Children in fields in Kaliro District, Uganda. (Isac Fridlund, Creative Commons)

NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – A local group of Muslim extremists on Oct. 30 killed an evangelist in eastern Uganda after he and another Christian refused to convert to Islam, the other Christian said.

After three days of a scheduled six-day evangelistic event at Nawaikoke trading center in Kaliro District at which 18 Muslims put their faith in Christ, area Islamists surrounded Emmanuel Dikusooka, a 29-year-old father of three children, and a fellow church member, Jack Mbulante, at about 6:30 p.m. as they returned to their hotel in Kaliro town, Mbulante said.

The six Muslim youths stopped the motorcycle the two Christians had rented just before crossing Lumbuye bridge, Mbulante said. Wearing traditional Islamic dress of tunics and capes and armed with long Somali swords (pangas), sticks and iron bars, the assailants forced them to surrender their bags, which contained Bibles and other Christian books, he said.

“They threw them all into the River Lumbuye, then ordered us to hold the Quran up that they had and told us to recite and swear in the name of Allah,” Mbulante told Morning Star News. “They tried to force us to renounce Jesus Christ and our faith and then embrace the Islamic faith. We openly refused, which angered them, and they hit Dikusooka with an iron bar on the head, and he fell down.”

Mbulante said he jumped into the river and started swimming as Dikusooka wailed and screamed for help. After crossing to the other side of the river, he recruited some Christians to try to rescue the evangelist.

“But unfortunately, when we arrived at the scene of the incident, Dikusooka was dead in a pool of blood,” Mbulante said. “He had deep head injuries, cuts at the neck and back and an injured mouth.”

Dikusooka leaves behind a wife and children ages 9, 6 and 4.

The Christians have reported the attack to police, who were said to be searching for the killers. Some of the former Muslims whom Dikusooka led to Christ know the assailants and fear for their lives, Mbulante said. They have taken refuge at an undisclosed location.

Dikusooka had organized the open-air event in predominantly Muslim Nawaikoke along with other evangelists from Pentecostal churches in Kaliro, Namwendwa and Bulumba villages. It began on Oct. 28 and was scheduled to end on Nov. 2.

The attack was the latest of many instances of persecution of Christians in Uganda that Morning Star News has documented.

Uganda’s constitution and other laws provide for religious freedom, including the right to propagate one’s faith and convert from one faith to another. Muslims make up no more than 12 percent of Uganda’s population, with high concentrations in eastern areas of the country.

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