Extremists Declare Zanzibar is Only for Muslims, Not Christians

ICC Note:
On September 13, as a Christian priest left an internet café on Tanzania’s eastern Zanzibar Island, suspected Muslim extremist threw acid on the 60-year-old priest. According to reports, this is only the latest in a series of acid attacks taking place on Zanzibar. After throwing the acid, the extremist declared that Zanzibar was only for Muslims, not Christian before driving away on a motorbike. The priest, who was rushed to a hospital in critical condition, has survived the attack and is said to be in stable condition. Please pray for the recovery of this persecuted priest.
9/18/2013 Tanzania (Morning Star News) – Asserting that Tanzania’s Zanzibar Island is not a place for Christians, suspected Muslim extremists threw acid on a 60-year-old Catholic priest on Friday  (Sept. 13), sources said.
The Rev. Joseph Anselmo Mwangamba stepped outside an Internet café on the outskirts of Zanzibar City, capital of the semi-autonomous island in the Indian Ocean about 25 kilometers (16 miles) off the coast of Tanzania, when the assailants threw acid on his face and chest, a café worker said.
“Finish him,” one of the assailants said, café worker Mariamu Juma told Morning Star News. “Zanzibar is only for Muslims – not for Christians.”
As the criminals fled, Juma poured water on his burns and rushed him to Mnazi Moja Hospital. In critical condition, the priest was transferred to the mainland’s Muhimbili National Hospital in Dar-es Salaam. His condition is now said to be stable, according to pastor Lucian Mgaywa of the Church of God, Zanzibar.
Mwangamba visited the Internet café almost daily, Mgaywa said.
An intensive search turned up 29 liters of acid from suspected members of Al Shabaab, an Islamic extremist rebel group fighting the government in Somalia, and 15 people have been arrested, according to police. It was not clear if the suspects were detained in relation only to the attack on Mwangamba or also for previous attacks.
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