According to the 2013 National Census, Islam in Uganda was practised by 13.7 percent of the population. The Pew Research Center in 2014, however, estimated that 11.5 percent of Ugandans were Muslim, compared to 35.2 percent of Tanzanians, 9.7 percent of Kenyans, 6.2 percent of South Sudanese, 2.8 percent of Burundians, and 1.8 percent of Rwandans. The vast majority of Muslims in Uganda are Sunni. Small Shia and Ahmadi minorities are also present. The Iganga District in the east of Uganda had the highest percentage of Muslims according to a 2009 published report.
19th century
Islam had arrived in Uganda from the north and through inland networks of the East Africancoastal trade by the mid-nineteenth century. Some Baganda Muslims trace their family's conversion to the period in which KabakaMutesa Iconverted to Islam in the nineteenth century. Islam entered Uganda through the Buganda route in the 1840s and the northern Uganda route through the Turko- Egyptian influences. Kasozi, gives 1844 as the year when the first Muslim Arab trader; Ahmed bin Ibrahim reached the King's court in Buganda.
When Idi Amin, a Ugandan Muslim, became president in 1971, his presidency seemed to be a victory for Uganda's Muslim community. Then in 1972, Amin's expulsion of Asians from Uganda reduced the Muslim population significantly. As his administration deteriorated into a brutal and unsuccessful regime, Uganda's Muslims began to distance themselves from those in power. After Amin's overthrow in 1979, Muslims became the victims of the backlash that was directed primarily against the Kakwa and Nubianethnic groups who had supported Amin. Yusuf Lule, who served a brief term as president from 1979 to 1980, was also a Muslim. He was not a skillful politician, but he was successful in reducing the public stigma attached to Islam. In 1989, President Yoweri Museveni appealed to Uganda's Muslim community to contribute to national reconstruction, and he warned other Ugandans not to discriminate against Muslims. But at the same time, Museveni admonished Ugandans to avoid "sectarian" allegiances, and this warning was directed at the Islamic community as well as other ethnic and religious groups. The Islamic University in Uganda is one of Uganda's institutes of Islamic teaching. It is located in Mbale in the foothills of Mount Elgon.
2002 census
The 2002 national census recorded that Muslims represented 12.1 percent of the population.
Region
% Muslim
Central
18.4%
Eastern
17.0%
Northern
8.5%
Western
4.5%
Total
12.1%
Geographical distribution
is the only district with a Muslim-majority. Muslims form a significant minority in the districts of Mayuge and Iganga.
