Page 43 - SoMJ Vol 74 - No 1, 2021

Malawi’s Muslims In The Era Of Multi-Party Democracy 33

there has not been anything like the level politicisation of religion that
characterised the Muluzi era.

Education and development
One major feature in this period has been the further progress that
Muslim organisations have made in promoting the education of Muslim children,
particularly girls. There is an even stronger awareness that education is the key to
developing the nation and advancing their own place in it. Organisations that
already existed have generally expanded their operations and ones new to the
scene have joined them to promote and provide for madrassa schooling and
primary, secondary and vocational education with a strong emphasis on
development. The support for this comes from within Malawi and from abroad
and shows some of the cooperation that exists between African and Asian
Muslims in Malawi and also the links that both groups have with Muslims in the
wider world.
For example, in 2008 the Islamic Zakat Fund, with the assistance of the
Islamic Development Bank, set up the Maone Vocational Training Centre to
provide apprenticeships in different technical trades. This had the stated aims of
helping young people to be self-reliant, to able to support their families and their
communities and to add to the nation’s much needed pool of skilled labour. The
running costs of the Training Centre are met by zakat and other donations, mostly
through the UK based Malawi Relief Fund. The Islamic Zakat Fund has also
continued to expand its support for secondary pupils and also for students in
colleges and universities in Malawi and in Islamic universities abroad, especially
in Tanzania, Uganda and Sudan. Cooperating with the Muslim Association of
Malawi and other partners, by 2018 the Fund claimed to have provided or found
support for over 17,000 pupils at secondary and over 2000 students at tertiary
level.
Those who sponsor the students and those who run the relevant
organisations put great emphasis on the importance of people at each level using
their qualifications for the good of the development of the whole of the nation.
Muslim leaders claim that a much higher proportion of Muslim than non-Muslim
graduates return to Malawi with their professional qualifications and work within
the country on completion of their studies overseas.

Desire for a Muslim-friendly society
Malawi’s Muslims are basically well integrated into wider Malawian
society. Many extended families contain both Muslims and non-Muslims. People
share villages, towns, workplaces and political parties harmoniously and mourn
and often celebrate together. Freedom of worship is fundamental to the nation’s
constitution and is unchallenged in practice. Nonetheless Muslims have made
attempts to ensure that they can have a political and social environment that gives
them space to express and uphold their Islamic identity, customs and values. Some