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BRETHREN IN AFFLICTION
The persecuted Christian Church in Somalia
By: Mohamed Gurhan

Often when one of us goes to a certain church for Sunday service for the first time and the people there recognize that he or she is a Somali, we attract the attention of the deacons and security guards. Sometimes someone approaches us to enquire the reason of our being there.

"I guest you are Somali?" He or she may ask in a friendly manner. "Yes, I am Somali." We respond. "Are you Christian?" Exclaims the person in a mixed tone of happiness and hesitation. This reaction indicates that the Christian people of Kenya , the closest and most friendly neighbor of Somalia knows very little or nothing at all about the existence of Somali Christians. What do you think the world wide Christian family knows about the underground church of Somalia ? Very few international Christian missions know about it, and even some of them, with their own reasons, prefer and support the Muslim fundamentalist Somalis who persecute the Somali believers.

Is salvation only for particular peoples and nations? Who said the Kingdom of God cannot be established among the Somalis? Are the Somalis not included in the Great Commission of our Lord? Why the great world Christian family does not care about the suffering of the Somali church? Before we try to answer these questions, let us see a brief history of the Somali church.

In 1886 the Roman Catholic mission setup a mission base and established a school at the port town of Berbera in the then British protectorate of Somaliland . About the same time the Franciscan mission of the Roman Catholic Church and the Swedish Overseas Lutheran Mission each setup a mission base in Mogadishu and Kismayu towns respectively. Soon the harvest was plenty and the church was growing rapidly.

About ten year later when Sayid Mohamed Abdalla Hassan, the insurgent Muslim fundamentalist leader whom the British called the Mad Mullah of Somaliland arrived at Berbera town. There was a Somali church with hundreds of members, mainly young people and children in the boarding school.

One day Sayid Mohamed met two of the Christian children; one of them was wearing a wooden cross around his neck and talked to them.

"Are you Somalis?" He asked them.
"Yes, we are Somalis." They answered.
"Tell me your names?"
"My name is John and this is my friend James." Said one of the children.
"Are you not Muslims?" Sayid Mohamed enquired, while stripping off forcefully the cross necklace from the boy's neck.
"No, we are not, we are Christians." Said the second young boy with awe.
Sayid Mohamed left the boys very angry and swearing that he will fight with the Christians without reservation.
He aroused the modern Muslim fundamentalism in Somaliland and later founded his Dervish insurgent organization. Few decades later the church was declining. Its members either Martyred, denied their faith and turned to Islam or exiled from the country.

The Swedish Overseas Lutheran Mission, the first Christian mission expedition arrived at Kismayu portal town in 1890s and setup a mission station there. Soon they expanded their mission work to Margarita (Jamame) Mugambo and Alexandra (Jilib). They started a clinic and a school as well as a church.

Then Jubbaland region was part of British Kenya, and most of the inhabitants were Somali Absame tribes except few thousands of Bantu plantation workers brought there by the British from Zanzibar and some Arab settlers.

The Swedish Mission worked among and preached the Gospel to the Somali tribes and the Bantu plantation workers. They faced not limitations and enjoyed the British protection. The church grew tremendously. Few decades later there was a church with hundreds of Somali members.

The church of Margarita continued to grow until Jubbaland was divided into two parts and Jubba river valley was annexed to the Italian Somali protectorate. Then the Italians expelled the Lutheran Mission from Somalia . Persecution and church collapse occurred in the wake of the Lutheran mission expulsion.

Although Jubba valley was until recently where most Somali Christians in Somalia lived, that church is gone forever.

During 1950s several Christian missions arrived in Somalia and Somali inhabited territories of Ethiopia and Kenya . But only three, namely The Swedish Lutheran Mission, Mennonite mission and Sudan Interior Mission (SIM) left with their footmarks among the Somalis.

Almost all the surviving first generation Somali believers are those who attended the mission schools at Mogadishu , Jiohar, Sheikh, Kismayu, Berbera, Jigjiga, Jamame or Kallafo. Most of these schools were run either by SIM or the Mennonite Mission.

This time the church revived and started to grow, but more cautious and hideous. Small group house churches sprung up in several towns throughout the Somali territory. As the church started to grow, so was the persecution, murdering and forced exile.

In 1969 when president Mohamed Siad Barre's Socialist Military government came to power they confiscated all the properties owned by the Christian missions and churches including the schools and clinics. Some of the missions and church organizations were also expelled from the country.

Muslim fundamentalism started to revive. Underground Muslim fundamentalist organizations both local and international sprang through out Somalia and the neighboring countries with the aim of establishing Islamic state in Somalia and the neighboring countries. Muslim Brotherhood and Muslim Youth Union come first through the north, particularly Hargeysa and spread their ideologies throughout the country. Later on the more radical Alitihadul Islam (The Union of Islam) and others followed.

The first and foremost objective of each and every one of these organisations was and still is to eliminate Christians and Christianity from among the Somali people. They claim that Somalis are 100% Muslim people, which is far from being true.

During president Said Barre's rule, in the 1970s and 1980s they used their influence in the government, their financial strength and the public against the church. They influenced the government to ban the printing, importing, distributing or selling of Christian literature in the country. The government and its National Security Services (NSS) secret police threatened, arrested, tortured, and murdered Somali Christians. Literally, Freedom of religion was stated in the national constitution, but practically no one applied it.

Many Somali Christians lost their jobs and businesses; others to survive abandoned their faith or immigrated to the western world. Those lucky enough got jobs with western embassies and international organizations in Mogadishu .

When president Said Barre's government was ousted from power in 1991 and national government of Somalia fall apart, Muslim fundamentalist organizations become stronger and more powerful to do whatever they wish in Somalia and even it's neighboring countries.

Fundamentalist Organizations set up a committee of several sheikhs to search and identify all Somali Christian, whether they were in or out of Somalia . They also appointed a group of armed young men to execute all Somali Christians. According to Islamic sharia, any adult who abandons Islam and converts to other faith is "murtad" and should be killed, that is legal and unquestionable.

Between January 1991 and December 1995 over two hundred Somali Christian adults were killed in Somalia and the neighboring countries of Yemen , Ethiopia , Kenya and Djibouti . Many more were wounded and either became refugee to other countries or denied their faith to save their lives. Thousands of Somali believers left Somalia and became refugees and still many more believers remain underground in Somalia . The Muslim fundamentalist ambitions of eliminating the Somali church are far from being over. They followed those who took refuge to Kenya and the neighboring countries. Many are persecuted, beaten or charged with false accusations in Nairobi by the Muslim fundamentalists.

In May 2001, Somali Christian man by the name Bashir was tranquillized by his relatives by force and abducted to Somalia through Wilson airport without the governments knowledge of his being abducted. Later we heard he was murdered in Burao , Somalia .

In February, 2003 when three Somali Christians went to Eldoret town and requested to participate the on going Somali peace conference and represent the Somali Christian community, the peace conference nearly collapsed. Most of the several hundreds of participants rejected the idea of Somali Christians participating the conference and representing Somali Christian community.

On 9th February 2003 the umbrella of the Somali Muslim religious groups, a powerful religious organ met in Mogadishu and issued a memorandum. They stated in their memorandum and press release which was broadcasted or published by several local and international radio stations, newspapers and websites several articles concerning Somali Christian believers. They also asked the participants of the peace conference not to accept any Somali who is claiming that he or she is Christian to participate the conference and sit with them. The articles were include:

1. Somali Christians abandoned Islam and must be killed;
2. Somali Christians can neither inherit nor inherited;
3. Their marriage to their spouses must be dissolved;
4. Somali Christians forfeited their Somali ness [citizenship];
5. Once they die, Somali Christians cannot be buried in Somali soil.

Fourteen sheikhs representing different major Somali clans signed this memorandum. Some of them are those who authorized and organized the campaign to eliminate Somali Christians from the horn of African region.

Despite the murdering, persecution and suffering Somali believers face daily among their own people, Somalis are converting and the church is growing.

In Nairobi I met a small number of Good Samaritan Kenyans who prayed for and supported the Somali church. But it seems the world Christian family evaded its duty and responsibility. The duty and responsibility of caring for its own infants. Somali believers need the support, encouragement and protection of the greater world Christian family.

According to the Gospel of St. Mathew 28:19 the good news of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is for all nations and peoples. Somalis are lost people. They need the grace of God. They need peace. The peace, which the prince of peace, Lord, Jesus Christ gave to us. The peace that comes from above. The peace that never fails.

Mohamed Gurhan is author, poet, songwriter, and evangelist. He converted in Mogadishu in November 1984.