NAIROBI, Kenya (Compass Direct News) – Far from the world media’s gaze in remote islands off the eastern coast of Africa, church buildings are razed and Christians are ostracized and imprisoned for their faith.

On Tanzania’s island of Zanzibar, in one week-long stretch last month Muslim extremists destroyed two church buildings, Christian leaders said. The extremists torched the building of the Pentecostal Evangelical Fellowship of Africa in Mtufani Mwera, about 12 kilometers (seven miles) from Zanzibar town, at 7 p.m. on Dec. 3, said Pastor Julius Makoho. Damages were estimated at 1.5 million Tanzania shillings (US$9,350).

“When I arrived at the scene of incident Sunday morning, I found that the church had been reduced to ashes, with bottles seen close by that could be petrol or paraffin that could have been used for the burning of the church building,” Pastor Makoho said.

As the assailants fled, said one church member who requested anonymity, “I heard them shouting, ‘We do not want a church in this area!’”

To date no arrests have being made.

Daniel Kwilembe, bishop of the 80-member church, said authorities on the predominantly Muslim archipelago tend to take no action in crimes against Christians. Bishop Fabian Obedi of the Pentecostal Evangelical Church of Zanzibar concurred.

“The Muslims are burning our church buildings quite frequently here in Zanzibar, but the government is not speaking against this kind of destruction of our church premises,” Bishop Obedi said.

The previous week in Kianga, about 10 kilometers (six miles) from Zanzibar town, a throng of Islamic extremists demolished Siloam Church’s building. Pastor Boniface Kaliabukama said that more than 100 Muslim extremists arrived at the church compound on Nov. 26 chanting “Allahu Akbar [God is greater].”

“The security guard got scared of the mob and fled for his life,” Pastor Kaliabukama said.

The assailants entered the church building with clubs, hammers, torches and swords, tearing it down in about three hours, the pastor said. The arrival of police did not stop them; they kept slamming the structure even as police tried to frighten them off by firing into the air, he said. Officers did manage to arrest group leader Mbarak Hamadi, 60.

“When the church assembly arrived at the church for church service, there was no shelter for them to worship in,” said Pastor Kaliabukama. Siloam Church has a congregation of about 200 members.

Bishop Obedi confirmed the attack, saying that a neighbor called him the night of the incident to tell him that he had heard a Muslim saying, “We are not comfortable with the existence of the Siloam Church – this church is growing very fast, and it is taking some of our Muslim brethren.”

Damages to the brick structure with its sheet-iron roof, completed in August 2011, were estimated at 25 million Tanzanian shillings (US$15,570).

“The government had permitted us to put up the church structure,” Pastor Kaliabukama said. “But these Muslims have no regard to the law. What will be the fate of my church members?”

Zanzibar Island’s population is estimated at 700,000. There are only 60 Christian congregations on the archipelago, according to Operation World. The Zanzibar archipelago united with Tanganyika to form the present day Tanzania in 1964.

On July 30, Muslim extremists burned down a church building in Fuoni, on the south coast of Zanzibar island, that belonged to the Evangelical Assemblies of God-Tanzania. In Kianga, another church building was burned down on July 27, and on neighboring Pemba Island, suspected Muslims extremists in Konde on June 17 razed a Seventh-day Adventist Church building.

ZANZIBAR, TANZANIA (ANS) – Compass Direct News (CDN) is reporting that Muslim extremists on Saturday (July 30) burned down a church building on Zanzibar island off the coast of Tanzania, church leaders said, just three days after another congregation’s facility on the island was reduced to ashes.

The CDN story went on to say that in Fuoni on the south coast of Zanzibar island (known locally as Unguja), Islamic extremists torched the building of the Evangelical Assemblies of God-Tanzania (EAGT) at around 2 p.m., said Pastor Leonard Massasa, who oversees Zanzibar’s EAGT churches.

The assailants were shouting, “Away with the church – we do not want infidels to spoil our community, especially our children,” Pastor Massasa said. The EAGT church is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Zanzibar town. In Kianga about 10 kilometers (six miles) from Zanzibar town, another church building was burned down on July 27 at about 2 a.m., said Pastor George Frank Dunia of Free Evangelical Pentecostal Church in Africa.

“On neighboring Pemba island, suspected Muslims extremists in Konde on June 17 razed a Seventh-day Adventist Church building, a witness said. Tanzania Assemblies of God (TAG) Pastor Yohana Ari Mfundo said he has witnessed a series of attacks on Christians on Pemba island,” said CDN. “The pastor had bought a half-acre of land for a church building some three kilometers (nearly two miles) from Chake-Chake town, but when area Muslims learned of it they arranged for a road to be built through it, he said. The smaller size made it fit only for residential use.”

“We are here in Pemba because God wants us to be. But Muslims always point a finger at us – especially at my house, and we have been receiving several threats,” Pastor Mfundo said.

For more information, please go to: www.compassdirect.org

ZANZIBAR, TANZANIA – Compass Direct News (CDN) is reporting that radical Islamists are suspected in the demolition of two church buildings on Tanzania’s semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar on Sunday (Nov. 21), as members of the congregations have since received death threats from Muslims.

The church buildings belonging to the Tanzania Assemblies of God (TAG) and the Evangelical Assemblies of God Zanzibar (EAGZ) in Masingini village, five kilometers (nearly three miles) from the center of Zanzibar city, were torn down at about 8 p.m., said Bishop Fabian Obeid of EAGZ.

CDN said that a Christian who requested anonymity said, “One Muslim was heard saying, ‘We have cleansed our area by destroying the two churches, and now we are on our mission to kill individual members of these two churches – we shall not allow the church to be built again.’”

EAGT Pastor Michael Maganga and TAG Pastor Dickson Kaganga said they were fearful about the future of the church in Masingini.

“Pastors in Zanzibar have scheduled a meeting on Saturday (Nov. 27) to discuss how to cope with the destruction of the two buildings, said the chairman of the Pastors Fellowship in Zanzibar, Bishop Leonard Masasa of EAGT church. Muslim extremists in Zanzibar, in concert with local government officials, have long limited the ability of Christians to obtain land for erecting worship buildings. In some cases they have destroyed existing buildings and put up mosques in their place,” concluded the CDN story.

By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST Ministries

MWANYANYA-MTON, ZANZIBAR (ANS) — Compass Direct News (CDN) is reporting that Zanzibar officials have colluded with local Muslims to stop a church building going ahead so they could erect a mosque in its place.

The CDN report said, “On an island off the coast of East Africa, where the local government limits the ability of Christians to obtain land, officials in one town have colluded with area Muslims to erect a mosque in place of a planned church building.

“On the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar, Pastor Paulo Kamole Masegi of the Evangelistic Assemblies of God had purchased land in April 2007 for a church building in Mwanyanya-Mtoni, and by November of that year he had built a house that served as a temporary worship center, he said.

“Soon area Muslim residents objected, said Pastor Lucian Mgaywa of the Church of God in Tanzania.”

The story went on to say that in August 2009, local Muslims began to build a mosque just three feet away from the church plot. In November 2009, Pastor Masegi began building a permanent church structure.

“Angry Muslims invaded the compound and destroyed the structure’s foundation, the pastors said. Church leaders reported the destruction to police, who took no action – and also refused to release the crime report, so that the case could not go to court,” the story added.

CDN stated that the local station police chief told Pastor Masegi “It’s not possible to take the file to the court, because doing so would amount to defending Christianity.”

The story concluded that meantime, construction of the mosque was completed in December 2009. The planned church building’s fate appeared to have been sealed earlier this year when Western District Commissioner Ali Mohammed Ali notified Pastor Masegi that he had no right to hold worship in a house.

“Now the Christian faithful are feeling targeted even by the government officials,” said Pastor Masegi.

For more information, go to www.compassdirect.org.

NAIROBI, Kenya  – Two church buildings were razed Sunday night June 28 on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar after worship services.

Suspected radical Muslims set the church buildings on fire on the outskirts of Unguja Township, on the island off the coast of East Africa, in what church leaders called the latest incidents of a rising tide of religious intolerance.

“We don’t want churches on our street,” read a flier dropped at the door of Charles Odilo, who had donated the plot on which the Evangelical Assemblies of God in Tanzania EAGT building stood. “Today we are going to burn the church, and if you continue we are going to burn your house also.”

With Christian movements making inroads in the Muslim-dominated area, the EAGT church and a Pentecostal Evangelical Fellowship in Africa PEFA church building a few miles away were burned down as a fierce warning, church leaders said.

Read the full report at Compass Direct News.

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania – Christians on the predominantly Muslim islands of Pemba and the Comoros archipelago are beaten, detained and banished for their faith, according to church leaders who travel regularly to the Indian Ocean isles off the east coast of Africa.

These violations of religious freedom, the church leaders said, threaten the survival of Christianity on Pemba and the Comoros, with fewer than 300 Christians in a combined population of 1.1 million people. Pemba, with about 300,000 people, is part of Tanzania, while the Union of the Comoros is a nation unto itself of about 800,000.

Leaving Islam for Christianity accounts for most of the harm done to Christians, and this year saw an increase in such abuse as already-strained relations between the two communities deteriorated after the conversion in August of Sheikh Hijah Mohammed, leader of a key mosque in Chake-Chake, capital of Pemba.

News of Mohammed’s conversion spread, and zealous Muslims began hunting for him as leaving Islam warrants death under sharia Islamic law. An Assemblies of God Church in Pemba swiftly moved him to a hideout in the village of Chuini, 20 kilometers 12 miles from the airport.

Read the full story at Compass Direct News