Opposition Forum for Democratic Change, FDC has cautioned security agencies against criminalizing Muslims and profiling. The party also wats President Museveni to also be very careful when profiling suspects.
The development came up during the FDC weekly press conference at their head offices in Najjanankumbi.
Party spokesperson Hon. Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda said that the Muslim community especially of the Tabliq sect are in great fear because of this targeted killings and profiling.
“Museveni has now turned himself into an interpreter of the Islamic faith. He is a new expert on the religious concepts like jana(heaven). Mosques are being declared radicalization centers by Museveni and Security, we fear they may begin invading mosques while mosques while muslems are in prayers” Ngada said.
He added that following the July 11th 2010 bombing at Lugogo of people watching world cup, People of Somali origin suffered from discrimination and that many Somalis were arrested simply because they were Somalis.
“In fact, an Egyptian who had come to Uganda as an exhibitor at annual UMA show ended up being arrested because he looked like a Somali and therefore a terrorist” Nganda added.
He argued that raids on mosques, arresting of people attending madrasa and profiling Tabliqs as suspects is a form of discrimination. The security agency must exercise a lot of caution dealing with this problem.
Hon. Nganda argued that these are not the first criminals to use Islamic names. “You remember late Brig. Chefe Alie, late Shaban Bantariza and Gen. Salim Saleh. All these have while engaged in rebellion used Islamic names. Museveni and Amama Mbabazi were using the name Kassim to access money to fund the Luwero war” he revealed.
