They Cry in Silence Sep/Oct 2013
It is well known that Christians are being viciously persecuted in countries with Muslim majorities. Now, however, Muslim violence is spreading to areas where Christians are the majority, such as Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda—countries that have welcomed missionaries and Bible translators for years.
According to the Voice of the Martyrs (VOM), Islamists are “pouring resources into east Africa, radicalizing the Muslim population with an objective to drive Christians out. The effect has been three years of ever increasing attacks against Christians.”
VOM reported that in Kampala, Uganda, where more than half the population attends evangelical churches, Islamists are vowing to finish what they started when they tried to kill Senior Pastor Umar Mulinde of Gospel Life Church International. Shouting “Allahu Akbar” (“Allah is great”), they threw acid on him last year, nearly destroying his entire face. He is recovering from facial reconstruction in Israel at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer near Tel Aviv, according to Morning Star News (MorningStarNews.org). Mulinde left Islam for Christianity, an offense Muslims punish with death.
Pastor Mulinde wrote to Morning Star News from Israel, where he has had six operations so far: “Acid damaged my face beyond what we had initially thought, causing a very terrible wound, nearly cutting off my head, right eye, ear, nose and causing serious deforming scars; but praise God that He helped me to get good medication and prayers of the saints worldwide, otherwise I almost died.”
The father of six still faces a long road ahead with many more complex surgeries. “During his hospital stay,” reported Morning Star News, “Mulinde’s wife and twin 4-year-old boys have been with him in Israel, while a family friend cares for his older children in Uganda.”
“We still need provision for the two adult caretakers of our children, school tuition for all our six children, daily upkeep of our family in Africa and Israel, prescribed medication for my treatment and grace of God to overcome the remaining treatment period and the emotional pain involved,” he told the news agency.
Mulinde has been an outspoken critic of Sharia (Islamic law) courts in Uganda, a nation that is said to be 85 percent Christian.
Morning Star News also filed a report about Aisha Logose Jenifer, 45, who lives in Uganda and turned to Christ from Islam. When her husband discovered she was a Christian, he tried to strangle her and beat her so badly she was hospitalized.
“The youngest three of her children are staying with her at the home of an elder of her Pentecostal Assemblies of God Church under Pastor Olupot Pison,” Morning Star News said. She is still extremely ill and Muslims are not allowing her to see her older four children.
In Kenya, Al Shabaab has been terrorizing the country, which is nearly 83 percent Christian. Members of the terrorist organization based in Somalia threw an explosive into an evangelical service in June, seriously injuring 17 people, including a 10-year-old boy, according to International Christian Concern (ICC). One pastor is in critical condition with two broken legs, and another pastor sustained serious hand and neck injuries.
In Tanzania, wrote ICC, “Churches have been bombed, pastors have been murdered and Christian girls have been targeted for brutal attacks.” Radical Muslims are growing in numbers and in one church set fire to the chairs, musical equipment, and Bibles.
In an attempt to force obedience to Allah, Islam reaches even to the West. Raymond Ibrahim, an expert on Islam with the David Horowitz Freedom Center, reported recently that a 43-year-old former Muslim from Iran who has embraced Christianity was found murdered in Holland, where he was living.
According to the world watch list, 11 countries are severely persecuting Christians, North Korea being the worst, followed by Saudi Arabia; and 12 more are inflicting “moderate” persecution. With persecution spreading so rapidly, more people now agree it’s only a matter of time before it reaches America.
