Press Release
Following the Bomb Explosion in Arusha:
Statements by Archbishop Pengo are an Additional Manifestation of Enmity against Muslims and Islam; and Are a Humiliation to Christianity

Recently, a bomb exploded during the consecration of a new church building at Olasiti Parish in Arusha in the presence the official guest, the Vatican Ambassador Fransisco Montecillo Padilla who is also the Papal representative in Tanzania. The event as usual capitalized by politicians and the press to immediately jump on the bandwagon to discredit Islam and Muslims by claiming it a terrorist act, while other government officials declare religious conflict before Parliament. To fuel the enmity further, some people even claimed the person who threw the bomb wore an Islamic gown (kanzu) yet it is well known that a person wearing a kanzu cannot sprint away.

Either, the assertions by the Head of Catholic Church in Tanzania Archbishop Polycarp Pengo a few days after that, the Arusha attack and similar cases in the past are not religious in nature  and  that  he had information from credible sources that the attack during the consecration  was not the work of a religious group manifests two main issues. First is to what level the seeds of international enmity against Islam and Muslims led by America have grown in our countries such that even before commencing investigations, allegations are directed at Muslims and Islam. Today, the maxim used against Islam and Muslims is: "Islam is guilty until proven innocent". Secondly, that statement is an indication of conflicts and enmity within the Catholic Church which is an effect of the church entering the level of benefit as a measure of actions. This is due to their religion not adopting the measure of halal and haram as it is not the true religion.

Hizb ut Tahrir / East Africa asks, in Tunduma when Christian terrorists demolished and burned mosques, did anyone declare them as terrorist acts? Or when a Christian youth in Dar es-Salaam desecrated the Quran by urinating on it, was it said there is religious conflict? Or are you merely repeating words of enmity aping the Western countries?

Again we stress that the tradition of enmity against Islam and Muslims is most evil matter that might plunge the country into a dangerous place, destruction and create bad relations among the public.

Masoud Msellem
Deputy Media Representative
Hizb ut Tahrir / East Africa