Muslims in Malawi have condemned the removal of a billboard that promoted reading the Holy Qur’an in the country’s second-largest city, Blantyre.
The billboard which was erected in Maselema by the Islamic Information Bureau summoned Christians to read the Qur’an after studying the Bible. Its message read, ” You have read the old testament, New testament and Now read Qur’an, The Ultimate Miracle.
It did not sit well with the Evangelical Association of Malawi, which called for the removal of the billboard saying its message was offensive.
The scrapping down of the billboard drew massive criticism from the Muslim community and forced the Blantyre City Council to restore the signage.
However, the restored billboard came up with a new message. It was written, ”Read Qur’an, The Ultimate Miracle”. Some Muslims threatened to take to the streets and called on the city to bing back the original banner.
The Muslim Association of Malawi defended the erection of the new billboard saying the altered message serves the same purpose.
“The main aim of the message was to ask people to read Qur’an which is exactly the same thing with the new message. If it has been that the BCC refused to restore the billboard in its entirety, then as MAM we would still have issues”.
Malawi’s Ministry of Civic Education and Unity has since asked Blantyre city council to apologise to both the Muslims and Christians over the billboard issue.
