By Michael Ireland, Senior Reporter, ASSIST News Service, www.assistnews.net
NAIROBI, KENYA, (ANS, February 10, 2016) –
An imam who threatened a convert from Islam in eastern Uganda has been
arrested in connection with the killing of a 28-year-old Christian.
According to the East Africa Correspondent for Morning Star News (www.morningstarnews.org)
Laurence Maiso’s body was found at his house, his head in a pool of
blood, on Jan. 27 at around 5 p.m. in Numuseru village, Naboa Sub-County
in Budaka District.
Four
days earlier, Imam Kamulali Hussein had met him and his wife on a local
road. According to Maiso’s wife, the imam told him, “You have refused
to join us. Do you know that Allah does not want us to have a kafir
[infidel] neighbor? And you should know that Allah is about to send to
you the Angel of Death in your house. Please prepare to meet him at any
time.”
Four
days later, Maiso’s wife went to see a friend in nearby Lupada village.
She returned to find her husband dead on the floor. Her cries brought
several neighbors to the house.
Morning
Star News reports that police rushed to the site, and the next day they
arrested Hussein, well-known in the area and dubbed “the malaria of
Christianity,” at Nampangalle village. The case is registered at Naboa
police post with a reference number of CRB Ref: 28/2016.
“We
found the villagers at the scene of the incident, and immediately we
removed the body from the house and took it to the police station, then
to the mortuary in Budaka,” said a police officer who requested his name
be withheld. “The following day we carried out an intensive search, and
from a lead from a villager we managed to arrest Hussein at Nampangalle
village. We took him to Chief Magistrate Three at Kalaki court, and he
was later remanded to Kamuge prison in Palissa District.”
Morning Star News reports the officer said police were still looking for other suspects as they interrogated Hussein.
According
to Morning Star News, Maiso lived in a predominantly Muslim area. On
several occasions Muslims had confronted him, demanding that he recant
his Christian faith, but he remained firm and continued as a member of
the Naboa Church of Uganda.
A
neighbor told Morning Star News that on the day of the murder, Jan. 27,
she saw eight men including Hussein, coming out of Maiso’s house at 4
p.m., and that some of them were dressed in traditional Islamic attire.
Another neighbor said he spotted Hussein’s uncle and other Muslims in
the area around the same time.
Monring Star News explained the killing is the latest in a series of attacks on Christians in eastern Uganda.
Morning
Star News stated that about 85 percent of the people in Uganda are
Christian and 11 percent Muslim, with some eastern areas having large
Muslim populations. The country’s constitution and other laws provide
for religious freedom, including the right to propagate one’s faith and
convert from one faith to another.
Image: 1) The body of Laurence Maiso. (Morning Star News) 2) Michael Ireland.
About
the Writer: Michael Ireland is a Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST
News Service, as well as a volunteer Internet Journalist and Ordained
Minister who has served with ASSIST Ministries and ASSIST News Service
since its beginning in 1989. He has reported for ANS from Jamaica,
Mexico, Nicaragua, Israel, Jordan, China, and Russia. Clickhttp://paper.li/Michael_ASSIST/1410485204 to see a daily digest of Michael's stories for ANS.
** You may republish this or any of ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net)
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