By Septimus Senessie in Kono.
Angry youths of the Kono District Islamic Council (KDC) have threatened the Supreme Islamic Council (SIC) in the district should they go ahead to elect or appoint their own district chief imam as promised. The chairman of KDC, Alhaji Sheik Karbinneh Mansaray who also doubles as the district chief imam told Politico that the conflict between the two Muslim organizations had been going on for the past fifty years with no solution in sight. He said their organization was owned and managed by indigenes of the district and therefore had the power to supervise all nine Muslim organizations in the district including the Supreme Islamic Council. The chief imam described the KDC as a “parliament” for all other Muslim organizations in the district. Sheik Mansaray accused the eastern regional chairman of “Darwaa”, a muslim evangelical organisation, Alhaji Sheik Saiba Conteh who is also the chief imam of the Supreme Islamic Council mosque at Turner Street in Koidu of inciting the recent conflict. He said that about two months ago, Sheik Conteh wrote a letter to the head office of the Supreme Islamic Council in Freetown, inviting them to Kono to elect their own district chief imam. He said if strategies were not mapped out to address the situation, it would deteriorate into a serious intra-religious conflict in the district. “The youths of our council which comprises about 95% of the young Muslims in the district are ready to settle the matter for themselves if the authorities failed to do so,” he threatened. He denied that he incited youths of the KDC against members of the SIC who had gone to Kono from Freetown last week to elect their own district chief imam. However, he went on “the youths are indigenes of the district, and if they see anything that is not good for the security of their district, they have the right to put a stop to it”. He went on that “the youth already know that they have a district chief imam, who is me.” Sheik Mansaray said he had taken the matter to the district security committee (DISC) for settlement before it went out of hand. Responding to the allegations, Alhaji Sheik Shaiba Conteh denied any wrong doing and described the allegations against him as “fabricated, malicious and baseless.” He said members of the Kono Islamic Council last week went to disrupt their meeting where they were on the verge of selecting their district executives including their Chief Imam and even threatened to replace him as chief imam in his own mosque. He vowed that he would not surrender his organization to anyone either in the district or in the country because “the Supreme Islamic Council is found all over the country while the Kono Islamic Council is only meant for Kono.” The district coordinator of the Office of the National Security (ONS), Mohamed Bangapoma Bangura has described the infighting between the two organisations as “unfortunate and un-Islamic.” He told Politico that the real meaning of Islam was “peace and total submission to Allah”, which he said was not being represented by the actions of the two organizations. Asked whether they sensed anything like tribalism or political undertone as alleged by the two opposing organisations, Bangura said he was not aware of that but pointed out that “the issue was bordering on marginalization and power struggle.” He said the imams should be busy “trapping the lost sheep of Allah and not to engage themselves in personality conflict which has the tendency to send mixed messages to their followers.” He therefore warned them to desist from such disagreement forthwith because it was not good for the security of the district.
