A pastor has lost nearly all his vision after Muslim extremists ambushed him in Kampala, capital of Uganda, and sprayed him with acid.
Pastor Frank Mutabaazi can only see dimly out of one eye and has trouble eating and talking due to burns from the acid attack on 22 December. His shoulder was seriously burned and he cannot sleep without painkillers.
After Pastor Mutabaazi preached at an evening service in a church in the Kasubi area of Kampala, a Muslim extremist pretending to be a member of the congregation praised him for his “wonderful sermon” and asked for a lift to Busega in western Kampala. The pastor was about to return to his home in Mbarara, nearly five hours away, but agreed to give him a lift and set out on the Kampala-Northern Bypass Highway.
“On my way to the main road, the gentleman started making several phone calls,” Pastor Mutabaazi told Morning Star News, with difficulty due to burns on his mouth. As they approached a roundabout the man said he wanted to get out, and when the pastor told him that they were still far from his destination he replied that he wanted to visit a friend first.
“As he came out of the vehicle, three men dressed in Islamic attire appeared and pulled out a bottle and started spraying on me through the window while shouting and mentioning that I am an enemy of their religion as well as a deceiver who is not worthy to live,” Pastor Mutabaazi said. “From that time on, I did not know what happened, only to find myself at a nearby clinic in Namunghona after five hours.”
The pastor reported that he had received several threats on his phone demanding that he stop evangelistic events in Masaka and Kampala in central Uganda, Mbale and Pallisa in the east and the West Nile sub-region in northwest Uganda. One text message read, “We have been monitoring your evil activities of changing our members to Christianity. Let this be known to you that your life is at risk.”
The pastor said he had been taking many precautions but never expected that a Muslim would attend a church service masquerading as a Christian.
The attack on Pastor Mutabaazi was the latest in a long sequence of incidents of persecution of Christians in Uganda documented by Morning Star News. Uganda is over 80% Christian and its constitution and other laws provide for religious freedom including the right to propagate one’s faith and convert from one faith to another. Muslims comprise about 12% of the population, with high concentrations in eastern areas of the country where they oppose the presence of churches and increasingly persecute Christians. Converts from Muslim backgrounds are at risk of attack by family or community members and there are regular reports of Christian converts being injured or killed.
(Morning Star News)
Photo: Morning Star News