Worthy News
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Claiming Christians don't belong in Zanzibar, extremists threw acid
on a 60-year-old Catholic priest Friday, according to Morning Star News.
As the Rev. Joseph Mwangamba left an Internet cafe on the outskirts
of Zanzibar City — capital of the semi-autonomous archipelago off
Tanzania's coast — a cafe worker said assailants threw acid on his face
and chest as they warned him to leave the islands.
"Finish him," said one of Mwangamba's assailants. "Zanzibar is only
for Muslims – not for Christians," Mariamu Juma told Morning Star News.
As the assailants fled, Juma poured water on the priest, who was
rushed to Mnazi Moja Hospital in critical condition; Mwangamba was later
transferred to Muhimbili National Hospital in Dar-es Salaam where his
condition is stable, according to Pastor Lucian Mgaywa of the Church of
God.
A search of the island uncovered 29 liters of acid belonging to
suspected members of al Shabaab, a militant Islamist faction fighting
the government in Somalia; 15 people were arrested.
Last month on Zanzibar, two men on a motorbike threw acid on a pair of British women.
Muslims comprise more than 97 percent of Zanzibar's population.