''Nobody died in a mosque,'' said Ramadhani Rugema, executive secretary of the Muslim Association of Rwanda. ''No Muslim wanted any other Muslim to die. We stood up to the militias. And we helped many non-Muslims get away.''

Mr. Rugema, a Tutsi, said he owed his life to a Muslim stranger who hid him in his home when members of the Interahamwe militia were pursuing him.

Mr. Rugema said two imams had been arrested outside Kigali on charges of taking part in the massacre. But both were released within about two years for lack of evidence. ''We are proud of how Islam emerged from the genocide,'' he said.

For all the gains Islam has made, no one is suggesting that it is about to supplant Christianity as the country's leading religion. Catholicism, which arrived in the late 19th century with the White Fathers order of the Roman Catholic Church, remains deeply embedded in the culture.

On Palm Sunday, worshipers on their way home from Mass lined the roadways throughout Rwanda with fronds in their hands. They included people like Mediatrice Mukarutabana, who survived a massacre in her church that she says has made her even more observant now.

''God saved me,'' she said after the morning Mass at St. Francis Xavier Church in eastern Rwanda. ''He was testing my faith. Since the genocide I've been transformed. I can endure more now. I have more of a connection with God.''

Ms. Mukarutabana's church has a new pastor as well. The one who was there during 1994, a Spanish priest, tried to persuade the attacking militias to spare his congregation. He even offered them money if they would go away. But the militias would not relent.