Muslim Protests Cancelled in Kenya

Muslim Protesters in Kenya with Al-Shabaab linked flag

A Muslim rights group in Kenya has called off a planned demonstration scheduled to take place on Friday in various towns across Kenya to pressure the release of the controversial Jamaican imam, Abdullah al-Faisal. Muslim Human Rights Forum chair Al-Amin Kimathi told Newstime Africa that MHRF or any affiliate group won’t take part in any demo tomorrow or a near future. “Speaking on behalf of MHRF, I dispel rumors doing rounds that we will hold protest demonstrations in Mombasa or anywhere else tomorrow,” he said.

On Friday, thousands of Muslim youths demonstrated after Friday prayers at Nairobi’s Jamia Mosque clashing with police. Pentecostal churches in Kenya had earlier today urged the Muslim community to call off the same demo. Commotion and protest ensued outside a Nairobi court early on Monday as heavily armed policemen tried to arrest human rights activists, lawyers and Muslim youths. Muslim leaders have demanded an independent inquiry into the clashes that lasted over five hours leading to destruction of property, 7 deaths and several injuries.

The rights body had last week managed to compel the government through the High Court to present the controversial cleric in court latter today.  The demonstration was planned to start after the Friday afternoon prayers at Makadara ground, in Mombasa to a provincial headquarters to present the government with a memorandum. Over 1,000 hundred people, mainly from Somalia, have been arrested in the swoops across the country. Most lacks United Nations High Commission for Refugees vetting documents. The Islamist official in Somalia have accused the Kenya troops of planning an invasion of territories under the group’s control, vowing to defend their “country” to the last drop of blood.

The Kenyan authorities are in the last stages of deporting the cleric. Al-Faisal has been on a watch-list of persons not allowed to visit the East African nations since 2007. He was deported to Jamaica in 2007 after serving four years in a British prison for inciting murder and stirring hatred by calling for the slaughtering of Americans, Hindus and Jews.

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