Museveni and the Muslim community in Uganda.

To understand the unpalatable relations between Museveni and the Muslim community of Uganda one needs to explore deep into history of the past regimes and some dominance of religion.
The sound logic that “ History helps us build the future” can be utilized to either mend relations or further alienate relationships,Museveni being ardent student of history to the contrary uses history to settle personal scores.Undoubtly the bad blood between the 2 can be traced back to Iddi Amin regime, which was favorable to the Musilims in Uganda and one such community was the powerful and wealthy Muslim community in Mbarara and Bushenyi etc these were the support base for Amin and also his trusted eyes.

Museveni`s FRONASA group were predominately recruited from local boys from west and south western Uganda most of them were of Christian background. For Museveni to achieve his objectives to undermine Amin`s regime he had to recruit and raise support from the region for his subversive and covert operations , however the powerful Muslim community become an impedance because they Muslims out rightly rejected him and tipped the regime about his plots. Nevertheless this didn’t deter Museveni to arrange an ill-conceived invasion of Uganda by FRONASA of course the attack was quelled with utmost brutality by the Amin`s forces and many other collaborators were executed in public firing squad.

This also was to give Museveni a lesson not to start any uprising where you have no base support.
Therefore this is the genesis of the blood bad and mistrust between the two, earlier on I alluded to the fact that he Museveni uses history to settle personal scores and this is where he coins his “ Visionary leader” from one of his first revenge acts is registered in 1979.
The massacre of the Sheema Muslim community who were thrown into river Rwizi, In Ankole the bloodbath targeted Muslims as such. The perpetrators said they acted on the orders of the then defense minister and current president, Yoweri K. Museveni.

They gathered the Muslims in the home of Abdullah Segululigmba from where they marched them to River Rwizi for execution one after the other. At the river Muslims were butchered in the most horrifying manner. There was one whose head was cut into three pieces before being finally thrown into the river. Other cases included those whose hands or legs were cut off, then thrown into the river to drown.
The imam Abdullah Segululigamba was mercilessly hacked in the middle with a panga and thrown into the river. The most memorable of these cases of cruelty is the 27-year-old Madhya Natende who was seven months pregnant. Her stomach was ripped open with a machete and the fetus crudely torn out. Needlessly to add that she died soon after. Madhya’s mother watched all this, and she would retell it to the end of her earthly days. She herself survived as if by a miracle – she jumped into the water before being cut.
In 1990 the regime through Military police headed by the late James Kazini brutally intervened in a sectional difference in the Muslim leadership in Uganda and the end it was a disaster the Tabliq sect was annihilated youth killed and over 500 were imprisoned by the regime.

This continued to the present day detention without trial, torture and summary execution of Muslim men since the late 1990s for allegedly aiding the ADF rebellion. No wonder with this kind of hostility towards the community it became a fertile ground for the recruitment by ADF, when a struggle between the Ugandan Muslim Supreme Council and the Tabliq over the leadership of a mosque in Kampala turned into violent attacks, Museveni put an important number of Tabliq members in prison. Upon their release in 1993, these prisoners fled to western Uganda.

In addition to those incidences many mysterious death of Muslim clerics in Uganda remains unresolved below are a few of the gunned down clerics.

1. Sheikh Mustafa Bahiga
2. Sheikh Dactoor Abdu Kadir Muwaya
3. Twahir Kamisi,
4. Sheikh Abu Jowali Situnga,
5. Sheikh Yunusu Madango
6. Sheikh Abdu Karim Sentamu
7. Muslim cleric, Abubaker Kiweewa

My reading is that many of these clerics are from Busoga region and there are also accounts of many mass graves discovered in Busoga region where it is alleged the ADF massively indoctrinated poor poverty stricken youth in Madaras in Busoga that is the account of security at least.
To conclude I quote...

“I have seen several governments in this country, but none beats Museveni in harassing Muslims. Sheikh Nuh Muzaata Batte

Historically Museveni is known as an eliminator instead of a competitor.