended one of the Friday prayers he led the previous month... I began to realise what I was getting myself into,” says Irakoze.

“I tried to reach out to Juma to shed light on what was going on but his phone was not going through. I could not trace him,” he adds.

Worried by the development, Irakoze talked to his elder brother who took him for counselling and rehabilitation by Islamic teachers.

Irakoze was among the hundreds of Rwandan Muslim youth who were suspected of engaging in acts of radicalism.

Prior to the shooting of Mugemangango, there were no known case of religious extremism in Rwanda, nor a terror attack linked to Jihadi groups.

The crackdown that followed saw dozens of Muslim youth suspected of engaging in acts of terror and radicalism arrested.

On August 17, 2016, police shot and killed a terror suspect identified as Channy Mbonigaba in Kigali’s Nyarutarama suburb and on August 19, they shot dead three more suspects — Eric Mbarushimana, Hassan Nkwaya and Mussa Bugingo, suspected to be linked to Al Shabaab, in Bugarama sector in the southwestern district of Rusizi.

READ: Trial against Rwandan terror suspects to be heard in camera

ALSO READ: How deep is the terror problem in Rwanda?

During the Bugarama operation, three more suspects— Shafi Cyiza, Latiffah Morina, and Abubakar Ngabonziza — were arrested and detained pending investigations.

They joined more than 120 people who were arrested in the crackdown on terror. So far, 44 are still undergoing trial.

Containing extremism

Now, the Muslim community in the country says a lot has been done to contain of religious extremism especially among Muslim youth.

“In Rwanda, we had not seen an act of terror yet but we were able to identify and stop acts of radicalism before they turned into violence and security threats,” says Sheikh Musa Sindayigaya, the spokesperson of the Rwanda Muslim Council.

Mr Sindayigaya says that together with law enforcement organs and local government authorities they have been able to sensitise young people about religious extremism.

“We have talked to the youth in schools, in universities and in the private sector, it is a continuous programme. We have also set up anti-terror clubs and committees in all 30 districts to counter radicalism,” he says.

Mr Sindayigaya denied that the youth who were involved in radicalism were from needy families and had social problems that made them vulnerable, pointing out that actually most of those apprehended or intercepted were from well-to-do families.

There has been only one fatal case linked to Rwanda where a Rwanda Defence Forces soldier suspected of being radicalised turned his gun on his colleagues on a peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic, in August 2015, killing four.

READ: Rwandan peacekeeper shoots himself dead in CAR

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