The Secret MoU

This week just gone I was subjected to the horror of listening in as my countrymen described how they would put us Muslims in our place if we ever got to try and implement our secret deal with Raila Odinga.

It would be dishonest to claim I was not angry. These were after all solidly middle class students, the kind of people that should properly be immune to the hateful propaganda machinations of the political parties. It is also true that as an agnostic with a nickname that does not betray my cultural background, those making these statements did not think I would be threatened by their invection. Perhaps they even thought it natural that I would be in agreement with their scheme, that I would offer up ideas on how to deal with the Islamic threat. Now hours later, I am left asking myself why this has come to pass. Have Kenyan Christians and Muslims not lived side by side in mostly sunny forbearance for aeons? What has changed?

Read more from Amir Ibrahim here.

Let's do away with the Muslim vote

There has been a trend in Kenyan politics and this most prevalent among the media and political classes to speak of the Muslim vote, a collective that needs to be courted and won over by the parties and their candidates.

Amir Ibrahim demonstrates that Kenyan Muslims are not a monolithic demographic entity. Read more here.

No such thing as a Muslim vote

Amir Ibrahim argues that the courting of Muslims by politicians is not only unfair to Kenyans of other faiths, but also dangerous to the Muslim voters themselves as a perception of them as a fifth column, self-serving and inimical to the needs of other citizens is created and reinforced. He also argues that there really is no such thing as an Islamic constituency and pleads that Kenyans come to a universal conception of rights that are due to all citizens regardless of race or religion.
Read more here.