Kenyan Pastors Ask For AK-47s To Protect Their Congregations From The Religion of Peace

From Charisma News:

As attacks on Christians mount in Kenya’s coastal region, some evangelical pastors in the Mombasa area may no longer be willing to turn the other cheek. 

Worried about attacks against their churches and congregations, some pastors are asking for rifles to protect themselves from suspected Islamic extremists. 

The violence intensified on Oct. 20 and 21, when two evangelical church pastors were killed inside their churches. Pastor Charles Mathole, 41, was killed Oct. 20 as he prayed inside his Vikwatani Redeemed Gospel Church. The following day, East African Pentecostal Church pastor Ibrahim Kithaka was found dead in Kilifi, about 35 miles north of Mombasa. 

Christian leaders blame the attacks on increased radicalization of Muslim youth. The attacks have occurred amid protests by Muslims that they were being targeted in Nairobi’s war against terrorism. 

“Our many churches are not under any protection. They do not have walls or gates. The government should issue AK-47 rifles to every church so that we can stop them from being burnt, our property from being looted and our pastors and Christians from being killed,” said Lambert Mbela, a pastor at Mathole’s church, during his funeral. 

Three weeks before the latest murders, Muslim youth torched a Salvation Army church in the Majengo area in Mombasa to protest the killing of the popular Sheikh Ibrahim “Rogo” Omar and three others by unknown gunmen on Oct.4.  The same church was torched last year after the murder of another prominent Muslim cleric, Sheikh Aboud Rogo Mohammed. 

Some church officials say the request for arms reflects a growing frustration with the rising insecurity, but others say the move contradicts traditional biblical teachings on nonviolence, or could put churches and congregations at more risk. 

“I don’t think arming Kenyan (clerics) will ensure security,” said the Rev. Peter Karanja, the general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Kenya, at a news conference in Limuru, near Nairobi, on Wednesday (Oct. 30). 

“However, the government should see this as writing on the wall. Kenyans are getting tired of the continuing insecurity.”