Muslim in Uganda Attacks, Threatens to Kill Wife for Becoming a Christian

Muslim in Uganda Attacks, Threatens to Kill Wife for Becoming a Christian

Husband tells judge that Islam ‘allows apostates’ to be killed

By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST News Service

KACHOMO VILLAGE, UGANDA (ANS, April 12, 2016) -- A Muslim in eastern Uganda who last week attacked his wife for becoming a Christian had told a judge that Islam “allows him to kill any apostate,” sources said.

Morning Star News (http://morningstarnews.org), says that having moved to another village with their four children following an attack last year, Ntende Hawa, 38, said she was visiting her estranged husband to discuss child support on April 4, 2016. Her husband, Dapharah Mumpi, was living at the couple’s home with his younger brother in Kachomo village in Budaka District, about 130 miles northeast of Kampala.

After they had discussed help for their children and Mumpi’s brother had gone to bed at about 9 p.m., he began to question his wife about her faith as he had when he attacked her last year, Hawa said.

“Again I answered him that Jesus is my Lord and Savior, and he took a panga [machete 16 to 18 inches long], but I managed to get hold of him before he could hit me, so the panga dropped, and he started strangling me,” she said. “His younger brother woke up and rescued me. I then managed to escape.”

Morning Star News stated that Hawa began her journey to Christ after a Christian friend invited her to an evangelistic event in August 2014. Without her husband’s knowledge, she managed to attend two days of the three-day event. A week later, she visited her friend, whose name is withheld for security reasons, and decided to follow Jesus.

Her husband became suspicious last year and asked her if she had become a Christian. Hawa said she could not deny it.

“My husband shouted, ‘Allah Akbar [God is greater],’ then he took a blunt object and hit me on my left hand,” she said. “I cried for help, and neighbors arrived and saved my life. I then slept at a neighbor’s house with my four children that very night.”

Hawa reported the assault to police at the Kaderuna police station on May 6, 2015, and Mumpi was summoned for questioning. Appearing later before a judge, he showed no remorse, Hawa said, as he told the magistrate, “I cannot live with the kafir [infidel] in my house, unless she returns back to my religion. If not, I will not stop hunting for her life, because our Holy Koran allows us to kill any apostate from Islam.”

The news service went onto report that upon hearing Mumpi’s statement, the judge on May 20, 2015 sent him to jail for 14 days. Appearing before the court for a later hearing, Mumpi spoke the same message and was taken back to jail, a source said.

“Later it was alleged that his relatives came and bribed the court, and he was set free,” the source said.

Islamic scholars say death for apostates from Islam is not explicitly stated in the Koran (as it is for “infidels”), but, based on the Hadith (early writings of the words and deeds of Muhammad), traditionally Islamic law has prescribed the death penalty for Muslims who commit apostasy.

Hawa had visited Mumpi last week after in-laws indicated that he was willing to talk about helping to support their children, ages 2, 4, 6 and 10. During her talk with her husband, he indicated a willingness to help with school fees and other child-rearing costs before asking about her faith.

“My marriage with him is now over,” she said. “I cannot go back to Islam. The burden to raise up the children is on my shoulders. I need prayers at this difficult moment.”

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.

Other Christians in eastern Uganda have had serious problems with Muslim relatives and radical Islamists.

Photo captions: 1) Ntende Hawa and two of her children, photo altered for security reasons. (Morning Star News). 2) A Panga knife. 3) Christian protesting the persecution of Ugandan Christians. 4) Ray Barnett and Dan Wooding arriving at Entebbe Airport to begin researching their best-selling book, “Uganda Holocaust.”

About the writer: Dan Wooding, 75, is an award-winning winning author, broadcaster and journalist who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, and is now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for nearly 53 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. Dan is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS), and is the author of some 45 books, including “Uganda Holocaust,” co-authored with Ray Barnett, which was about the mass-killings of some 300,000 Christians during the reign of terror of Idi Amin, a Muslim. He also has two TV shows and a radio show, all based in Southern California. He has reported for ANS from all over the world, and his most recent trip was to Northern Iraq.

** You may republish this or any of our ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net)