Since the devastating September 11, 2001, attacks, which claimed the lives of over 3,000 people and left many more injured, the United States of America has been committed to preventing such acts of terrorism within its borders and across the globe.
This commitment has taken various forms, including military interventions in countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Syria. In Uganda, while the USA has supported President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s government, militarily and in other ways, the fight against terrorism has extended to Islamic schools, commonly known as madrasas.
The US government, through its Department of State, equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs, has actively engaged in reforming the madrasa syllabi. Their aim is to remove materials that promote extremism and advocate for government control and oversight of these schools.
A book titled, America and the Production of Islamic Truth in Uganda, authored by Dr Yahya Sseremba, a fellow at the Makerere Institute of Social Research, sheds light on this focus of producing Islamic students aligned with American interests.
Sseremba argues that despite the USA enjoying a favorable relationship with President Museveni for nearly four decades, during which he has dutifully carried out their bidding, including fighting the war on terror in the region, the USA believes that institutionalizing their efforts is more sustainable than relying on a single individual.
He states, “While rulers like Yoweri Museveni of Uganda have solidified their power through personalized and clientelist networks, and while the United States has relied on such semi-authoritarian rulers to advance its security interests in Africa by enlisting them in the war on terror, the education reforms pursued by the US Department of State seek to institutionalize USA security interests in the African state, instead of simply relying on the unpredictable goodwill of African rulers.”
According to Sseremba, the US aims to civilize, modernize, and standardize Islamic education, subjecting it to direct state control and scrutiny from civil society. This approach mirrors the European civilizing mission, which was abandoned in the mid-twentieth century. Under the US State Department’s proposed arrangement, Muslims may retain their Islamic religion and education, but these would shift from the domain of Muslim authorities to the civil sphere, under direct state control and civil society supervision.
Currently, Islamic education in Uganda falls outside the purview of the ministry of Education and Sports, unlike secular education, and is instead managed by individual schools or associations, which determine the curriculum, structure, and duration of study.
This decentralized approach has raised concerns among both the US and Ugandan government officials, who have repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that these schools serve as radicalization centers. Just recently, the police, with assistance from other security organizations, raided the home of Sheikh Muhammad Yunus Kamoga, the leader of Tabliq, and allegedly rescued children who were being radicalized. Police spokesperson Fred Enanga informed the media that parents had filed complaints regarding their children being taught Sharia with the aim of indoctrinating them into violent extremism.
