MAYUGE DISTRICT, Uganda (BP) – A Muslim convert who said he saw a vision of Christ while napping at a Ugandan mosque is recovering after his relatives beat him and destroyed his home, Morning Star News reported.
Relatives of Wambuzi Maka Uthman, a 39-year-old former sheikh or Islamic teacher, first wanted to seek psychiatric treatment for Uthman after he shared the story of his vision and conversion. But when he insisted he was sane, his relatives severely beat him, Morning Star reported Aug. 18th.
“I told them that I am not mad and started sharing with them of the dramatic vision of Issa (Jesus) appearing to me,” Uthman said. “Immediately after realizing that I was not mad, my elder brother hit me with kicks and blows on my mouth, nose and eyes, and I started bleeding, while others started beating me with sticks. I developed an extra energy and managed to escape mysteriously through a thick bush, then arrived at house of a nearby neighbor who happened to be a Christian.”
Uthman required a weeklong hospitalization to recover, Morning Star reported, adding that a photo showing his injuries was too graphic to share.
Uthman’s ordeal is common in the eastern region of Uganda that is majority Muslim, despite the country itself being mostly Christian. In eastern Uganda, Christian converts from Islam suffer severe oppression, according to persecution watchdog group Open Doors International.
While Uganda is not included in Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the 50 countries that are the worst persecutors of Christians, Uganda ranks 72nd in the world for Christian persecution, Open Doors said. Islamic oppression is cited as the main driver, despite 83.6 percent of Ugandan’s 49,924,000 people being Christian. Muslims comprise only 12.8 percent of the population, according to 2024 statistics, but are concentrated in the east.
Uthman’s wife and six children have deserted him, and he is staying at an undisclosed location for his safety after leaving the hospital Aug. 11. The ordeal began Aug. 4 when he told his family of his conversion after the vision on Aug. 1.
“I was so happy beyond expectations as I developed a deeper love for Jesus. My wife could not believe the Good News which I was sharing with her,” Uthman said. “She thought I was out of my mind. She went and told my brothers about the strange teaching about Jesus which I had shared with her.”
Relatives destroyed Uthman’s home after hearing his testimony, and are housing his wife and children.
“We cannot continue staying with this infidel who is telling us things about Jesus as the Son of God, yet for us we know him as a messenger of Allah alone,” Uthman’s brother Said Isabirye Muhammad told Morning Star.
Christian converts from Islam who openly share their conversion in eastern Uganda face frequent attacks by Muslim mobs, as well as house arrest and ostracism or family expulsion from their families and local community. Among incidents reported by Open Doors, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) shot dead a tourist couple and their guide in 2023, proclaiming they had killed “three Christian tourists” with machine guns. That same year, ADF militants planted bombs in churches in Kampala, but police discovered the bombs before they were detonated, Open Doors said.