Religious extremism should not sabotage well-intentioned government programmes

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OPINION

By Amlan Tumusiime

Religious extremism is any behaviour, attitude, or belief outside the norms of religion, belief, or practice.  This means there are some members or followers of different religious groupings who go beyond religion and start acting outside the known religious settings and teachings, or some misunderstand those teachings.

I witnessed this a few days ago when I received a phone call from the census sub-county supervisor of Kabwoya in Kikuube district when his team visited three homes of people in Kisonsoma village who refused to be enumerated during the ongoing National Housing and Population Census.

The three family heads, together with their family members, told the census officers that they could not be counted because their ‘god’ does not allow them to be counted. 

I drove to this village, which is about 30 miles from Hoima town, so that I could talk to the family members. I took them aside and explained to them the advantages of being counted and why the Government was spending billions of money to ensure that this exercise was a success.

They told me that they are members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church and that they are not allowed to take part in the census exercise. 

I brought out a letter dated April 18, 2024, which was written by the President of Uganda Union Mission (UUM) Seventh Day Adventist Church, Pastor Dr. Moses Ndimukka Maka, asking all members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church to take part in and support the on-going census exercise country-wide. 

I also reminded them that President Yoweri Museveni is on all television and radio stations daily, explaining to the people the importance of the census exercise and also urging all Ugandans to support it by participating. I also shared with them how all religious and cultural leaders are supporting the exercise.

After listening to me, they told me off, saying that even if their church president had written asking all Seventh Day Adventists to take part in the census exercise, they were not going to follow his advice. 

They claimed that in the Bible, King David tried to conduct census and that act annoyed God and that to them, they would rather annoy a human being than God. 

I spent time convincing them that even Jesus and his parents, Joseph and Mary, had to go to Bethlehem to be counted, but these three families remained adamant, saying, “RDC, our God is not your God, for you cannot understand our God, and we shall not be counted.”

I got even more annoyed when the area LC1 chairman and other immediate neighbours of these families who led me to these homes informed me that these stubborn families don’t even send their children to school, claiming that their God doesn’t allow them to educate children. 

I had to ask the Police to arrest the three men for sabotaging government programmes. Under the Uganda Bureau of Statistics Act, anybody who sabotages the census programme faces a six-month jail term or a fine of sh600,000.

The neighbours told me these families were even inciting others to dodge the census exercise. This is not being religious anymore, but sabotaging government programmes while hiding under religion.

How can one fail or refuse to send their children to school, claiming that God does not allow that?

This Government should not take it lightly, as we are aware that we have freedom of worship in Uganda. There are some people who are misusing the freedom of worship to frustrate government programmes meant to help citizens.

I was even concerned about this particular family because I was told they just came to this village about two years ago, and I am still interested in finding out the circumstances under which they left Kabaale village in Hoima district to Kisonsoma, where they are currently staying in Kikuube district. I think some dictatorship is necessary because too much democracy is not also good. 

From the little time I spent with these families, I realised they could be a problem to society because of their act of even stopping their children from going to school, yet the NRM Government has put in place a programme for children to access free education under UPE and USE. 

If the Government does not intervene and leaves such families unchecked, their children will not be able to read or write and even fail to acquire high education simply because their parents had a false belief that they had a god who does not belief in education. 

Such parents should be reprimanded because they are directly sabotaging government programmes and also killing the future of their children.

We all believe in God, or at least the majority believe in God, but it is dangerous to accept religious extremism. Religious extremism has a lot of negative consequences, including being a potential source of insecurity, poverty, ignorance and hatred. 

Granted, people have a right to worship the way they want, but that should not compromise national interests. For example, the country wants to plan for her people, wants an educated and healthy population and some unserious people hiding under the religion frustrates such good programmes. This is unacceptable.

I remember at one time, during the national immunisation mobilisation campaign against the six killer diseases, Owobusoboza Desteo Bisaaka, the then head of Unity of Faith based in Mohoro Kagadi district, was de-campaigning the immunisation exercise, claiming his faith doesn’t allow immunisations. 

His position on the matter had failed the immunisation exercise in Bunyoro because he had a large number of followers until he was arrested for sabotaging government programmes and later he realised the importance of immunisation and came out openly to support the exercise. 

Today, his followers support all government programmes and even the on-going census exercise, all of them are taking part and supporting it. 

It is, therefore, important for people not to hide under religion to frustrate government programmes and also avoid religious extremism which is never good for a person.

It is funny for one to refuse to be counted based on religion. All religious books, be it Qur’an or Bible, tell us that population censuses are not contradictory to Christianity or Islam. 

Actually, the first thing Prophet Muhammad did when he migrated to Medina from Mecca was to conduct the census. Therefore, individuals who refuse to take part in the census based on religious beliefs are liars.

Religious extremism causes unnecessary deaths among its followers. We all remember what happened on March 17, 2000, when Joseph Kibwetere of the so called Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments killed over 1,000 people, some of whom were burnt and others whose bodies were discovered in six mass graves in Kanungu district. 

This was religious extremism. The Government needs to take this matter seriously because it can cause a big problem for the community.

I am happy the census exercise is going well, and those three families that refused to be counted, claiming their God doesn’t allow them to be counted, will appear in court and be charged for sabotage of government programmes so that others can also learn from this.

The writer is the RDC for Kikuube district