"Boxing makes me feel more and more normal," says Ramathan. (Reuters)

1.  Blind Muslim Boxer Shines in Uganda
 [By IslamOnline(IOL)]
Bashir Ramathan, a 36-year-old Ugandan Muslim, might have lost his eyesight but he certainly has not lost faith in himself or hope in life. "You find other blind people sad at home. I say to them, you have to move. If you stay like that, you could bring more sickness on your body," Ramathan told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in an interview on Tuesday, March 25. Ramathan lost his sight in 1995 and doctors told him his optic nerves had become paralyzed and that he would never see again.

2. CULTURE-UGANDA: Muslims Demand Changes in Bill on Women's Rights  
[By Kiapi Matsamura (Inter Press Service – Evelyn)]
Members of Uganda's minority Muslim community have criticised their country's domestic relations bill, saying it goes against the teachings of Islam.

To express their anger, thousands of Muslims from various parts of the country (police estimated 7,000), led by Sheikh Ramadhan Mubajje, held a demonstration in Uganda's capital Kampala over the bill last week. The bill is now in parliament.

The protestors, who included women, young and old, wore hijabs, or Islamic veils, covering their head. During the procession, they carried placards and banners opposing sections of the bill on polygamy, bride price, cohabitation and age of consent to marriage - all of which are practiced in Islam.  

A Mosque in Uganda

3. Islam in Uganda  
[By WIKIPEDIA]
According to the National Census 2002 Islam is practiced by 12.1 percent of the population.

History

Islam had arrived in Uganda from the north and through inland networks of the East African coastal trade by the mid-nineteenth century. Some Baganda Muslims trace their family's conversion to the period in which the kabaka Mutesa I converted to Islam in the nineteenth century. 

4.Islam in Uganda - The Historicity  
[The Historicity posted in moftak.com]
Most records indicate that Islam reached Uganda at the very latest in 1844, when Ahmed Ibn Ibrahim reached the then Kabaka`s palace. It is however also believed that some other Arab/Swahili Muslims reached Buganda in the late 1830s, during King Suuna II`s reign . It is also possible that Islam could have reached Uganda earlier through the northern axis, from Egypt and Sudan .what is not under dispute, however, is the fact that Islam arrived in Uganda at least 33 years earlier than Christianity. 

5. Libyan leader opens mosque in Uganda in bid to spread Islam through Africa
 [By The Associated Press, March 19, 2008]
"He who doesn't accept Islam in the end will be a loser," Gadhafi said in Arabic in a speech simultaneously translated into English, while Museveni, a born-again Protestant Christian, sat frowning by his side.

Fewer than 20 percent of Uganda's 30 million population are Muslim. Kalfan M'barak, a medical doctor in the crowd, said his ancestors had converted "generations ago" through contact with Arab and Muslim merchants. "There is absolutely no friction here. You can find two religions inside one family."  

6. Muslims and Christians coexist peacefully in Uganda  
Although only around 12 percent of Uganda's population of about 31 million are Muslim, the influence of this small minority is very visible in the busy markets and commercial districts of Kampala, where many shops and stalls are Muslim owned and sell everything from Halal meats to copies of the holy Quran and magazines specifically tailored to Muslim readers. Although Islam and Christianity are both proselytising religions that are inherently competitive, both faiths seem to co-exist peacefully in Uganda.

7.  The untold story of the Uganda Muslim martyrs
 [By Sheila C. Kulubya ]
The history of the Uganda Christian martyrs is a well-known tale of intrigue and murder. It tells the story of 45 young men, mostly from Buganda’s eminent families, who willingly surrendered their lives for the sake of their religious beliefs. We are told that they defied their king by refusing to denounce Christianity, a religion that had been newly introduced to Buganda by Catholic and Anglican missionaries.

We are further told that the Kabaka, Mwanga II, construed it as treachery and had them arrested. In all, a total of 45 Christians made the long trip to Namugongo, where they went up in flames on a funeral pier.

8.Tracing roots: Uganda  
Samena Chaudry's grandfather was forced to leave Uganda in the early 1970s. She decided finally to track down any of her family's previous life there, stopping on the way to do some work in Nsambya Christian missionary hospital

Until 1972, Asians constituted the largest non-indigenous ethnic group in Uganda. In that year, the regime of the dictator Idi Amin expelled 50 000 Asians who had been engaged in trade, industry, and various professions. My grandfather was one of those people. Leaving a successful drapery store in Masaka, he left with his children to come to Britain. 

9. Uganda Islam
In 1989 Islam was practiced by an estimated 2.6 million Ugandans, representing roughly 15 percent of the population. Islam had arrived in Uganda from the north and through inland networks of the East African coastal trade by the mid-nineteenth century. Some Baganda Muslims trace their family's conversion to the period in which the kabaka Mutesa I converted to Islam in the nineteenth century. 

10.Uganda Census 2002  
[Uganda Population & Housing Census 2002  ] 
Since its establishment in 1998 as a semi-autonomous government agency, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics has continued to support government’s results-based agenda by providing needed statistics for monitoring development performance and progress especially in the implementation of major development initiatives and policies.

11.  Uganda Kigongo Opens Mayuge Mosque  
[By Donald Kiirya published in allafrica.com]THE National
Resistance Movement (NRM) vice-chairperson, Al Hajji Moses Kigongo, has advised Muslims in Mayuge district to desist from acts of envy, hatred and intrigue if they want to develop their religion.

Kigongo said: "What has caused hatred among individuals is the issue of people not loving themselves in society. We should know that where there is love and unity, there is a generation of ideas and skills to develop you."

He commissioned the Kigulu Masgid Taqua Mosque at Kigulu Primary School, Kigandalo sub-county on Friday.

The $13,000 mosque was built by the Munazamat Al-Dawa Al-Islamiya organisation.  

12.Uganda UNIVERSITY  
[By International Islamic News Agency (IINA)] 
The Islamic University of Uganda was founded in 1988, and is situated in the east of the country, in a city called Mbale, where the Muslim population is quite substantial. The university has five faculties, namely the faculties of Islamic Studies and Arabic Language, Education, Business and Public Administration, Science, Art, Sociology. The university issues undergraduate and postgraduate degrees to the students who pass its exams.

There are now 1,137 students enrolled at the university, boys as well as girls.  

13.  Uganda Muslim
 [By International Islamic News Agency (IINA)]The Mufti of Uganda, Sheikh Sha’aban Ramadhan, has outlined some of the problems facing the Muslims here, and told IINA that there are six million Muslims out of Uganda’s population of 21 million. He said there are 6,700 mosques, and in practically every mosques there is a Qur’an Study Circle, plus there is one Islamic University, and it comes under the aegis of the of the Jeddah-based Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC).

14. Ugandan Muslims Eye Vice President Post
 [Donald Kiirya published in allafrica.com]
THE National Resistance Movement (NRM) vice-chairperson, Al Hajji Moses Kigongo, has advised Muslims in Mayuge district to desist from acts of envy, hatred and intrigue if they want to develop their religion.

Kigongo was accompanied by state ministers Ruth Nankabirwa (defence), Rukia Isanga Nakadama (gender), the Mufti of Uganda, Sheikh Shaban Mubajje and the organisation's country director, Galal Wahbi.  

15. Rector of the Islamic University in Uganda
 [ an interview with “Islam Online”(IOL)]
Interview conducted by: Sara Takroni and Najeeb Al-Yafie

Can you tell us about the Muslim community in Uganda?

Islam reached Uganda in 1844, where the first group of Muslim traders came to Uganda through the east African coast, they were mainly from Oman. Because they were traders, they did not spend a lot of time in Dawah in Uganda, but with Islam being a practical religion, these traders used to pray, and used to fast. The Africans who were helping them used to see what these Muslims were doing and would learn Islam. Eventually, Islam started spreading to other parts of the country and now the Muslim community in Uganda constitutes 30% of the population—that’s about 10 million people, because the population of Uganda in about 33-34 million people. So, Uganda has more Muslims than Libya, more Muslims than many other Arab countries.

You said that the rate of Muslims in Uganda in 30%, is that the official rate? Is it accurate?