SOROTI, Uganda — Two evangelists in Uganda preaching on a street were beaten by a mob, arrested by police and charged under the country’s blasphemy law.
A Muslim mob attacked Joseph Omadi and Isaac Napakol, reportedly because the two were using the Quran during their evangelistic effort in Soroti, states Morning Star News.
Police summoned to the Nov. 21 melee arrested the two evangelists, a pastor told Morning Star. The news service says the two were charged under a section of Uganda’s penal code about “writing or uttering words with intent to wound religious feelings.”
Health concerns
The two men appeared in court Dec. 20 looking as if they had lost much weight, another pastor said. “Possibly, they may have been subjected to some kind of torture” in jail.
Members of Soroti churches were asked to fast and pray for the two men, says Morning Star.
Approximately 12% of Uganda’s population is Muslim. Uganda’s constitution and laws allow for freedom of religion, including converting from one faith to another. However, Christian churches increasingly have received threats of violence, and some Christian converts have been attacked, killed or excommunicated by Muslim family members, the World Atlas reports.
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