Ugandan Muslims crowded into the main mosque in Kampala today, to eulogize and pray for mass-murdering, genocidal cannibal Idi Amin—their “dear one:” Ugandans pray for Amin. (Hat tip: Seth.)

“To say that Amin was the worst criminal, is to misrepresent the facts,” a speaker said, reacting to government officials, whose eulogy he said was “un-African,” a reference to the tradition never to speak ill of the dead. …

“No body will make us waiver from the fact that Amin did a number of good things for the country,” opposition politician Hussein Kyanjo told the gathering that included Amin’s children, relatives and some government officials.

Kyanjo asked government officials to give “Muslims a break to mourn their dear one, Idi Amin,” whom they said donated the land on which the mosque stood and who founded the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) - the highest organ of the Muslim faith in Uganda.

Islamic cleric Haruna Sengooba asked the government to allow them to observe annual prayers on August 17 in remembrance of Amin’s death.

“So many of us came here as a testimony to show that in spite of what is said, Amin worked for this country.

“We challenge those castigating him to show the world the skulls of those he killed, like we have been shown the skulls of those killed after him,” UMSC religious affairs secretary Mahad Kakooza said.

Amin’s former education minister Abu Mayanja described the late former leader as a person who had “a lot of interest and vision for Uganda,” saying his first government after he seized power in 1971 was full of professionals and that it had never been equalled in Ugandan history after him.

“God should judge him according to the limitations that existed during his time and the circumstances he worked under,” Mayanja, who has also served in the current government, said, asking: “Who had counted and documented the people Amin had killed?”