Sheigh Elyasi, Buhoro Burundi

Sheigh Elyasi is a revert to Islam and went by the name Hakizamana Leons. He was a member and a priest of the Roman Catholic church. He then later on embraced Islam 17 years ago, ± in 2004. He began following Islam and started learning under different Imams.

After gaining substantial knowledge, he began using this knowledge to educate some of the people from his previous church about the ways of Islam. He then went from Mabay to Buhoro, and tried earnestly to get 950 people to embrace Islam as well. When he reached Buhoro, he managed to get 100 more people to embrace Islam as well, but they left shortly after and went back to their Roman Catholic roots, as they were not receiving support from the Muslims.

It wasn’t easy for him, as he had to rent a very small room to use as a masjid for 4 years, then requested the help of everyone to and purchase a land to build a masjid, and was greatly assisted by the Muslims of Rugombo, and on the 11^th of December, 2013, was finally to obtain the land. They started building the masjid with Saudi funding and after 6 weeks, it was completed. It is currently serving 45 families, ± 100 adults and 35 children, of which 25 are orphans