GLOBAL PRAYER NETWORK: After pastor hacked to death, debate continues: Can Christians be employed as butchers?

Jumat, 27 Mei 2016

After pastor hacked to death, debate continues: Can Christians be employed as butchers?

By Mark Ellis, Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

TANZANIA (ANS - May 25, 2016) -- More than three years have passed since the murder of a Tanzanian pastor, who was inadvertently caught in a riot as Muslims protested against Christians working as butchers.

Muslims are only permitted to eat meat that has been ritually slaughtered, while most Christians have no such restraints. Therefore, it is considered acceptable for only Muslims to work as butchers, even though there is no law to enforce this, according to a report by World Watch Monitor (https://www.worldwatchmonitor.org/).

In 2013, after Christians in the northwestern city of Buseresere had arranged for a non-Muslim butcher to prepare meat for a Christian funeral reception, Mathayo Kachila, the pastor of the local Assemblies of God church, was hacked to death by rioters.

For several years tension had been building between Muslims and Christians in Buseresere over the issue of animal slaughter. The local government had forbidden non-Muslims from working as butchers, but Christians in the Geita district had begun to do so.

When Muslims heard that a non-Muslim was providing meat for a funeral reception, they began looting Christian butcheries, urinating on the meat, and assaulting other Christian businessmen. Several were injured, according to World Watch Monitor.

Pastor Kachila was on his way to a friend’s house, when he was caught in the riot and received fatal machete wounds. Another nine people were injured.

Police arrested six suspects, but those cases have since languished due to lack of evidence and witnesses.

Hundreds of people attended Pastor Kachila’s funeral. Although they live in a Muslim-dominated area, it was the first time anything like this had happened there and the Christians were stunned.

Following the riots, police arrested and charged two local pastors, Obadiah Mlokozi Madini (who has since died) and Isaiah Rutha Ikiri (now 56), for “slaughtering animals without considering the law on food, medicine and law about livestock diseases”. Their cases lasted for almost two years, before being dismissed early in 2015.

Geita’s Regional Police Commander, Mponjoli Mwabulambo, told World Watch Monitor: “It has been our custom…to see Muslims slaughter animals for public use, and we have not seen any problem. We have to care for our traditions and customs, which is to see Muslims doing this. If Christians slaughter animals, Muslims will not eat them. We feel that it will create violence in society, especially on the Muslim side.”

But some Christians believe that the eating of halal meat goes against their religious beliefs.

There is also an economic element. The halal slaughtering service costs $0.22 per chicken, $0.67 per goat/sheep and $1.12 per cow.

Local Muslims also complained over losing income to Christian butchers, as demand for non-halal meat increased and more Christians took up the trade.

Since Pastor Kachila’s death, his widow, Jane Roza Kachila, says she has felt completely overwhelmed by the financial pressures of trying to raise their 11 children alone.

“As the children grow, the economic burden I carry increases,” she said. “The stress about our future weighs particularly on Venant (24-year-old son). He was very close to his father and still feels his absence deeply. He suffers from severe stress headaches whenever there is a monetary need in the family.”

She said that it has also been hard for the family to see the chief suspect in her husband’s murder walking around free.

Before he died, her husband identified a neighbor as his killer. Other witnesses said the same, but the man was arrested only to be set free shortly after. The man has since moved back home and the family see him often, according to World Watch Monitor.

“The children are emotionally affected when they see the person walking around freely. It is very painful to us all,” she said. “Even though the police have visited me a few times after the murder to interview me and promised to keep investigating, we do not know what happened to the case. I just don’t know.”

Photo captions: 1) Pastor Kachila. 2) Mark Ellis.

About the writer: Mark Ellis is Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net), and also founder of www.GodReports.com, a website that shares stories, testimonies and videos from the church around the world. He is also co-host for "Widows on the World" with ANS Founder, Dan Wooding, which is airred on the Holy Spirit Broadcasting Network (http://hsbn.tv).