A Christian was Beaten Unconscious, Home Burned

Muslim villagers in eastern Uganda on Jan. 30 beat a Christian unconscious upon seeing him prepare a site for an evangelistic event, and they later set his house ablaze, sources said.

The 34-year-old father of three children, Philemon Shuha, was helping to set up an open-air evangelistic event with Titus Waniyaye, 25, in a heavily populated industrial area 3 kilometers from Nabiganda village, Butaleja District, when he was attacked, Waniyaye said.

The 34-year-old father of three children, Philemon Shuha, was helping to set up an open-air evangelistic event with Titus Waniyaye, 25, in a heavily populated industrial area 3 kilometers from Nabiganda village, Butaleja District, when he was attacked, Waniyaye said.

Shuha and Waniyaye spent the mornings of Jan. 29 and Jan. 30 distributing invitations to the evangelistic event. Many people had begun arriving as the two Christians were waiting for the rest of their team to join them when they heard a clamor among some Muslims.

Waniyaye said the Muslim villagers asked, “Why did you give out Christian literature to our people? Have you come to kill Islam by converting our people? Today you can’t go unpunished.”

He mobilized a group of mostly Christian motorcyclists to rescue Shuha, he said.

“Soon, we arrived at the incident scene, and the attackers fled in different directions,” Waniyaye said. “We found Shuha almost lifeless, unconscious, and lying in a pool of blood. He had a deep cut on the right side of the head near the ear, and blood was coming from his right hand. He could not open his eyes.”

Later, shortly after 10:30 p.m., Waniyaye received a phone call from Shuha’s wife saying that her house was on fire, he said.

He and others mounted a search and found the arsonist in a sugarcane plantation, he said.

“We interrogated him as to why he had burned the house, and he said that he had been given 500,000 Uganda shillings [USD129] by the Muslims to go and destroy Shuha’s house,” Waniyaye said.

The suspect is in police custody, he said.

Shuha’s wife and three children, ages 10, 7, and 5, escaped unhurt and have taken refuge at their church building. Shuha was still receiving hospital care at the time of this writing.

Shuha’s house is located about 3 kilometers from Busolwe town.

His church had planned a five-day outreach to Muslims for Jan. 28-Feb. 2 in Nabiganda, Kapisa, Leresi, and Nampologoma villages. Shuha and Waniyaye spent the mornings of Jan. 29 and Jan. 30 distributing invitations to the evangelistic event.