Rwandans learned about the "love" of Christianity during the genocide, and our now converting to Islam:



Rwanda is predominantly a Catholic country but Islam is the fastest growing religion. Following the 1994 genocide many Rwandans lost faith in their religion because they were disgusted by the role that some priests and nuns played in the killing frenzy.

There are so many converts that there has been a crash campaign to build new mosques, 500 of which are scattered throughout Rwanda - about double the number of a decade ago. Muslim leaders credit the gains to their shielding most Muslims, and many other Rwandans, from certain death during the massacres.

Hutu Muslims did not co-operate with the Hutu killers. They said they felt far more connected through religion than through ethnicity, and Muslim Tutsi were spared.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/04/07/1081326787630.html




When 800,000 of their countrymen were killed in massacres that began 10 years ago this week, many Rwandans lost faith not only in their government but in their religion as well. Today, in what is still a predominantly Catholic country, Islam is the fastest growing religion.

Roman Catholicism has been the dominant faith in Rwanda for more than a century. But many people, disgusted by the role that some priests and nuns played in the killing frenzy, have shunned organized religion altogether, and many more have turned to Islam.

''People died in my old church, and the pastor helped the killers,'' said Yakobo Djuma Nzeyimana, 21, who became a Muslim in 1996. ''I couldn't go back and pray there. I had to find something else.''

Wearing a black prayer cap, Mr. Nzeyimana was one of nearly 2,000 worshipers at the Masdjid Al Fat'h last Friday. The crowd was so large that some Muslims set their prayer mats on the dirt outside the mosque and prayed in the midday heat.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/07/world/since-94-horror-rwandans-turn-toward-islam.html