Kassim Segawa prayed inside his local mosque near Uganda's capital but, instead of being in the company of scores of the faithful, on this day he was alone.
A crackdown by Ugandan police on suspected Islamic extremists has sent a current of fear through the Islamic community, especially in the Masjid Taqwa mosque whose imam — a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner — was recently arrested.
"I am a brave man to come here to pray today," said Segawa after he rose from the carpets and mats on the floor of the Masjid Taqwa mosque, a nondescript building on the edge of a slum, stepped outside and slid the lone pair of sandals onto his feet. "We are living with a lot of fear these days."
The crackdown was precipitated by the murder on March 30 of a top Ugandan prosecutor who was the lead prosecutor in the case of a dozen men accused of bombing two sites where soccer fans had gathered to watch the 2010 World Cup final. Al-Shabab, the Somali Islamic extremist group, claimed responsibility for that attack which killed at least 70 people. Read more
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