page_title: Islam in Rwanda
section_title: Today
hierarchical_section_title: Islam in Rwanda / Today
caption_attribution_description: English: Mosque Minaret with Catholic Cathedral at Rear - Huye-Butare - Southern Rwanda
context_page_description: Islam is the largest minority religion in Rwanda, practiced by 4.6% of the total population according to 2006 census. Virtually all Muslims in Rwanda are Sunni. Islam was first introduced into Rwanda by Muslim traders from the East Coast of Africa in the 18th century. Since its introduction, Muslims have been a minority in the territory, while the Roman Catholic Church, introduced to Rwandans during the colonial period in the late 19th century is the largest religion in the country.
  For the first time in its history in Rwanda, Islam is accorded the same rights and freedoms as Christianity. Estimates show that there are equal numbers of Muslims among the Hutus as there are among the Tutsis. The estimates cannot be verified in the wake of the genocide, as the government has since banned all discussion of ethnicity in Rwanda.
context_section_description: The number of Rwandan Muslims increased after the 1994 genocide due to large numbers of conversions.
  Many Muslims had sheltered refugees, both Hutu and Tutsi. Some converts state that they converted to Islam because of the role that some Catholic and Protestant leaders played in the genocide. Human-rights groups have documented both incidents in which Christian clerics permitted Tutsis to seek refuge in churches, then surrendered them to Hutu death-squads, as well as instances of Hutu priests and ministers encouraging their congregations to kill Tutsis.
  Personal accounts relate how some Tutsi converted for safety, as they feared continuing reprisal killings by Hutu extremists, and knew that Muslims would protect them from such acts. Many Hutu converted as well, in search for "purification". Many Hutu want to leave their violent past behind them and to not have "blood on their hands". There are also a few isolated instances where Hutu have converted in the hope that they could hide within the Muslim community and thereby escape arrest.
  The rate of conversions slowed in 1997. According to the mufti of Rwanda, the Islamic community has not seen any increases in conversions in 2002/2003. Christianity remains as the country's leading religion. Catholicism (which arrived in the late 19th century with the White Fathers order of the Roman Catholic Church) remains deeply embedded in the culture.
caption: Minaret of the Al-Masidjid Q'ubah mosque at Butare, Rwanda
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-HX100V", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2012:08:02 08:11:18", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "272", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail ImageDescription": "", "Thumbnail Make": "SONY", "Thumbnail Model": "DSC-HX100V", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail DateTime": "2012:08:02 08:11:18", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "13520", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4809", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/400", "EXIF FNumber": "5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:08:02 08:11:18", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:08:02 08:11:18", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "1", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "11247/1280", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, compulsory flash mode, return light not detected", "EXIF FocalLength": "3191/100", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3648", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2736", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "13242", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Hard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[24/5, 144, 14/5, 28/5]"}