by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - Although Christianity is constitutionally legal in Uganda, two Evangelists who preached the Gospel to Muslims in the East African country are now in prison awaiting trial for blasphemy against Islam, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.
Evangelists Joseph Omadi and Isaac Napakol were arrested on Nov. 21, on the third and final day of a Gospel campaign in the city of So roti in eastern Uganda, MSN reports. The two Christians were arrested despite being mobbed and assaulted by a large group of Muslims enraged at their evangelism on the salvation offered by Christ.
In a statement to MSN, Pastor Robert Omodingi, who had been with the two evangelists but managed to escape the mob, said: “We thought that maybe they had come to listen to the word of God, but to our surprise, they just grabbed my colleagues and started beating them, and shortly police came and arrested them.”
On Nov. 23, police Omadi and Napakol were charged under Section 122 of Uganda’s penal code for allegedly “wounding the religious feelings” of the Muslim community and were jailed pending trial, MSN reports.
“Section 122, Uganda’s blasphemy law against writing or uttering words with intent to wound religious feelings, has been criticized as constitutionally invalid for contravening freedom of speech and for vagueness that violates the key tenet of legality,” MSN noted in its report.
At a pre-trial hearing on Dec. 20, Omadi and Napakol looked very ill, a local pastor whose name is withheld for security reasons told MSN. “We are concerned about the deteriorating physical appearance of our two evangelists, and we are calling for the court to handle the case with justice,” the pastor said.
“When the two evangelists appeared in court yesterday [Dec. 20], they had lost a lot of weight and were in a very sad mood; possibly they may have been subjected to some kind of torture.”