Somalian Struggle Against Jihad In Kenya

From the BBC:





In a secluded house just outside the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, a group of men and women meet at least once a week to worship in secret.


Their prayer session is simple and conducted in Somali. Elders take turns to pray or read verses from the Somali bible before a sermon is delivered.

There are dozens of Somalis living in Nairobi who have converted from Islam to Christianity. Some say they have been practising Christianity for more than 10 years.

But they live in constant fear of persecution from members of the Somali community, which is predominantly Muslim.

There is a sizeable Somali community in Kenya, comprising ethnic Somali Kenyans, and a large number of refugees from Somalia.

Most of the community lives in Nairobi's Eastleigh Estate, which is now referred to as Little Mogadishu, after Somalia's capital.

Many of the refugees fled the war in Somalia.

For a few, it was the threat of religious persecution that forced them to leave their homes and seek refuge in Kenya.


"There was a group of people who wanted to kill me, so I was one of the first refugees to leave Mogadishu because I knew I would be a target as soon as the government collapsed," says Michael, one of the converts.


"The fundamentalists could easily attack me and kill me," he says.
Some of his fellow converts were not so lucky.

"They killed some of my friends. There was a small fellowship that used to meet in my house, about 12 of them, six of them were killed," he says.

Despite fleeing to Kenya, where Christianity is the major religion, life has still not improved for the Somali Christians.

They say they have suffered at the hands of their families and fellow Somalis in Kenya who are angry with their decision to change their religion.

They have been targets of physical attacks and beatings. In other instances, they have had their wives and children taken away from them.
Outcasts

To ward off these reprisal attacks, many hold on to their Muslim names in an attempt to blend in.

Away from home and rejected by their community, the converts say they have been forced to live as outcasts.

The Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya (CIPK) has rejected claims that the Somali Christians are facing persecution.


As bad as that is, the Somalis living in Kenya have it easy compared to the Christians of Sudan. In Sudan, the Arab government which rules over the black Africans who are native to the land, has systematically killed almost 2.5 black Christians and Animists in the past 24 years.


And yet, somehow, our Christian churches manage to avoid talking about the Jihad which is being waged against Christians all over the world. I don't know about you, but I don't remember my Pastor ever once explaining that apostasy is punishable by death in Islam, and that Muslims are required to wage Jihad against those who will not bow to Allah. And, that the result of these commandments is the death of Christians and Jews - as well as people of other religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism - all over the planet.

I would swear that, if the Christian church would simply tell the truth about this horrific problem, everyday Christians would come to recognize the threat and some political pressure could be brought to bear which would benefit the people of Sudan, whom we all claim to care about.

Is it too much to ask that Christian Pastors actually dip their toes into these "political" waters? Would Jesus have shut his mouth in the face of a Jihad being waged against His people. Would Jesus have turned his face away while men are being killed, women are being forced into sexual slavery, and the children are being sold off as slaves?

Yeah, I doubt it.