He made the request yesterday as he graced the completion of international competition on reading and learning by heart the Quran held at Kigali Convention Center.
The competition was organized by Muslim Community in Rwanda in collaboration with Haya Alkair-a Saudi Arabia Muslim organization.
Minister Shyaka said that Quran is a book teaching people to live in harmony and cooperation and urged Muslims to read its good message to stand against people misinterpreting it that might lead to involvement in wrong doing.
“ Learning and understanding Quran for Muslims is an opportunity to dig deeper into its insights leading them to explore the good message it carries and stand against negative intentions that might arise from illiterate readers or people misinterpreting it be it radicalism among other tarnishing the reputation,” he said.
“Islam means peace which aligns with Rwanda’s core goals to maintain peace and security. It goes with the saying ‘Birds of feather flock together’. Being a Muslim in Rwanda must be translated into loving peace, striving for it and love the beautiful country like Rwanda,” added Minister Shyaka.
The Mufti of Rwanda, Sheikh Salim Hitimana assured that Muslim Community in Rwanda shall keep supporting goof governance that paved way for Islam freedom after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
“Such activity highlights good governance in our country giving indiscriminate religious freedom. History shows that during Belgium colonial rule in 1924, a law was established to bring Muslims together in a camp to exclude and isolate them from other Rwandans,” he said.
Based on Islam freedom currently, Mufti Hitimana said that over 100 Muslims memorized the Quran unlike before 1994 where no one did learn the Quran by heart.
The Quran reading international competition is held in Rwanda for the 8th time. 51 contestants from 25 countries reached finals of this year’s competition.
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