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1st Rabi Al Awwal 1440
Edition 8
THE CONSTITUTION OF KENYA PROVIDES
LATITUDE TO AVOID RIB’A AND STILL
FUNCTION IN SOCIETY
By Fahad Ali
There is the person who wants to obey
Allah and the person who wants to obey
Allah, Allah will open up a way for them.
Then there is the person who wants to obey
Allah but does not want to go through
any difficulty to obey Allah and in reality
they don’t want to obey Allah and then are
willing to disobey Allah.
They want the people who are around them
can be comfortable so that they can assimilate,
these are the people of conventional banking
who are in rib’a, of Shariah compliant banking
windows who are in rib‘a and Islamic banking
who are in rib‘a.
Their arguments have always been that they
need to participate in the financial system.
Where will they keep their money? How will
they borrow? How will they receive salary?
They talk Central Bank of Kenya Act and the
Central Bank as a regulator; the Banking Act.
Their real problem is they fear men more
than they fear Allah without realising that if
they just feared Allah, Allah would give them
superiority easily over men. If somebody is
truly determined to obey Allah He will open
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affecting the Muslims in Kenya.
KENYA’S FIRST MUSLIM NEWSPAPER www.thedailyobserver.co.ke
up a way for him.
One of the key foundations of liberal
democracy was to open up a space so that one
wouldn’t infringe upon Religion and this is
something that one can borrow from Islamic
practise. The Christians who lived among
the Muslims were allowed to practise their
religion in so far as they did not infringe upon
the halaal and haraam. They were allowed to
practise their faith unlimited provided they
didn’t get into Zina, provided they didn’t get
into drinking alcohol, they would have their
religious celebrations and so on, they didn’t get
into rib‘a as long as it wasn’t prohibited by the
Shariah they were allowed to continue with it.
Now here in Kenya, the most superior law
is the Constitution of Kenya no law is more
superior. It reigns supreme every law is
subsidiary to it. If a particular law infringes
upon the Constitution of Kenya that law is
unconstitutional. The reason why we are in
rib‘a in Kenya is because we as Muslims have
no frame work, have no structure to avoid
rib‘a so even if we said to the Government of
Kenya that we want to avoid rib‘a they will ask
us what will you do? How will you do it? There
is nothing, no structure we will just be talking
and that is why when people came forward
9th November 2018
FRIDAY EDITION
and started talking about Islamic banking and
Shariah compliant windows they saw it was
sensible but any religious person will tell you
this is nonsense this is plainly rib’a in a kanzu
rib‘a.
Anybody who understands the basics of the
fractional reserve banking knows that it is
rib‘a ad- Duyun; or debt rib‘a. With any form
of banking you are right inside the boat of
rib‘a, you are swimming in it, in fact you are
creating it and helping in its multiplication
everyday as long as you have money there,
you are using the fait money created by the
fractional reserve banking system which you
can literary only touch by being involved in
banking then you are in rib‘a.
The Central Bank of Kenya Act and the
Banking Act for those who didn’t bother to
think about it pushes us into rib‘a so therefore
to avoid rib’a we have to go outside of that and
create a system outside of that does not use
the fractional reserve Banking system, doesn’t
use the fait money but allows us to be able to
hold our money in assets that we can utilise,
to be able to trade within ourselves, to be able
to borrow and pay back. So how would we do
this?
Continued Overleaf
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 A2 • NEWS
We would have to go to Parliament and say
“Listen we cannot do this thing because
rib‘a is offensive to us and the Central Bank
of Kenya and the Banking Act had forced
us to be involved in rib‘a it is compelling
us to engage in something that is clearly
prohibited in our religion and in so doing
that is a violation of the Constitution” they
would look at matters differently.
The opportunity exist, this space exist
but first and foremost we must have an
alternative and then once we have that
alternative we must create that alternative
Constitutionally, then we must use that
alternative via the Constitution and that
alternative will take hold and will be strong
and will not be able to be challenged.
Therefore the basic premise is that the
Central Bank of Kenya Act and the Banking
Act are offensive to the Muslims for they
force us to participate in rib‘a against our
will. We cannot be forced to drink alcohol
by an Act of Parliament, to participate in
Zina by an Act of Parliament. To eat pork
or to make our women remove their hijabs
by any Act of Parliament it is offensive
to us, why then are we being forced to
participate in rib‘a? Why? So we cannot be
forced. Legally we have the right to resist an
unconstitutional law as prescribed by the
Constitution of Kenya 2010.
The Constitution of Kenya
Part II Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
32: Freedom of Conscious, Beliefs and
Opinions.
Article 1: Every person has a right to
freedom of conscious, religion, thoughts, belief
and opinion.
Artcile2: Every person has the Right either
individually or in a community with others in
private or in public to manifest any Religion
belief through worship, practise, teaching
or observance including observance of daily
worship.
Article 3: A person may not be denied access to
any institution, employment or facility or the
enjoyment of any right because of the person’s
belief or religion.
Article 4: A person shall not be compelled to
act or engage in any act that is contrary to that
person’s belief or religion.
If you look at Article 4 here by forcing us to
comply with the Banking Act and the Central
Bank of Kenya Act or the Cooperative Act
as Muslims to participate in rib‘a and in the
fractional reserve banking system we are being
compelled to engage or to act in a manner
that is contrary to our personal beliefs and
our religion therefore, for us to come together
individually and create a modern day Bait-
ul-Maal we are completely in compliant with
Article 2 which says: we have the right either
individually or as a community so we can
come together to do this, in public or in private,
publicly here to manifest any religious belief
through worship and here we are talking about
worshipping Allah by avoiding rib‘a, Practise:
by establishing a modern day Bait-ul-Maal,.
Teaching: by teaching other Muslims to come
out of rib‘a and Observance: by observing that
the Bait-ul-Maal is a religious institution.
What comes after is can force the states hand
and we say we are conservative Muslims who
want to avoid rib ‘a constitutionally, legally and
we have established this thig called the modern
day Bait-ul-Maal and this is how it works; these
are its structures, these are its safeguards and
what we want is for you to recognise this and
operationalise it for us the same way money
transfer via MPESA was legalised. Micro-
finance institutions were not encompassed
in the Banking Act you recognised them and
operationalized them. Cooperatives are held
separate from the banking system and are
deposit taking institutions; you recognised
and operationalised them in the Cooperatives
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Act. We simply want a Bait-ul-Maal Act we are
already doing this, this is how it works, now
we want you to operationalise we want you to
give us a Bait-ul-Maal Act, not just for us the
Muslims in Kenya, 300,000,000 Muslims all over
the world have this problem. If you do that you
will make Kenya the center of Muslim money,
sitting outside the so called Muslim countries.
$500B will flow to this thing by helping us obey
Allah you will become the richest country in
Africa.
Our has been a legal and constitutional process,
we done a petition, gathered signatures from
20,000 Muslims and gathered scholars to sit
down and they have done so and created the
tenants that create the modern day Bait-ul-
Maal, investors have come together for this
cause, we have operationalise it by going out
and teaching and preaching for the Muslims
to come in here all under the banner of the
Kenyan Constitution. Now every time someone
comes into the Bait-ul-Maal they sign a petition
under the Petitions Act that will presented to
Parliament and we want Parliament to take
it seriously. There is more benefit to Kenya
in fostering this than opposing it and it is the
Constitutional responsibility of the government
to protect and promote this thing.
Muslims Want Economic
Woes Urgently Addressed
By Noor Fahim
The base and the foundation of any society is
its family and within the family its children.
The Muslim family in Kenya is disintegrating
before the eyes of the Muslim leadership and
nothing is being done about it. No concerted
effort is being put into it and the situation
continues to deteriorate day after day. This
paper conducted a statistical drive covering
2,300 Muslims and examining the records from
the Kadhi’s court and the evidence is shocking.
First; whereas the Muslims only constitute
15% of the total population the number of
registered drug addicts is 75% Muslim. Only
67% of Muslims are leaving primary school and
going to high school and only 48% of Muslims
who go to high school are graduating in high
THE DAILY OBSERVER • FRIDAY EDITION
school. Among the Muslims between the age
of 22 to 30 only 21% of them are gainfully
employed.
Per capita income for the Muslim lower middle
class family in Kenya is Kshs 11,000 a month,
40% less than per capita income for all other
groups. Those are just the base of economic
statistics.
Let’s get into the family statistics.
8% of Muslim women are married and pursuing
higher education which means, the moment
a Muslim woman gets married her higher
education stops. 67% of Muslim marriages
are ending in divorce within 3 years, 73% are
ending in divorce within 4 years, only 27% of
Muslim marriages are now reaching the 10
year mark.
59% of Muslim children under the age of 15 are
being raised in single parent home. Only 19%
of divorced women are able to remarry and
9% of widows are able to remarry. The average
per capita income of a single Muslim mother
lower middle class household falls from the
average within the community to Kshs 8,000.
Signifying that most Muslim single parent
Muslim households are living in poverty. A
Muslim child raised in a single parent household
is 84% more likely not to complete primary
school and 91% more likely not to complete
high school. Only 1% of Muslim children raised
in single parent households are making it to
university.
These are the numbers within the Muslim
community in Kenya. As shocking as they may
seem it is as though these numbers are being
concealed. Why? Because how can we claim
to have Muslim leadership in Kenya if these are
the bare statistics? How can we claim that the
da’wah is being done in the mosques is effective
if this is what is coming out of it? How can we
claim that there is a Muslim community in
Kenya when this clearly indicates that the
Muslim community is falling apart?
Let us go further, only 10% of Muslim males say
that they receive doctrinal instruction from
their mosque or for that matter actually listen
and act upon the information provided to
them from the religious authorities. 34% listen
to their Muslim elected leaders as opposed to
listening to the Muslim authority.
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A3 • NEWS THE DAILY OBSERVER • FRIDAY EDITION

How Womens’ Status

Have Been Elevated By
Islam
By Khadija Ali
The pre-Islamic Arab world saw girl child as a
burden and a curse which was to be eliminated as
early as possible. Islam and its Messenger (saaw)
changed all this by restoring her respect and her
rights. Commenting on the pre-Islamic conditions
of women in Arab society, Holy Quran says:
“And when the news of (the birth of) a female
(child) is brought to any of them, his face becomes
dark, and he is filled with inward grief! He hides
himself from the people because of the evil of that
whereof he has been informed. Shall he keep her
with dishonour or bury her in the earth? Certainly,
evil is their decision.” (6:58-59)
History bears witness to the fact that baby girls
have always been neglected by their respective
societies. The ignorant people of the past and
present, wherever and whenever found, have
balked at having daughters. Poor girl children are
made to feel ‘unwanted’ and ‘unwelcome’ as soon as
any rights when it came to their occupations. And in another hadith, Prophet Muhammad (peace
they arrive in this world.
The pagan, pre-Islamic Arabs regarded the birth be upon him) said: “They (girl children) will be a
Commenting on the status of women in pre- shield for him from the Fire.” (Reported by Ahmad
of girl babies as a curse, and would bury alive girl
Islamic era, Mary Wollstonecraft says in her book, and Ibn Maajah)
children as they were seen as superfluous. The
Vindication of the Rights of Women,o that Islam
ancient Greeks did not fare any better and placed Apart from elevating the status of women and
“challenged an age when women had no legal
painstaking restrictions on their women. Today, daughters by his teachings, the Prophet offered a
standing as daughters or wives, being under the
the so-called free societies continue to abuse and living example in his own actions and behaviour - for
legal identity of their fathers and husbands” (247).
neglect woman, who is seen as little more than a example, “One day he (saaw) led his Companions in
This meant that they could not own property, enter
play thing and merely as an object of desire. Many prayer whilst carrying Umaamah bint Zaynab (ra)
into contracts, or conduct business. They had no
a horrendous crime takes place against women. when he made ‘rukoo’ he would put her down, then
representation in the government, and they could
The Messenger of Allah, Muhammad (saaw), when he stood, he would pick her up.” (Reported by
not vote. Islam changed all this. And following the
elevated the status of women and saw the girl child Al-Bukhari and Muslim)
recognition of women’s rights by Islam, rights for
women were adopted slowly in Britain, and even as a gift given of Allah. The Prophet (saaw) urged Raising children these days is not an easy job.
more slowly in France. the faithful to warmly welcome their girl children Each child needs the individual attention of both
and see them as their God’s blessings. Time and parents, and time, a most precious gift that parents
Prior to 1840’s, in the United States, women had
time again, he emphasised the importance of are sometimes unable to find for their children.
practically no political or economic rights. The
bringing up the girl children in an effort to elevate Islam makes this job easier for parents in raising
lawmakers of the time didn’t feel that women
women’s status in Islamic society and removing all girls with high moral values and a strong character.
were important enough or intelligent enough to
pre-Islamic, misguided notions about girls as being Yet ironically women’s status in Islam is attacked
do anything by themselves. In light of this view,
a curse of God. today by Western media and academics. They close
all laws concerning women were to the advantage
of men. Women were minors if not married and He once said: “Whoever takes care of two girls until their eyes to historical facts failing to realise that
seen as property if they were. Married women had they reach adulthood - he and I will come together the law of Islam is as just to women as it is to men.
no right to seek divorce; and, if divorced, had no on the Day of Resurrection like this” interlacing his This is because their Creator is Allah (swt), the Most
rights to their children. Women also didn’t have fingers (meaning fathers of girl children will be with Just.
the Prophet in paradise).” (Reported by Muslim)

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 A4 • EDITORIAL
The Similarities Between Kenyas’ Muslim Leadership And Museveni
By Ali Mbarak
The words and phrases used to describe Ugandan
dictator Yoweri Kaguta Museveni range from
intolerant, out of touch, ignorant, authoritarian,
insensitive, corrupt and lacking vision. Yet it
is the comparisons between him and Kenya’s
Muslim leadership that have stirred humor on
Did The Muslim Leadership Have A Role In The Killing Of Clerics?
By Ayub Ali
A section of Muslims is pointing finger at and
accusing the Kenyan Muslim leadership saying
that a list was complied and provided to the FBI
by Muslim leaders in 2011 and it was after this that
Muslim clerics started to be killed. Worse still it is
being alleged that the list comprised not Imams
linked to terrorism but those who opposed the
self-imposed Kenyan Muslim leadership.
Though these accusations have long been spoken
about, it is only now that members of the Muslims
community are boldly stating that the Kenyan
Muslim leadership had a hand in this affair and
that the Kenya police who are accused of forming
a death squad to carry our the executions only
came in after the Kenyan Muslims leadership
had identified which Muslim leaders they wanted
eliminated.
A damning dossier submitted by Senior Counsel
Ahmednasir Abdullahi to the Defence and Foreign
Relations committee seeking to hold former DCI
Director Ndegwa Muhoro to account for the
extra judicial killings, forced disappearances and
murders during his tenure seems to shed light on
the matter of the killing of Muslim clerics.
In the petition filed in Parliament, Ahmednasir
paints Muhoro as a corrupt man who headed an
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social media over the past
few weeks.
Muslim youth say that
the Kenyan Muslim
leadership devoid of
proper understanding
of Islam are badly
intolerant to any view
of Islam other than their
secular view where all
the tenants of Islam are
roundly abandoned
which they compare to
M7’s intolerance and
abandonment of the
principals he stood for as
a freedom fighter three
decades ago.
The youth are also
claiming that Kenya’s
Muslim leadership
appeared on the scene
about the same time
as M7 and it is no
wonder that they share
his backwardness in
adjusting opinions and to
the signs of the times.
The youth mock
the Kenyan Muslim
leaderships attachment to
“respect for our leaders”
with one comment saying “nobody appointed
them as leaders, they are self imposed and self
serving and to lead in Islam you must have
knowledge. Let them not fool themselves, reading
elimination squad within the police — claims he
has made before. “The applicant has acted with
grave impunity and disregard to the rule of law;
has utterly disregarded the provisions of the
Constitution which will render him unsuitable to
be appointed as an ambassador or fit to hold any
public office,” Ahmednassir claimed in a petition
dated Tuesday last week.
The senior counsel who has twice represented
President Uhuru Kenyatta in petitions challenging
his election claims that during his stint at the
helm, Muhoro ran a shadowy operation within
the Directorate of Criminal Investigations that
spearheaded extra-judicial killings in Kenya.
“During his tenure as the Director of Criminal
Investigations, he formed a special unit within
the DCI that undertook extra-judicial killings in
Kenya,” Ahmednassir alleges.
“He would give the final authority before his
officers undertook such exercises,” claimed the
lawyer popularly known as Grand Mullah.
But appearing before the departmental committee
on Defence and Foreign Relations chaired by
Katoo Ole Metito last week, Muhoro denied
all the allegations and accused Ahmednassir
of habouring personal vendetta against him.
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off pieces of paper on the Mimbar does not make
one knowledgeable. It just makes them appear
to be. Nowadays we are looking for authentic
leadership that realizes that Islam is what is from
Allah (swt) and not from peoples misguided
opinions.”
Many claim that the Muslim leadership in Kenya
are ignorant “their hold on the Muslims is through
Jumu’ah. They don’t know for us Islam is daily, we
need Deen nourishment daily in this tough world.
We go to the Masjid on Friday to sleep because
they have no idea what is going on in the world
and what we are facing or how badly we need real
Islam. Listen to their Khutbah’s and you realize
how ignorant they actually are.”
On authoritarianism “they oppose anything that
is purely Islamic, in fact if you push it they will
send your name to their bosses and they will use
extrajudicial force against you. They will not rest
until we are all Mushrikoon.”
On insensitivity “look at how many poor Muslims
are just in Eastleigh or Majengo and then they are
talking about how things are getting better for
the Muslims in Kenya.”
On corruption the most glaring comment was
“who does not know that they have made money
from selling their Deen for a small price, by making
haraam - halaal only they and their puppets don’t
know this. They thrive on corruption and their
food and clothing is all haraam.”
On their lack of vision “other than leading
everyone of us into kufr, what is their vision?”
It is now not uncommon to see Kenya’s Muslim
leadership referred to on social media as the
Museveni Gang or the M7 - Muslims.
“Honourable chair, we live in a society where
one is treated innocent until proven guilty. The
person accusing me has never reported anything
at the courts, he only operates on social media so
his allegations are unsubstantiated,” Muhoro told
the committee.
Yesterday Muhoro insisted that he was being
accused falsely. “If he has evidence of those
allegations let him go to court,” said the former
CID boss.
But in an astounding accusation, Ahmednassir
claims ‘its a known fact’ that Muhoro authorised
the brutal murder of Muslim clerics in Nairobi,
North Eastern and at the Coast. He cities reports
from rights groups, including Haki Africa, Muhuri
Kenya and Amnesty International. A 2016 report
by Haki Africa, a Coast human rights group
squarely blamed Kenya’s anti-terror police, a unit
within the DCI, for eliminating at least 81 mainly
Muslim terror suspects since 2012. They include
radical preacher Aboud Rogo, who was gunned
down on August 2012, and his comrade Sheikh
Abubakar Shariff “Makaburi”, felled two years
later on 6 April 2014. “All these events captured in
the report were during the applicant’s [Muhoro]
tenure and done under his watch,” the petition
reads in part.
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