Uganda: Muslims burn Christian pastor and his family to death after he led three Muslims to faith in Christ

The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law. It’s based on the Qur’an: “They wish you would disbelieve as they disbelieved so you would be alike. So do not take from among them allies until they emigrate for the cause of Allah. But if they turn away, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them and take not from among them any ally or helper.” (Qur’an 4:89)

A hadith depicts Muhammad saying: “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him” (Bukhari 9.84.57). The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence.

This is still the position of all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence, both Sunni and Shi’ite. Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the most renowned and prominent Muslim cleric in the world, has stated: “The Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be punished, yet they differ as to determining the kind of punishment to be inflicted upon them. The majority of them, including the four main schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, and Hanbali) as well as the other four schools of jurisprudence (the four Shiite schools of Az-Zaidiyyah, Al-Ithna-‘ashriyyah, Al-Ja’fariyyah, and Az-Zaheriyyah) agree that apostates must be executed.”

Qaradawi also once famously said: “If they had gotten rid of the apostasy punishment, Islam wouldn’t exist today.”

“Pastor, Family Killed in One of Two Islamist Attacks,” Morning Star News, October 25, 2024:

NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – Islamist villagers in eastern Uganda burned a pastor and his family to death after he led three Muslims to faith in Christ, the pastor’s brother said.

Pastor Weere Mukisa, his 25-year-old wife Annet Namugaya and their two daughters, 7-year-old Judith Banirye and 4-year-old Sylvia Bamukisa, died when the assailants set fire to their home shortly before 3 a.m. on Oct. 13, said the church leader’s brother, James Tusubira. Pastor Mukisa was 30.

The tragic attack took place in Kibale village, Mpumiro Parish, Bulange Sub-County, Namutumba District. Pastor Mukisa had led the Muslims to Christ in September.

“When the three young Muslims converted to Christ, my brother started receiving threatening messages that he should stop any contact with the three young converts, and that the act committed is against teaching of Islam to not join the religion of infidels,” Tusubira told Morning Star News.

Tusubira said he saw flame and smoke coming from the family’s home at 2:48 a.m.

“We rushed to the scene of the incident and found the house torched and the five bodies burned beyond recognition,” he said. “Many people started arriving till the break of the day. Plastic bottles of petrol were found outside the house.”…