Uganda: Muslims murder Christian preacher after he led several Muslims to faith in Christ

Islamic law forbids Christians and other non-Muslims to proselytize and try to convert Muslims. It’s a death penalty offense. Islamic law states that a subject non-Muslim in an Islamic state can be killed if he “leads a Muslim away from Islam.” (Reliance of the Traveller O11.10 (3))

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.”

“Evangelist Who Led Muslims to Christ Slain after Gospel Event,” Morning Star News, May 4, 2025:

NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – Islamists killed an evangelist after he led several Muslims to faith in Christ at an open-air event in eastern Uganda last month, sources said.

David Washume of Manga cell, Mungoma Ward, Nabumali town council in Mbale District was stabbed to death on April 3 as he made his way back from three days of preaching in the Nalondo, Buwalasi and Nabumali areas, area sources said. He was 38.

With fellow evangelist Fred Wepuhulu, Washume incorporated quranic verses and biblical references in his preaching, emphasizing the divinity of Christ and the humanity of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, said one of those attending the event. Washume spoke in the town of Nabumali on the third day of their campaign.

“On the third day the attendance increased in number, and he demanded a response of putting sin to death in their lives, to kill sin and identify themselves with Christ and against Satan, and their voices lifted to heaven in song,” said the attendee, whose name is withheld for security reasons. “Many people responded, including several Muslims who accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. But some Muslims started shouting in protest, and the two evangelists left and entered a friend’s home.”

Washume and Wepuhulu were returning home to their area of Nabumali the night of April 3 when they were attacked at about 10 p.m., Wepuhulu said.

“As we were nearing our village, we met three masked men dressed in Muslim attire, with knives, while speaking the Arabic language,” Wepuhulu told Morning Star News. “They stopped us and told us to surrender our bags.”

The assailants found Bibles and a Quran in Washume’s bag, he said.

“One shouted in our local language, ‘They are the ones, they are the ones…Kill, kill them!’” Wepuhulu said. “I realized that we were in the midst of militant Muslims. I wrestled with one of the them who was holding me tightly, but I managed to escape. My friend who was held by two men could not. Lastly I arrived at my home, but very fearful.”

Moses Kutosi, chairperson of local council 3 of the Nabumali Town Council, said he received a phone call at 6 a.m. the next day informing him of a dead body in a pool of blood near a Bible college chapel in Nabumali.

“Immediately I went to the scene of the incident and found the body of my resident friend Washume,” Kutosi told Morning Star News. “I was astonished and fearful and made a made a phone call to the police, who came after some hours.”

The body was taken to the Mbale city mortuary for postmortem, Kutosi said.

A relative of Washume said his body had wounds on the neck and chest.

“The knife which the assailants used to kill him was found at the scene of crime, including a written note saying, ‘You, infidel, will meet Allah in judgment,’ and other Arabic words which could not be understood,” the relative said….