In Chains: Christian Persecution - 2019, Issue 1

A Muslim neighbor had invited Hassan, his
mother (name withheld for security
reasons) and two siblings to Jamia Mosque
in central Nairobi, one of Kenya’s most
prominent mosques, on Dec. 3, telling them
that Muslim leaders there could help them
with their Yinancial needs, relatives said.
At the mosque, they were introduced to a
wealthy Arab who told them they could
receive support, and later they were taken to
his house on Mombasa Road, they said. Their
Yirst indication of trouble came when a non-
Muslim worker there from the ethnic Luhya,
a Bantu group, advised them that things may
not be go well for them if they were
Christians.
Hassan’s mother said they were surprised
when the wealthy Arab and other Muslims
told them that Yinancial help was conditional
on them renouncing Christianity.
“We were promised Yinancial support for the
school fees of the children and general
upkeep of the family, but they were
categorical that Muslims have no relation
with inYidels,” Hassan’s mother told Morning
Star News. “To this, I refused to recant my
faith in Christ.”
The family had initially accepted the offer of
Yinancial support, but when it became
conditional on renouncing their faith and
they refused, their Muslims hosts became
angry, and the Christians had to Ylee the
house, they said.
Hassan’s mother said that on Dec. 20
relatives suffered an attack in Jamu, in
Somalia on the border with Kenya, where
she maintains her ancestral home. Unknown
assailants destroyed the roof and bashed
gaping holes in the walls where one of her
sons was living with his frail and ailing
grandmother, she said.
Muslim relatives in Jamu on Dec. 15 had
questioned her son about his absence from
Friday mosque prayers, she said. The widow
said she has recently received anonymous
threats from Jamu threatening to do away
with her family, and that she has received
threatening text messages from the area
since she sent him to live there two years
ago.
The family has suffered at the hands of
Somali Muslims in Nairobi for several years.
On Feb. 7, 2016, Muslim relatives beat
Hassan unconscious after discovering that
the family was holding secret Christian
meetings.
Muslim Somalis in Nairobi had seriously
injured Hassan on Oct. 27, 2011, when a
gang attacked him after they learned that
family members had become Christian. The
Somali neighbors hit him with a metal bar on
his forehead and face, and he lost two teeth
and sustained knife wounds to his hand.
They left him for dead.
Somali Muslims in Nairobi have also
attacked his mother. “I have suffered several
persecutions from the Muslims for
converting to Christianity,” she said. “My
stomach is ailing from the attack I suffered
few years ago. I cannot stand in an upright
position. I and my family have chosen the
cause of Christ. No turning back.”