MWANYANYA-MTONI, Tanzania — On an island off the coast of East Africa where the local government limits the ability of Christians to obtain land, officials in one town have colluded with area Muslims to erect a mosque in place of a planned church building.
On the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar, Pastor Paulo Kamole Masegi of the Evangelistic Assemblies of God had purchased land in April 2007 for a church building in Mwanyanya-Mtoni, and by November of that year he had built a house that served as a temporary worship center, he said. Soon area Muslim residents objected, said Pastor Lucian Mgaywa of the Church of God in Tanzania. In August 2009, local Muslims began to build a mosque just three feet away from the church plot. In November 2009, Masegi began building a permanent church structure. Muslims invaded the compound and destroyed the structure’s foundation, the pastors said. Meantime, construction of the mosque was completed in December 2009.
The planned church building’s fate appeared to have been sealed earlier this year when Western District Commissioner Ali Mohammed Ali notified Masegi that he had no right to hold worship in a house.
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