Maputo, 28 Nov (AIM) – The Chairperson of the Islamic Council of Mozambique (CISLAMO), Sheikh Aminuddin Muhammad, has announced the creation of an international commission to begin a dialogue, starting in January 2024, with the terrorists who have been attacking the northern province of Cabo Delgado, according to a report on the Beira daily paper “Diario de Mocambique”.
Speaking to reporters, at the end of a religious service in the Angolan capital of Luanda, Muhammed said “as religious leaders, we are working in various aspects in order to bring peace to Cabo Delgado.”
He explained that the commission consists of members from other members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), as well as from the European Union. He did not name any of them.
“We are working to end the war, and we have already been to Cabo Delgado to assess the situation”, he said.
“We have thought about how to work in the field”, Muhammed added. “Our next decisions will be carried out in January. We are going to Cabo Delgado in 2024, and the government has been encouraging us with the intention of finding a channel for dialogue with the terrorists”.
Muhammad, who is also a member of the Council of State, a body that advises President Filipe Nyusi, and the chairperson of Mozambique’s Council of Religions, stressed that the attacks carried out by terrorists in Cabo Delgado “are not religiously motivated. They are the result of the discovery of mineral resources.”
According to Muhammad, Muslims have been living in Mozambique for over a thousand years, since before the start of Portuguese colonial rule, and they have never been involved in terrorism.
“The problem of Cabo Delgado only emerged when the country discovered mineral resources. The question that must go to politicians is: why now, and not before?”, he questioned, adding “if terrorism was related to religion, every part of Mozambique would be affected.”
But the terrorists themselves certainly believe they are following a religious agenda. They have demanded the implementation of Sharia Law, and boast of their affiliation to the international terrorist network that calls itself the “Islamic State”.
Nothing is publicly known about the leadership of the Cabo Delgado terrorists, or where they are based. Muhammed did not say where a dialogue with this faceless group might be held.
(AIM)
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