Once they find out about his faith, his Muslim relatives launch an attack against him.
Nairobi, Kenya: A Muslim in Somalia was severely wounded for putting his faith in Christ this month and lost his wife and five children, sources said.
Mohammad Abdul, 40, survived a knife attack by his Muslim relatives on the outskirts of Kismayo, a port city in southern Somalia’s Lower Juba region, on May 5 after converting to Christianity on March 20.
A reliable source reported that relatives took his wife and children while he was in the clinic.
“While Abdul was nursing injuries, the Muslims went back to his house and started destroying it, and the wife and the five children went back with their people,” said the source. “His wife has told him that the Muslims are looking for him and that, therefore, he should not go back to them.”
Abdul suffered a deep cut on his head and a fractured hand during the attack.
Because of concerns for his safety, the source moved to a different city in Somalia.
After coming to Christ, when a Somali pastor living outside of Somalia visited him with the gospel in March, Abdul began praying and studying the Bible with his family and the Christian leader every evening, the pastor said. When Abdul’s youngest child, 5, mentioned the meetings to a neighbor, his wife suggested the visiting pastor leave for his safety.
After leaving on April 11, the pastor heard from Abdul that the Muslim relatives were sending him threatening text messages; he said.
“We know now that every evening you are praying in the name of Issa [Jesus] as well as reading a corrupted book and not reading the Quran, the holy book sent to Muhammad from Allah,” read one of the text messages, according to the pastor. “
If you do not stop conducting religious activities in this wrong way, then you risk your life.
As his wife became more fearful of relatives and withdrew from Christian prayers, Abdul continued alone, he said.
“Two of my children continued sharing the prayers I made with other children,” Abdul told Morning Star News. “On May 2, my younger son arrived crying that some boys beat him after I told them about my reading the Bible and praying.”
He said the Muslim relatives arrived at his house on the evening of May 5, at about 7:30 p.m.
“They shouted they were looking for my head,” Abdul told Morning Star News. “The attackers forcibly entered the house and started questioning me for forsaking Islam and joining a bad religion. My wife and children looked shaken.”
One of his relatives struck him with a sharp knife, he said.
“The children began wailing and crying in a thunderous voice, which confused the attackers,” Abdul said. “I then managed to escape through the rear door, bleeding, and slept at one of my relative’s homes about 5 kilometers away.”
He requested prayer that God may provide for his family, with whom he still communicates.
According to the U.S. State Department, Somalia’s constitution establishes Islam as the state religion and prohibits the propagation of any other religion. It also requires that laws comply with sharia (Islamic law) principles, with no exceptions for non-Muslims.
The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law, according to mainstream schools of Islamic jurisprudence. An Islamic extremist group in Somalia, Al Shabaab, is allied with Al Qaeda and adheres to its teachings.
Al Shabaab sympathizers had also killed several non-local people in northern Kenya since 2011, when Kenyan forces led an African coalition into Somalia against the rebels in response to terrorist attacks on tourists and others on Kenya’s coast.
Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List ranks Somalia as the second most challenging country for Christians out of the 50 countries listed.