Christian apologist beaten unconscious in Kampala, Uganda

Islamic extremists on Saturday 29  January stopped an evangelist on his way to participate in a debate about Christianity and Islam in Kampala, Uganda and beat him unconscious, he said.

Charles Kamya, 43, said he was about 300 meters from the open-air debate site in the Bwaise area of Kampala when two men stopped his car.

“I stopped my car only to be ambushed by six other Muslims in Islamic attire who resurfaced from the bush at around midday,” Kamya told Morning Star News from his hospital bed.

He said one of the assailants told him, “You have been terrorizing our religion. Today Allah has called you, and you are going to meet him.”

“Some beat me badly while others cut me with some objects, and I lost a lot of blood as they pulled me out of my car and threw me out,” he said.

A blow to the head with an iron bar left him unconscious for about two hours, he said. A passerby found him in a pool of blood and called police.

“They arrived immediately and saved my life,” Kamya said. “The attackers did not damage my car or take anything inside the car. They only wanted to destroy my life.”

After initial treatment, he was transferred to another hospital for specialized care, but his father has requested he be discharged because the assailants were monitoring his movements and could attack him there, he said.

A resident of a town east of Kampala undisclosed for security reasons, Kamya on January 24 had debated Muslims in Jinja after going to the mosque there to buy a Quran on January 21, accompanied by a Muslim convert to Christianity, he said. He used the Koran in the January 24 debate, he said.

“I used the Quran to show Muslims that from the beginning of the Earth to date, God wants all people to be saved including Muslims,” Kamya said.

“I also discussed Surah 72 about the powers of evil jinn, and that they can be defeated by Issa [Jesus], and many Muslims converted to Christ. One sheikh wanted to grab the Koran from me, but I refused and left immediately.”

The debate on Saturday (January 29) was organized by Bwaise area churches. “It was well publicized, with my photo displayed as the main debater of the day in Christian-Muslim dialogue,” Kamya said.

The assault was the latest of many instances of persecution of Christians in Uganda that Morning Star News has documented.

Uganda’s constitution and other laws provide for religious freedom, including the right to propagate one’s faith and convert from one faith to another.

Muslims make up no more than 12% of Uganda’s population, with high concentrations in eastern areas of the country.