The disturbing treatment of Juma Waiswa, Nasimu Naigaga, and Amina Nagudi by their relatives illustrates yet again how conversion to Christianity is so often the occasion for persecution of Christians — both of the converts and of those who brought the converts the word of the Gospel.
Among the Christians of Uganda are around 35,000 Orthodox Christians.
For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of Christian persecution in Uganda, see here.
“Family Sprayed with Acid for Leaving Islam,” Morning Star News, March 22, 2022:
NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – Upset over conversions to Christianity, hardline Muslims in an area of eastern Uganda this month sprayed a newly Christian family with acid and beat a former mosque leader, sources said.
In Intonko village, Namutumba District, Muslim relatives on March 8 sprayed acid on Juma Waiswa, 38, his 32-year-old wife Nasimu Naigaga, and their 13-year-old daughter, Amina Nagudi after they put their faith in Christ the previous month, Waiswa said.
They converted to Christianity when a pastor visited their home the morning of Feb. 17 and explained the gospel. When their relatives learned of their conversions, they called them to a meeting with other clan members on March 8, Waiswa said.
“During the meeting we were asked about our salvation, and we affirmed to them that we had believed in Jesus and converted to Christianity,” Waiswa told Morning Star News. “They told us to renounce Jesus, but we stood by the newly founded faith in Jesus.”
Christians had deepened the family’s faith in visits and Bible study after their conversion, he said.
“When we refused to recant our faith in Jesus, my father, Arajabu, recited some koranic verses, and after that they forcefully started beating us with sticks as prescibed in the Koran, claiming that we were apostates,” Waiswa said. “As this was not enough, my father went inside the room and picked up a bottle of acid and began spraying it on us while the group started shouting, ‘Allah Akbar [God is greater], you deserve death,’ and then disowned us.”
Initially they did not know what kind of liquid was sprayed on them, he said.
“But as we were fleeing for our lives, we started feeling some serious itching that continued till the pain intensified,” Waiswa said. “A nearby Christian neighbor called the pastor, who arrived immediately and took us to hospital in Mbale, but our daughter was seriously affected and was referred to a hospital in Jinja.”
On March 9, while the three were receiving hospital treatment in, their house was set ablaze, he said.
The three are still undergoing hospital treatment. They requested prayer for healing and for a place to stay after recovering….
