The 17-year-old daughter of a church pastor in Uganda was allegedly gang-raped by a group of Muslims after her father refused to close his church.
According to the Morning Star News, the young woman, who has not been named, said five men raped her in the bushes near her father's church in Budaka District in eastern Uganda on the evening of March 28.
"I tried to scream, but they threatened to kill me," she told the newspaper. "One of them said, 'Your father should stop this prayer meeting of trying to change Muslims to become Christians and close the church building – we have warned him several times.'"
Members of the New Hope Church began to arrive for an all-night prayer service, and her attackers fled, the girl said. She was taken to hospital for treatment, and her father, also unnamed, said she will need counselling to deal with the trauma.
He also said that he had received several threatening text messages, one of which said he would "live to regret it" if he didn't heed calls to close his church. Police are investigating the case.
Christians make up the majority (85 per cent) of Uganda's population, though almost two-thirds of Budaka District is Muslim. A church building was burned down in the district on February 15, allegedly by Islamic extremists. According to Christian persecution charity Open Doors, Islamic extremism is "very present in the country and remains a concern".
A field report from the charity last year said that the church was growing in Uganda, especially in rural areas, but "Muslim communities have entrenched themselves, feel themselves emboldened by the impunity they enjoy, and radical Islamic expressions are advancing.
"Within this context it is understandable that Christians feel concerned about the future," the charity said. "Moreover, Muslim groupings have pushed successfully for the implementation of Kadhis courts [sharia family courts] and Islamic law to operate them."
