Somalia: Militants step up fear campaign

November, 2008

Somalia (MNN) ― Voice of the Martyrs is confirming the murder of a Somali Christian in Manyafulka village. It is the latest in a wave of such attacks on Christians in Somalia recent months.

Somalia is almost exclusively Sunni Muslim, with less than one percent of the population Christian. There has been a noticeable increase in the number of Christians in Somalia. A number of believers have been martyred, and others have been publicly named as targets for execution.

In many hardline Muslim areas, to convert from Islam to Christianity is apostasy, punishable by death. Compass Direct reports militant Islamists caught up to Mohammed, staged a mock trial and pronounced Mansuur Mohammed an apostate and a spy for Ethiopian soldiers.

After stirring up the passions of the crowd, the militants beheaded the 25-year-old convert. They then circulated the video in an effort to instill fear in those contemplating converting from Islam to Christianity. the rest