This happened in August 2015 and it is good to see. Let’s hope it does some good. A conference of Sufi Muslims resolved to promote “tolerance and co-existence between the followers of Islam and Christianity.”

Three-hundred Islamic scholars and imams from Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo pledged to “join their respective governments in weeding out extremism.”

The group, part of a two-day International Sufi Conference in Kenya, said extremist Wahabi doctrine – emanating from Saudi Arabia – had hijacked Islam, and they had underestimated its appeal.

The imams and scholars issued a fatwa against the Islamist terror group Al Shabaab and its underlying Wahabist philosophy.

In a statement, the group denounced violence, murder, destruction and expulsion of Muslims and non-Musims , even when there is a difference of opinion and religion.

They specifically resolved to promote “tolerance and co-existence between the followers of Islam and Christianity.”

A Somali scholar based in the U.S. urged Muslims in Africa to work with their governments to defeat Al Shabaab and other extremists.

“Islam is utterly against extremism and terrorism and we are gathered here to chart the way forward in dismantling and deconstructing all ideas of extremism propagated by groups purporting to be fighting in the name of Islam,” Dr Mohamud Elmi said.