Relatives of two brothers who accepted Christ in May beat them for leaving Islam earlier this month in eastern Uganda, Morning Star News reported.
Janati Tisuubira, 22, and his 33-year-old brother Ibrahim Musa Kakembo, reportedly received hospital care for nearly week after family members attacked them on June 3 following a burial service for their sister in Bunya.
The two brothers had moved to Mbale, about 135 kilometers (84 miles) away, for work reasons and heard a gospel broadcast there that led them to visit the radio preacher’s church in Mbale on May 22, he said.
“After that we believed in Issa [Jesus],” Kakembo told Morning Star News.
On June 2, they learned that their sister had died in Bunya, and the next day they returned there for the burial. At about 10 p.m., they were listening to the pastor on the radio in their room.
“Before ending the preaching, he asked the listeners to join him in prayers,” Kakembo said. “We then joined him in prayers and began praying.”
The family members made mobile phone video recordings of the brothers praying, then called them into the sitting room to question them about why they were praying in the name of Christ rather than Muhammad, he said. The brothers remained silent.
“They accused us that we are no longer Muslims,” Kakembo said. “Our elder brother, Shaban, a teacher by profession at Ibun Bazi Islamic Center, got angry with us and started beating us with a blunt object which he had with him as the rest of the members also joined in and started beating us badly.”
He said their father came in and began shouting, “Stop, don’t kill them in my house, just send them away from my home — from today on, I am no longer their father, and they are no longer my children.”
The Christians have taken refuge in an undisclosed location.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by and originally published by Morning Star News.