Mufti Mubaje clashes with faithful during Idd prayers

Drama ensued Wednesday morning at Gaddafi National Mosque at Old Kampala as the Mufti of Uganda led Idd-ul-Fitr prayers.  
Halfway through his address,  Sheikh Shaban Mubaje was heckled by unknown individuals attending prayers  within the mosque. 

The heckling was so loud that he was forced to briefly stop his address and instead call for calm. 
“Those who are shouting, please can you go out. Those who are shouting...security…can you tell those who are shouting to go out if they don’t want to pray,” Mufti Mubaje said. 

The hecklers refused to tone down and shouted even louder. 
Left without a choice, the Muslim leader continued speaking amid the noise with his messages now getting drowned in the background.  
Realising the tension was not going down, he once again stopped his speech and asked the unruly hecklers to observe peace. 
“Please, can you sit down?, Peaceful Muslims, sit down. Muslims who want peace, those who came to pray, sit down,” Mufti said, repeating his statements twice. 
Calmness was restored two minutes later before the Eid prayers commenced again. 

The incident comes amid tension between rival factions within the country’s top Muslim leadership with Sheikh Abdallah Ssemambo currently serving as the parallel Mufti of Uganda. There are also additional claims of a section of Muslims unhappy with Mufti Mubaje for reportedly overseeing the sale of their prime properties. 
Some sources who manage affairs at the mosque told Monitor on condition of anonymity that the heckling came from those disgruntled with Mufti Mubaje’s leadership. 
In January, Mufti Mubaje urged Muslims to ignore the noise from individuals he called saboteurs who were jealous of the achievements attained under his leadership.  

Before the mumbling began, Mufti Mubaje had earlier commended all sheikhs who had been educating people during the Holy Month of Ramadan on how to best perform their prayers and benefit from their fasting. 
“May Allah reward them abundantly. I mean those who are faithful even when it comes to social media because some fake sheikhs have been providing misguiding fatwas [formal ruling on a point of Islamic law given by a qualified legal scholar] on the same,” Mufti Mubaje said. 
He also urged Muslims to embrace the Parish Development Model (PDM), an ongoing government intervention for wealth creation, as well as remain united and God-fearing even after Ramadhan.

Amid the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has captured global attention and has claimed thousands of lives and properties over an ongoing fight over land and a fight for supremacy, Mufti Mubaje requested the Ugandan government to issue a response on the matter.

“We request our government to come out with a position on the situation on the status of those brothers and sisters who are suffering because this is not against the Palestinians and Israelis but this is a war against humanity. When it comes to massacring children, the elderly, and women, this is not a matter of war but genocide,” Mufti Mubaje said.