[1][2] Islam has a long presence on the islands, with archeological findings dating back to the 10th century, and has been an intrinsic part in shaping mercantile and maritime Swahili culture in Zanzibar as well as along the East African coast.
[5] Despite these different trajectories Islam has worked as unifying force, through which a mercantile, cosmopolitan and urban Swahili culture was formed in relation to the African hinterlands.
[6] This often meant that ancestral roots were placed outside Africa, with groups stressing shirazi origin of Persia[7] and with Zanzibar becoming a central location for the Omani sultanate in the 1800s also of Arab descent.
Sufi brotherhoods grew in influence during the 19th Century in relation to increased movements and flows of migrants during a time when the archipelago was a cultural, commercial and religious center along the Swahili coast.
[11] The latter are characterized by engagement in da'wa (mission) in order to revive Islam while criticizing the impact on local and traditional customs (mila) on Muslim practices on the Archipelago.
For Shia Bohras, links to India remain important and are manifested in for instance marriage practices aimed at maintaining Asian identity.
[16] Uamsho was from the start critical towards the political party of Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM), accusing the government of restricting Muslim rights and corrupting Zanzibar by its inability to uphold moral order in society.