Shahbal convenes intereligious meeting in Mombasa

Emmanuel Nzai, Shahbal, Mureu and Pastor Lai.

The leaders.

By EUGENE OMILO
Mombasa County governor aspirant Suleiman Shahbal has called on religious leaders in Mombasa  to restrain their faithful against yielding to incitement to religious hatred following the violent demonstrations witnessed in  various parts of town.

Shahbal was speaking mid this week at Pangoni beach resort in Shanzu  where he had convened a meeting that brought together business, political and religious leaders including both Christian and Muslim clerics.

The Muslim clerics were led by Supreme Council of Kenyan Muslims  (Supkem) Coast chairman Sheikh Muhdhar Khitamy and Sheikh Badrus Khamis of Kenya Alliance of Ulamas and Imams (KAULI) while the Christian leaders included Bishop Wilfred Lai of JCC, Bishop Lawrance Dena of the National Council of Churches in Kenya (NCCK) and Bishop Joseph Maisha of the Ushindi Baptist churches. 

The leaders said the meeting was seeking to quell the rising tension amongst residents following the wave of violent riots by Muslim youths to protest the death of controversial preacher Sheikh Aboud Rogo on Monday.

Shahbal who delivered the opening remarks said the recent incidents that saw several churches torched called for a closer cooperation between Islamic and Christian clerics so that they can jointly preach a message of peace to their faithful.

“We want to allay fears that Christians or Churches are under attack. The unfortunate incidents that have already happened were spontaneous and they have no bearing whatsoever to a possible inter religious conflict,” said Shahbal adding that any seeds of discontent between the two faiths should be discarded at the earliest opportunity.

Speaking on behalf of the Christian delegation at the meeting, Bishop Maisha encouraged the reconciliation efforts saying though  his contemporaries were upset by the incidents that saw the burning of three churches, they were still ready to continue dialogue with their Muslim counterparts at various levels.

Sheikh Khitamy said there is need for religious leaders from both faiths to join hands so that they can form a common front with which to put pressure to the government to apprehend those involved in  arbitrary killings and acts of impunity in Mombasa.

He called on the government to be proactive to prevent violence instead of waiting to react after violence has broken out.

His sentiments were echoed by Sheikh Khamis  who urged Imams in Mombasa to preach a message of peace amongst their faithfull to cool down tensions.

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