A man who recently received Jesus Christ had his hands cut off last month by his Islamic relatives in eastern Uganda.
Kalegeya Faruku, 40, was attacked on the evening of April 17 in Jinja, Uganda, according to a May 8 report from Morning Star News.
Just weeks earlier, he had surrendered his life to Jesus.
“My family members were not happy,” Faruku told an unnamed contact for Morning Star News.
“They became very angry and started sending me threatening messages about taking my life.”
Faruku said he returned home on April 17 to retrieve some belongings before retreating to safety, seeking refuge with the friend who had shared the gospel with him.
But he was ambushed upon his arrival.
“I found my brothers waiting for me, as if they had been informed,” Faruku recounted.
“My elder brother approached me and pretended to ask about my whereabouts. Suddenly, he grabbed me, and others surrounded me.”
His family recited Islamic scripture while severing his hands, later transporting him three miles away and abandoning him.
Morning Star News said they had obtained photos of the severed hands.
“I thank God that a stranger found me and raised an alarm,” Faruku added.
“People came and rushed me to a nearby clinic for medical attention.”
Morning Star News also confirmed with a local evangelical pastor, whose name they withheld for security purposes, that Faruku had been attending services.
The assistant pastor said that Faruku’s father explained the attack was mandated by Sharia law for “those who deny the religion of Allah.”
Open Doors notes that believers in Uganda, which is predominantly Christian but has large Islamic populations in the eastern part of the country, face a heightened degree of pressure if they are new converts.
Such Christians are “viewed as betraying their faith and community and face potential social ostracization, violent physical assault, expulsion from home and community and in extreme cases killing.”
Mob violence by Muslims in eastern Uganda are “frequent,” according to Open Doors.
“Radical Islam remains the foremost driver of religious persecution in Uganda, especially as Islamic communities are aggressively working to expand their influence and reach,” the ministry says.
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