Tanzania has long had an interesting religious/political division. Tanzania originally was Tanganyika, and later incorporated the islands such as Zanzibar to form the United Republic of Tanzania.
The people of the mainland of Tanzania are mostly Christians, while the coastal area and islands are 99% Muslims. This has caused a great deal of political strife, and has weakened the central government's authority over the islands and coast. It basically amounts to a country within a country.
Now the Zanzibar government wants the police on the islands to "arrest and charge anyone caught eating, drinking, or selling food at daytime during the current month of Ramadhan". This includes non-Muslims. This also violates Tanzania's guarantee of religious freedom.
2 comments:
Is the coast of Kenya also Muslim? I seem to remember talking to Christians in Kenya who thought their Muslim population was not a big problem.
Yes. While we were in Tanzania there was some trouble in Mombasa between Western tourists and Muslim extremists.
Post a Comment