Christian converts nearly killed in Uganda for leaving Islam: 'We survived by the grace of Jesus'

By Morning Star News, Monday, December 19, 2022

Saint John's Church in Entebbe, Wakiso District, Uganda. | M.Torres/Getty Images

NAIROBI, Kenya — Muslim extremists in central Uganda lured a Christian teacher to his home by forcing his wife to call and tell him she was ill, then the intruders beat him and his son, the father said.

Abdu Muyinga and his young adult son, Hamisi Sentongo, are nursing injuries after Muslims upset with their conversion to Christianity beat them on Dec. 10 in Busunju Town Council, Mityana District.

“We were attacked and beaten because of leaving Islam, as the sharia [Islamic law] instructs Muslims to kill anyone who leaves Islam,” Muyinga said. “We survived being killed by the grace of the Lord Jesus.”

He and his son left their home at about 8 p.m. for an all-night prayer vigil in Kyanuna village. Seven Muslim extremists went to his home at about 10 p.m. and, not finding them there, learned from his wife that they had gone to the prayer vigil.

“They forced her to make a telephone call indicating that she was seriously ill,” Muyinga told Morning Star News.

As they hurried home, they saw three men standing in the middle of the Busunju-Mityana road dressed in white clothes. At first Muyinga thought that they were traffic police, he said.

“I stopped, and one hit me with a stick on my shoulder, the back, the head and left leg, and I fell unconscious,” he said. “My son sustained slight injuries in the mouth, and his right wrist and hand suffered a fracture, making it very stiff. The attackers left us half-dead and half-naked.”

Five motorcyclists traveling together found them and took them to a medical clinic, where Muyinga regained consciousness, he said. He added that his son was able to recognize one of the assailants, a resident of Kakiri in Wakiso District.

“After converting to Christianity, the story about our conversion circulated countrywide, and five days later, I started receiving threatening messages on my phone of risking being killed for leaving Islam,” he said. “Please pray for us, for God to heal us quickly to enable us look for where to go.”

The attack was the latest of many instances of persecution of Christians in Uganda that Morning Star News has documented.

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% of Uganda’s population, with high concentrations in eastern areas of the country.

Morning Star News is the only independent news service focusing exclusively on the persecution of Christians. The nonprofit's mission is to provide complete, reliable, even-handed news in order to empower those in the free world to help persecuted Christians, and to encourage persecuted Christians by informing them that they are not alone in their suffering.