Muslims in a village in eastern Uganda gutted the home of a Christian family on 30 October for housing two boys threatened with violence for leaving Islam.
The two teenage boys sought refuge after their parents learned of their conversion and threatened to kill those who had been involved in the conversions. The two boys, aged 16 and 17, had secretly become Christians nearly seven months before.
An area pastor said: ‘I started receiving threatening messages on my phone accusing me of converting the boys to Christianity, as well as housing them in my house without the parents’ permission, but I did not take it very seriously’, he said.
The boys’ fathers organised a group of shari’a vigilantes to punish them for apostasy and the mob, including the boys’ fathers, set fire to the pastor’s house.
Leaflets left behind said: ‘Be informed that we are not yet finished with you. Expect more, worse things are on the way.’
