Muslims move into mainstream in Rwanda

Muslims did take part in the genocide. Several are on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, including the journalist Ngeze Hassan. "There are also Muslims in prisons inside the country," says Rutayisire, who has worked closely with Habimana on issues of reconciliation on theNational Unity and Reconciliation Commission."If there are fewer Muslims accused of murder and killings, it is not because they were better, it is simply because they were already a small number in the population," continues Rutayisire. 'It is all a matter of proportions."

For Rutayisire, forgiveness is not an option. Forgiveness is an obligation. "We need to forgive if we are going to build a better nation." Some feel they are being forced to forgive what is beyond human comprehension, to make sacrifices for the country where victims and perpetrators live side by side.

Forgiveness is the ability to free oneself from the dependence on another and in this case the perpetrator of the genocide. "If you hate someone, you constantly think about his inhumanity," says Dr Naasson Munyandamutsa, who won the 2011 Prize of Geneva for Human Rights in Psychiatry, and is credited for placing psychiatry at the 'nucleus of public health'. "If you do that, you remain in his grip and cannot escape to shape your life. Neither Muslims nor Christians advocate revenge. Revenge is a trap for resilience. How do individuals give meaning to things again? How do you deal with the unspeakable and reorganise your internal world?"

The genocide ended when current president Paul Kagame entered Rwanda in 1994 with his Tutsi rebel forces, the country in ruins. In 1995 at an Eid el Fitr ceremony, President of Rwanda, Pasteur Bizimungu, thanked the Muslim community. Sheikh Ahmad was present.

On the surface, eighteen years later, Kigali runs like a city on the up. Cafes serve good coffee and fill up with sleek urbanites forging ahead in line with the president's Vision 2020 to make Rwanda a corruption-free, gender equal, private sector-led economy. Except on the anniversary of the beginning of the genocide.

While the memories and memorials of the holocaust are never far away, on April 6th and 7^th, silent screams echo through the streets, and the horror, grief, sadness, is etched on people's faces.

While there are many criticisms about constraints on political expression in Rwanda, Habimana says that since the help of the Muslim community was officially acknowledged, Muslims have been treated like other Rwandans. "When we go for jobs, we get them. We have been able to translate the Holy Koran from Arabic to Kinyarwanda, We no longer call each other bad names."

Public discourse discourages the use of Hutu and Tutsi terminology in the hope that the process of being Rwandan will be ultimately be internalised. In Rwanda they say there is peace, but not yet reconciliation.