Muslim Uncle Abuses, Starves Nieces for Embracing Christianity in Uganda

The Muslim uncle of two sisters in eastern Uganda abused and starved them for converting to Christianity.  On Sunday, February 1, the sisters (aged 14 and 16) put their faith in Christ.  According to Morning Star News: (Photo of Susan Ithungu, another victim of persecution)

Aisha said that she and her sister had been attending classes at an Islamic school (madrassa) where they had been taught about jinn, or supernatural creatures from another world, which they said were oppressing them.

“We were always troubled by the Islamic jinn, and on many
occasions we missed sleep during the night, and we then decided secretly to attend the Christian prayer meeting to seek to be set free,” she said. They went to a worship gathering at a church in the area whose name is withheld for security reasons.

“Before leaving he church, we told the pastor of our problems, who first prayed for us to be followers of Jesus and later prayed that the evil spirits will not torment us again,” Aisha said. “After the prayers, we felt as if a big burden had been rolled away.”

Full of joy, the two girls arrived home and told their uncle [who had custody of them since their father died] what Jesus had done for them, she said. The subsequent beating left her with a swollen cheek and an injury to her left leg, the extent of which is unknown as she needs to have it scanned, while Fatuma’s right arm was injured, sources said.

In the words of Aisha: “My uncle became so furious because we had embraced Jesus.  He locked us inside the house and began beating us with a wooden stick, and then we were left for three days without food. At the third day, we felt as if we were going to die, and we began crying for help.”

A neighbor eventually heard the two girls while their uncle was away and let them out. They fled to the church for sanctuary and treatment.

Two points of interest:

1)      Beating and trapping the girls without food is the exact recommendation Islamic law offers for females who apostatize from Islam, especially as articulated by the Hanafi school of law.

2)     This is not the first girl in Uganda to convert to Christianity only to be beaten, trapped, and starved.  In 2011, a 14-year-old girl converted to Christianity only to receive the same treatment from her Muslim father, who beat and trapped her without food and water for long periods of time. When she was finally rescued she was bony, weak, not able to talk or walk, and weighed approximately 45 pounds.

RaymondIbrahim.com