A controversial Tanzanian Muslim cleric has been arrested for stoking religious hatred, police have said.

Sheikh Ponda Issa Ponda's arrest comes after Muslim protesters vandalised and torched five churches in the main city, Dar es Salaam, last week.

The violence followed rumours that a Christian boy urinated on a Koran.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Police/Fire • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Africa • Tanzania • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Islam

Archbishop Valentino Mokiwa has urged a leading candidate for president to promise to return to the church mission schools nationalized by the government.

Speaking at a school fundraising event on 24 Oct 2011 in Dar es Salaam, Dr. Mokiwa asked Edward Lowassa MP to return the schools if he wins the presidency. Elections are scheduled in the east African nation in 2015 to succeed President Jakaya Kikwete. While Mr. Lowassa has not formally announced his candidacy, he is considered a front runner for the post.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Tanzania • * Culture-Watch • Education • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Africa • Tanzania

Influential Muslims on this East African island have begun building what appears to be a hotel on a 100-year-old burial site owned by an Anglican church, Christian leaders said.

Church leaders with ownership papers for the land told Compass they are disturbed that authorities have taken no action since they filed a police complaint in December about the seizure of the burial site three kilometers (nearly two miles) from Zanzibar city’s airport. Tanzania’s Zanzibar archipelago, including the largest island of Zanzibar (officially known as Unguja), is 99.9 percent Muslim.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Tanzania • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Africa • Tanzania • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Islam • Muslim-Christian relations

In a joint statement issued after a "Consultation of Bishops in Dialogue" meeting held in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania the church leaders said they had shared testimonies about partnership mission work. Through this a common thread had emerged "our experience of finding ourselves in each other."

"Across the globe, across the Communion, we actually really need one another," the bishops' statement said. "We are stronger in relationship than when we are apart. This, we believe, is a work of engaging in Communion building rather than Communion breaking. In the words of the Toronto Congress of 1963 we are engaged in living in 'mutual responsibility and interdependence' (Ephesians 2:13-22)".

The bishops hailed from Sudan, Botswana, Malawi, Burundi, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Canada, the United States and England. They met at the end of February as a group of partner pairs and triads and discussed a range of issues including human sexuality, slavery and tackling poverty.

Read it all.

Update: An ENS article appears here also.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Burundi • Anglican Church of Canada • Anglican Church of Kenya • Anglican Church of Tanzania • Church of England (CoE) • Episcopal Church (TEC) • Lambeth 2008 • * International News & Commentary • Africa • Kenya • Tanzania

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT) has distanced itself from the recognition of same-sex marriages by Lutheran churches in the US and Sweden.

The head of the ELCT, Bishop Alex Malasusa, said during his Easter Mass sermon at the Azania Front Church in Dar es Salaam that the local church did not support the decision because it was against God's word.

He said Lutheran churches in the US and Sweden had strayed from the Scriptures, and it was up to Africa to bring them back into line.

"ELCT has refused to recognise the decision to allow same-sex marriages because it is against the Holy Bible. It is in direct contravention of God's word, which has not changed," Bishop Malasusa said.

Read the whole article.

Filed under: * International News & Commentary • Africa • Tanzania • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Lutheran • Sexuality Debate (Other denominations and faiths)