Uganda Muslims Torch House Christian Widow

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

(Worthy News) – Muslim hardliners in eastern Uganda have reportedly torched the home of a Christian mother of five whose husband was already beheaded for his faith in Christ.

Widow Kanifa Namulondo said in published remarks that “Muslim extremists” burned down her house in the town of Kaliro in Kaliro District on May 2.

The attack happened after she recently returned with her children to the home from where she fled in 2015 when her husband was killed for abandoning Islam and converting to Christianity.

Friends had helped reconstruct the house, and the family moved into it on April 25, Christian news agency Morning Star News reported.

There was an unusually early call for Muslim morning prayers at 3:30 a.m. on May 2, said Namulondo, who left Islam for Christianity in 2015.

“At around 4 o’clock [in the morning], I heard people talking near the door,” Namulondo was quoted as saying. “One of them said, ‘The husband betrayed our religion. We should do away with the entire family.’”

ESCAPING AGAIN

She woke up her children and escaped out the back of the house, broke into a neighbor’s home, and hid in the bathroom, she said. Soon her house was in flames, waking neighbors whose cries caused the assailants to flee, Christians said.

At about 6 a.m., neighbors reportedly found Namulondo and her children locked inside the bathroom at the home of Musana Kyakwita, who operated a garage workshop with her late husband. Her foot was injured from thorns.

Kyakwita told Morning Star News that Namulondo and her children live in great fear in temporary quarters outside of Kaliro and must relocate far away, again.

The assault was the latest of many reported instances of persecution of Christians in Uganda.

Christians said the country’s constitution and other laws provide for religious freedom, including the right to evangelize and convert from one faith to another. But in practice, devoted Christians face several Muslim opposition groups in several parts of the African nation, Worthy News established.

Muslims comprise roughly 12 percent of Uganda’s population, with higher concentrations in eastern areas of the country where Christians are attacked.

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