Another Zanzibar church burning – another pre-Bombadan gesture of Interfaith Dialogue™ to the tiny Christian population of this Tanzanian island outpost:
Muslim extremists on Saturday (July 30) burned down a church building on Zanzibar island off the coast of Tanzania, church leaders said, just three days after another congregation’s facility on the island was reduced to ashes.
In Fuoni on the south coast of Zanzibar (known locally as Unguja), Islamic extremists torched the building of the Evangelical Assemblies of God-Tanzania (EAGT) at around 2 p.m., said Pastor Leonard Massasa, who oversees Zanzibar’s EAGT churches. The assailants were shouting, “Away with the church – we do not want infidels to spoil our community, especially our children,” Pastor Massasa said.
The EAGT church is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Zanzibar town.
“Tomorrow is Sunday, and my members numbering 40 will not have any place to worship,” Pastor Paulo Magungu of the Fuoni EAGT church said. With fear in his voice, the pastor added, “We have reported the case to the police station. I hope justice will be done.”
He reported the case at Fuoni police station immediately after it happened, he said.
In Kianga, about 10 kilometers (six miles) from Zanzibar town, another church building was burned down on Wednesday (July 27) at about 2 a.m., said Pastor George Frank Dunia of Free Evangelical Pentecostal Church in Africa. The fire destroyed 45 chairs.
“I have 36 members, and it will be very difficult for them to congregate tomorrow,” the pastor said on Saturday (July 30). “The members are afraid, not knowing what other plans the Muslims are out to do. We request prayers at this trying moment.”
Church officials have reported the case to the chief of Kianga, as well as to police.
Tanzania’s Zanzibar archipelago is 99.9 percent Muslim.
On neighboring Pemba island, suspected Muslim extremists in Konde on June 17 razed a Seventh-day Adventist Church building, a witness said.
“It was at 1 a.m. when I saw the church burning,” said a neighbor who requested anonymity. “There have been issues that the Muslims have been raising about the existence of the church.”
The Seventh-day church owns a large property near Chake-Chake town but has been unable to erect a building due to hostility from Muslims, sources said.
“If we do not stop the growth of the churches here in Pemba, then soon we are going to lose our people to Christianity, especially the children,” Sheikh Ibrahim Abdalla of Chake-Chake Mosque reportedly said.
The June 17 attack took place at about 1 a.m., the witness said. Konde is 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Chake-Chake town.
A case has been filed in Konde police station, but at press time no suspects had been arrested [don't hold your breath - Ed].
Tanzania Assemblies of God (TAG) Pastor Yohana Ari Mfundo said he has witnessed a series of attacks on Christians on Pemba island.
“It is even becoming extremely difficult for Christians to exercise their faith like praying or singing in a Muslim-owned rental house,” Pastor Mfundo said.
“We don’t want churches on our street. Today we are going to burn the church, and if you continue we are going to burn your house also,” Note posted to the donor of a plot for a church building in Zanzibar, 2009
As if a 97% Muslim majority was not enough, the local population and government (taking a cue from how they do it in other Muslim countries) is, through this latest Zanzibar church burning incident, seeing to it that Islam is the only way on Tanzania’s Pemba and Unguja Islands.
The latest Zanzibar church burning isn’t an isolated initiative. Other places of Christian worship have been torched recently and only days ago, Muslims started work on building a hotel directly on a Anglican cemetery they had siezed.
Despite what your local liberals or ‘Interfaith Outreach’ worker might tell you, Islam is decidedly not a religion of peace. It seeks to dominate wherever it exists; and enforces its supremacy ruthlessly where it already does.
And, with the long history of islamic jihad in the region making the Tanzanian government nervous – who’s going to stop them?
Read the rest at CDN.
