Uganda: Muslim family converts to Christianity, relatives murder the father, threaten to kill rest of the family

The rest of the family is in serious danger. 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.”

“Muslim Extremists Kill Christian Who Received Death Threats,” Morning Star News, December 26, 2024:

NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – Islamic extremists on Dec. 16 killed a Christian father of three children who had fled his home in eastern Uganda due to death threats from Muslim relatives, sources said.

James Mukenye Habiibu, who along with his wife converted to Christianity in January 2022, was found in a pool of blood the morning of Dec. 17 in Kagumu Sub-County, Kibuku District, Uganda. He was 29.

Soon after they put their faith in Christ, Habiibu’s family received death threats from relatives, said his wife, whose name is withheld for security reasons.

“The whole family threatened to kill us if we continued with the Christian faith,” she said, adding that they fled to another district that night, where they began worshipping at a local church.

They returned to their home district with their children in October, renting a house in Bulangira town. Relatives and other Muslims discovered their return in one month, and they began to receive threatening messages from Habiibu’s relatives, she said.

“We know where you are, and soon we are coming there and you will not escape the wrath of Allah,” read a text message from a Muslim extremist identified only as Swaibu in Kagumu Sub-County, Kibuku District, she said. “You left here and disappeared from us for three years thinking that Allah was in a sleep. Has Allah not brought back you for back justice? Soon we are going to behead you and get a big reward from Allah, and this time you’re not going to escape from us.”

On Dec. 16 at about 6 p.m., Habiibu left his house on a motorcycle for a gospel outreach with another evangelist from a Presbyterian church in Buseta.

“At about 7:30 p.m. I received a call from my husband telling me of people who have been following/tracking him for about half an hour and requesting prayers,” she said. “Since then, there was no communication from him.”

At 8 a.m. the next morning, she received a phone call from someone using her husband’s phone stating that the owner of the phone had been killed, and that the body was lying in the swamp at Kakutu, she said.

“A neighbor escorted me, and when we arrived at the scene of the incident, I found my husband lying in a pool of blood,” she said. “We also found several people at the scene.”…