When Raila Odinga and an obscure group of Islamic clerics sat down to put pen to paper on what remains an unknown agreement, Kenya's Muslims were already under siege. Under siege because they perceive themselves (rightly) a minority in a country where Christianity is taking on an increasingly strident stance and more where the gentler saner brand of Christianity is being overtaken by a newer brand, one that is aggressive, charismatic, hypnotic and proselytising. At the same time, Islam on a global scale is much maligned; the war on terror is portrayed increasingly in the media and global politics as a battle between Christianity and Islam. That this friction exists was clearly visible when a large, if unacknowledged, number of Kenyan Christians were provoked into rejecting the government pushed draft constitution out of a fear that it would cede greater juridic autonomy to Kenyan Muslims.

The signatories to this mysterious pact were fully aware of its consequences and of the possibile reaction when it was leaked to the public. This indeed is the reason why the ODM candidate has proved most coy about admitting to have signed the pact. With this knowledge in hand, it is most irresponsible of him not to make public whatever deal he made with the leaders of NAMLEF. The deal in its entirety may be completely innocuous; perhaps even merely an affirmation that an ODM government would uphold the Bill of Rights for Kenyan Muslims as it would for other Kenyans, but while NAMLEF and Raila Odinga fiddle, Kenya smoulders and soon she may burn. In politics, perception is nine-tenths of the facts.

In the absence of public knowledge on the details of this deal, wild minds like my acquaintances' will run free, unfettered and happy to finally discover an opportunity to exhibit the latent bigotry in them that was itching for an outlet. So while the predictable backlash from Muslims observing such bigotry ,as I did, serves to lash Muslim votes to the ODM's mast, while Raila's deal may take him closer to State House, a lasting impression of Kenyan Muslims as a perfidious fifth element, the kind that will do selfish midnight deals, is cemented in Kenya's politics.

 I have wracked my mind a long while and thought what Kenyan Muslims could possibly want that they must ask in a secret pact, what do they want so badly that are sure the Kenyan people as a whole cannot in public grant them? What is it that only a secret, illicit contract can do for them that is unattainable otherwise, and would such a deal be possible in law? Would such gains outlast a Raila government?

So it is that Muslims may win a short term victory with Raila going to State House, but the truth is that in the long term, the majority of Kenyans are not Muslims and given the global climate, the heat on Muslims is likely to continue rising. It is therefore imperative that we realise this truth, that the global politics of the present day demands of us Muslims the most exacting standards for our politics, that we make no moves that would confirm the stereotype pushed by the global media of Islam as a Trojan horse, seeking to convert the world and establish a global caliphate. These ideas are not just confined to lunatics in Europe and the United States, those who wrote and distributed the fake MoU seemed very aware of these slurs, and of the public's aversion to the ideas they carry. The fake and calumnious document was designed to play on these fears, to stoke those embers of hatred, which are further fanned by the new breed of church leader, urged on by his fundamentalist American funding.

Groups like SUPKEM which are properly charged with representing Kenyan Islam must come out and speak clearly against such shadowy agreements, whatever their contents. Every Muslim must be vocal in demanding better rights, equal treatment and the cessation of state discrimination but we cannot do this as Muslims. We must do it as Kenyans. We must do this in the same public forums as other Kenyan groups do it, in the courts and in the media, through political parties and government agencies whether local or national. On clandestine deals with unknown consequences we must say loud and clear, ‘not in our name!'

The Kenyan state it is true is not a Christian one, but then neither is it Islamic, animistic or Hindu. Instead, our political custom dictates that we separate religion from public service, and that the state accord religions equal treatment without fear or favour. Even if he won the election, while Raila basks in the glory of the sun, the socio-political situation will result in Kenyan Muslims eating from the grapes of wrath for a long time to come.