{UAH} Do you have a Muslim friend?

By Reveland Amos Kasibante, UK

This is actually true. In a job interview in the UK, I was once asked whether I have ever had a friend who was a Muslim. The reason is because I was not only going to work in a multi-faith context, but the role required fostering and participating in interfaith dialogue. 

I thought the question rather odd and kept silence for a few seconds, making the question repeat the question. I think he rightly understood my gesture to mean, "I beg your pardon?" I could not count the number of Muslims who were my friends. In the village where I grew up, our neighbour was a Muslim and in Africa "neighbour" does just mean proximity. It means relationship. One of my close friends at Secondary School was a Muslim. Our Muslim neighbour in the village in Africa came to visit me when I was training for ordination. He also attended my ordination service. He came to visit me when I was at a boarding secondary school.  One my close friends at University in the UK was a Muslim woman, a British person of Pakistan origin.  I had attended Muslim functions, including funerals.  

The Muslim was not "other" to me. Which may not be the case with many a White British person where such close interaction may not happen. 

Now, in Uganda, following or as revealed by Oulanya's death, questions may begin to be asked whether as a Muganda, you have any friends who are Acholi or whether as an Acholi or Itesot or Madi, you have a friend who is a Muganda. A strange process of tribal "othering" is in the making, and it is simplistic and Manichean.

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