by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - A Christian convert and father of six in eastern Uganda has had his hand cut off by radicalized Muslim extremists enraged that he and his family had left Islam and had started attending church, Morning Star News (MSN) reports. Christians in Uganda are increasingly vulnerable to attacks by Islamic extremists, even though Muslims are a minority group and Christianity is legal in the country.
A former Muslim, 42-year-old Musa John Kasadah of Maumo village, Luuka District accepted Christ during an open-air Gospel event on June 17, his wife, Asiya Naigaga told MSN. Kasadah and his family then began attending church services instead of Friday prayers at the mosque.
Kasadah and his family had attended church services for three weeks, their pastor (whose name is withheld for his church’s safety) received a message from one of Kasadah’s brothers that read: “It has come to our attention that Musa Kasadah and the family are attending your church. This should stop immediately, otherwise, your church is at risk.” The pastor arranged for the Kasadah family to be relocated to live with a local Maumo official.
However, two weeks later, four local Muslims discovered the family’s location and approached them as they were on their way to Iganga District. In her statements to MSN, Naigaga recounted: “They began questioning my husband, saying, ‘You thought that we shall not get hold of you? We have been tracking you from the house of [the local official, unidentified for security reasons] to here, and today is your last day to be alive. Allah has given you into our hands.’”
“They started beating my husband and then got hold of me and tied me up. They forced me to sing Christian songs as they began chopping off my husband’s hand,” Naigaga said. Naigaga said she thought the attackers would have killed her husband but for some plantation workers who arrived on the scene and caused the extremists to run off. Kasadah was then taken for first aid treatment and then transferred by ambulance to Mbale Referral Hospital for specialized treatment.