Muslim extremists attack Ugandan pastor after sheik sent to kill him turns to Christ

A pastor in eastern Uganda was attacked by Islamic extremists last week after a sheik sent to kill him converted to Christianity.

On Dec. 4, the extremists sent a 24-year-old sheik, whose name was withheld for security purposes, to the Pentecostal Upright Church in Amura, northeast of Kampala, to kill its pastor, Bishop George Edweu, Morning Star News reported.

The pastor narrated that he was preaching about hearing and understanding God's voice when the sheik, who was sitting among the congregation of 200 people, was convicted of sin. He said that he stopped preaching after the young sheik fell to his feet.

When Edweu questioned the sheik, he confessed that he had come to kill the pastor and destroy the church. The young man then repented and put his faith in Christ after Edweu prayed for him.

The news about the conversion quickly spread around the community so the sheik, along with his wife and two children, went to an undisclosed location for safety.

On Jan. 2, Edweu saw a young man lying on the ground when he arrived at his church at 5 a.m. for a morning devotion.

When he got out of his car to attend to the young man, he was attacked by six masked men, who demanded that he reveal the location of the sheik. Edweu said that the men began slapping and kicking him while others hit him with sticks.

"As I fell down, a vehicle with bright lights flashed, which scared them away, and they disappeared into the nearby bush," he recounted.

"The vehicle arrived and took me into the church compound. Inside the church building we found a letter with a threatening message: 'We are going to destroy your church unless you show us where [name withheld] is,'" he added.

Area Muslims have reportedly been announcing the conversion of the sheik every week as they gather for prayers at the mosque. One Christian resident said that they had heard over the mosque loudspeaker that the sheik "needs to die for forsaking Islam."

The incident is one of the latest in a series of attacks against Christians in Eastern Uganda.

Last November, a former sheik was beaten unconscious after he publicly announced his conversion to Christianity at his church. A few weeks later, his Muslim relatives attacked his 60-year-old mother while they were gathering cassava on the homestead that he was forced to abandon after he received death threats.

The Ugandan constitution provides protection for religious freedom, but Christians in eastern Uganda suffer continual attacks carried out by non-state figures.