Family Acid-Sprayed for Leaving Islam and Accepting Jesus Christ

Hardliners are upset over Christian conversions. According to accounts, Muslims in a region of eastern Uganda last month splashed a newly Christian family with acid and beat a former mosque head.

Muslim relatives splashed acid on Juma Waiswa, 38, his 32-year-old wife Nasimu Naigaga, and their 13-year-old daughter Amina Nagudi on March 8 in Intonko village, Namutumba District, after they placed their trust in Christ the previous month, Waiswa claimed.

They became Christians after a preacher came to their house on the morning of February 17 and expounded the gospel to them. When their relatives found out about their conversions, they summoned them to a meeting with other clan members on March 8, according to Waiswa.

"During the meeting we were asked about our salvation, and we affirmed to them that we had believed in Jesus and converted to Christianity," Waiswa told Morning Star News. "They told us to renounce Jesus, but we stood by the newly founded faith in Jesus."

Following their conversion, Christians enhanced the family's faith via visits and Bible study, he added.

"When we refused to recant our faith in Jesus, my father, Arajabu, recited some koranic verses, and after that they forcefully started beating us with sticks as prescibed in the Koran, claiming that we were apostates," Waiswa explained. "As this was not enough, my father went inside the room and picked up a bottle of acid and began spraying it on us while the group started shouting, ‘Allah Akbar, you deserve death,’ and then disowned us."

They didn't know what type of liquid was sprayed on them at first, he claimed.

"But as we were fleeing for our lives, we started feeling some serious itching that continued till the pain intensified," Waiswa explained. "A nearby Christian neighbor called the pastor, who arrived immediately and took us to hospital in Mbale, but our daughter was seriously affected and was referred to a hospital in Jinja."

He claims that on March 9, when the three were undergoing hospital care, their house was set on fire.

The three are currently being treated in the hospital. They asked for prayer for health and a place to stay once they recovered.