We demand probe on religious tension

Please accept my heartfelt congratulations for the wonderful article on special report (in The Standard on Saturday last week) captioned - Fear of God. We are Kenyans and Kenya is ours. We, as religious leaders, must be honest and preach truth from the pulpits and anywhere else. We must read and preach from the holy scripts and not from our myopic, hateful, sectarian thoughts and minds. Only then can we be seen as true religious leaders to our scripts and true Kenyans. No religion on this globe advocates hate, killings or destruction of life or property. Islam recognises any other religion, in that it says: “You who don’t believe in Islam, we have our religion and you have your religion, and no one believes in what the other believes, and you have yours and we have ours.”

That is the level to which Islam recognises other faiths. Islam doesn’t propagate for compulsion, as that is one’s own free will.

There are no killings like what was witnessed at Westgate Mall, in the name of Islam, which Islam? Those who did that are criminals, whose aim was to bring religions head-on. They did that on their own and for their own doctrine. I want to state it here for the betterment of us all that Islam means peace and Islam strongly recognises peaceful coexistence and practices and existence of other religions. Religious leaders in Kenya are aware of the schemes to divide them on religious grounds.

Finally, as leaders, we demand prompt and independent inquiry into the quasi-religious tension, burning of churches and killings of imams and pastors.

Adan Wachu, Secretary General for Supkem