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 religionRoman 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