Uganda: Muslims screaming ‘Allahu akbar’ assault evangelist, threaten to kill Christians ‘in the cause of Allah’

“We cannot allow you to preach in this town or come and mislead our people here,” said the sheikh.

The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law. It’s based on the Qur’an: “They wish you would disbelieve as they disbelieved so you would be alike. So do not take from among them allies until they emigrate for the cause of Allah. But if they turn away, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them and take not from among them any ally or helper.” (Qur’an 4:89)

A hadith depicts Muhammad saying: “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him” (Bukhari 9.84.57). The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence.

This is still the position of all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence, both Sunni and Shi’ite. Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who before his death in 2022 was the most renowned and prominent Muslim cleric in the world, once stated: “The Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be punished, yet they differ as to determining the kind of punishment to be inflicted upon them. The majority of them, including the four main schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, and Hanbali) as well as the other four schools of jurisprudence (the four Shiite schools of Az-Zaidiyyah, Al-Ithna-‘ashriyyah, Al-Ja’fariyyah, and Az-Zaheriyyah) agree that apostates must be executed.”

Qaradawi also once famously said: “If they had gotten rid of the apostasy punishment, Islam wouldn’t exist today.”

“Evangelist, other Christians in Uganda Assaulted,” Morning Star News, August 23, 2023:

NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – Hard-line Muslims at an open-air evangelistic event in eastern Uganda on Aug. 11 assaulted a preacher and more than 20 other Christians for his teaching about Christ’s divinity, sources said.

Robert Faisali Miya, a 34-year-old father of four, was also struck with a thorny object and stomped on during the event in Busolwe, 236 kilometers (147 miles) northeast of Kampala, an eyewitness said.

On the third day of a five-day event planned by an undisclosed church from another town, Miya cited passages from the Koran as examples that acknowledge the uniqueness of Christ, and said the Bible affirms His uniqueness as the Son of God who grants forgiveness by virtue of His death and resurrection.

Muslims began chanting the jihadist slogan, “Allah Akbar [God is greater],” and a Muslim leader known in the area to be hard-line sheikh, Hiisa Mubaraka, rushed to the podium and pulled the evangelist down, said the eyewitness.

“Others were saying that Allah has granted to them authority to kill all infidels,” the source told Morning Star News. “Another Muslim sprayed what looked like acid, while another hit him with a thorny object and stepped on the evangelist’s back and the stomach.”

The sheikh continued shouting loudly that “infidels” could not be allowed to influence area Muslims, said the source, whose identity is withheld for security reasons.

“We cannot allow you to preach in this town or come and mislead our people here,” Mubaraka said, according to the eyewitness. “We are going to fight in the cause of Allah to kill all of you.”

He also told the approximately 20 Muslims in attendance to destroy church properties, the source said.

Christians who tried to rescue the evangelist were injured as Muslims beat them and Miya with walking sticks, while other Muslims damaged the podium, loudspeakers, microphones, public address system and keyboard, the source said….

Uganda’s constitution and other laws provide for religious freedom, including the right to propagate one’s faith and convert from one faith to another. Muslims make up no more than 12 percent of Uganda’s population, with high concentrations in eastern areas of the country.