Amina Nagudi, 13, was sprayed with acid on March 8, 2022 in Namutumba District, Uganda for her faith. (Morning Star News)
In Intonko village, Namutumba district, located in eastern Uganda, radical muslims have sprayed acid on a 38-year-old man, his wife, and their 13-year-old daughter because they renounced Islam and put their faith in Jesus Christ last month.
Juma Waiswa says he received Christ as his personal Lord and Savior together with his wife Nasimu Naigaga, and their daughter Amina Nagudi when a born-again pastor visited their home on 17th February, 2022 and explained the Word of God to them.
When their relatives learned of their conversions, they called them to a meeting with other clan members on March 8, Waiswa explained in a report published by US-based persecution watchdog Morning Star News (MSN).
“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 MSN. “They told us to renounce Jesus, but we stood by the newly founded faith in Jesus.”
Upset over their decision to renounce their family religion, unidentified hardline Muslims in an area of eastern Uganda this month sprayed a newly Christian family with acid.
“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 prescribed in the Koran, claiming that we were apostates,” Waiswa went on.
Adding: “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.”
According to MSN, Waiswa initially did not know what kind of liquid was sprayed on him and his family.
“But as we were fleeing for our lives, we started feeling some serious itching that continued till the pain intensified,” Waiswa recalls. “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, MSN reports that while the family was receiving hospital treatment, their house was set ablaze.
The persecution watchdog reports thatthe three are still undergoing hospital treatment. They requested prayer for healing and for a place to stay after recovering.
Islamic extremism spreads through Uganda
In a statement on 21 March, 2022, Voice of the Martyrs, an international nonprofit organization based in USA whose mission is to defend the human rights of persecuted Christians, warned that radical Islamic groups are making more headway into Uganda.
Todd Nettleton, the Chief of Media Relations and Message Integration for The Voice of the Martyrs—USA and host of The Voice of the Martyrs Radio, said, “It really is a concerted effort to spread the teachings of radical Islam further and further into Africa. And it certainly is affecting Christians in Uganda.”
Nettleton says the goal isn’t just for Ugandan Christians facing persecution at the hand of their Muslim families to recover from trauma and keep going. “But also to forgive and to work towards reaching those who attack them with the Gospel.”
