A Christian pastor in eastern Uganda sustained serious injuries after he was beaten by Muslim relatives and accused of being a disgrace to the family.
Bashir Sengendo, a former mosque leader, returned home on Jan. 12 to visit his family in the Namutimba District. It was his first visit since leaving in 2016, Morning Star News reports.
“This request continued for the last six years, but I had been reluctant to go back home,” Sengendo told Morning Star News. “I was shocked to receive a cold reception and slept without food, only to be attacked and beaten badly in the morning by my brother and my uncle. They cut me with an object in the head, back and hand.”
During the attack, police and neighbors heard Sengendo screaming and came to his rescue.
“As the attackers were hitting me, my uncle said that the family spent a lot of money training me as a Muslim teacher and that I have caused a lot of shame to the family and Muslims at large,” Sengendo said.
The pastor was badly wounded and taken to a local hospital. Doctors assessed him for blood loss and deemed him critically ill, according to Morning Star News.
Sengendo converted to Christianity in May 2016. He spent six months attending a Bible college, then became a pastor.
As CBN News has reported, the assault on Sengendo is just the latest incident of persecution against Christians in Uganda.
Muslim extremists killed a 58-year-old Christian pastor in October after he refused to close his church which was located near their mosque. Pastor Stephen Lugwire of Bunangwe estate in the Namutumba District was violently attacked while tending to his sheep.
In another attack, a 19-year-old Christian was beaten and strangled to death by radical Muslims in eastern Uganda while with some of his friends in August. Dante Tambika, also known as Patrick, was murdered by five Muslim teenagers when he was fishing.
And a Christian man was hit in the head with a machete by his Muslim brother after he converted to Christianity in July.
Muslims make up only 14 percent of Uganda’s population with high concentrations in eastern areas of the country. Christians make up 82 percent.
World Watch Monitor, a persecution watchdog, notes on their website, “A home-grown Islamist rebel movement has taken root in neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has emboldened Ugandan radicals to increase pressure on Christians.”
Source: CBN NEWS
