Muslim martyrs site to be established in Uganda

KAMPALA, Uganda

Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni promised the country’s Muslim community Wednesday that a Muslim martyrs’ site will be established at Namugongo.

Namugongo, a township located 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) from the nation’s capital, Kampala, is the site where in 1806 dozens of people who had just converted to Christianity and Islam were killed on the orders of Mwanga II, a local king, who feared they were more loyal to their new religion than to his authority.

Twelve Muslim, 22 Catholic and 23 Protestant converts were murdered. Protestants and Catholics have established shrines which are thronged to every June 3 to commemorate their deaths

While hosting Muslims for a fast-breaking dinner, or iftar, at State House Entebbe, Museveni said that just like Catholics and Protestants are now traveling to their respective martyrs’ sites ahead of Martyrs' Day on June 3, Muslims would also be able to commemorate their faithful who died at the site.

''The government will help in establishing the Muslim martyrs' site. We shall work with the Muslim leadership to document the story of the Muslim martyrs and develop a site in their memory just like we have done with the Catholics and Protestants," Museveni said.

He congratulated Muslims for nearly completing the holy month of Ramadan and noted that countries in the Middle East that are faced with never-ending conflicts must critically analyze them and realize that these conflicts of identity are not leading their people to prosperity but rather to death and poverty.