Sharia in Tanzania: Church in Zanzibar Shaken as Court Supports Muslims’ Opposition to Building

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It seems that you cannot get away from it. Even as far away from everything as you can get. Tanzania.

Muslims have opposed this church for eight years and they won. Terrorism works.

Church in Zanzibar, Tanzania Shaken as Court Supports Muslims’ Opposition to Building

Christian leaders see Islamist bias in ruling.

Photo above: Pastor Amos Lukanula, his wife and church members in Zanzibar. (Morning Star News)

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Morning Star News, July 26, 2017:

NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – A court on the semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania, ruled on Thursday (July 20) that a church cannot continue constructing a worship building it has tried to finish for eight years, sources said.

Hard-line Muslims outside Zanzibar City have been fighting construction of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God building since 2009, having demolished the partially built structure twice before then. They claim the party that sold the property to the church was not the rightful owner.

Christians believe the court on the overwhelmingly Muslim island acted out of religious bias. A previous court ruling allowed construction to go forward.

Pastor Amos Lukanula of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God church said last week’s ruling has serious implications for the survival of congregation on the island, and that the church plans to appeal to the High Court of Zanzibar.

“Our church members have persistently worked alongside with me and are frustrated and weary, but we are always hopeful that God will still intervene,” Pastor Lukanula said. “We cannot allow the Muslims to put up a mosque in place of the church.”

The case has dragged on for more than eight years as the area Muslims have forced the church in Chukwani to incur legal costs of $100 per month in an effort to take over its property, sources said. Pastor Lukanula said the court had been waiting for the church to fail to attend the monthly court hearing in order to rule against it on a technicality.

The church purchased the property in 2004 and began putting up a temporary structure, but the area Muslims pulled it down. The church then spent three years putting up a semi-permanent structure, which the hard-line Muslims also destroyed, sources said.

After a third structure of stone blocks was half-way finished in 2009, the Muslims stopped construction with a court order until the legal dispute could be resolved. This forced the church to raise 5.7 million Tanzanian shillings, more than US$2,500, to fight the case in court, with an attorney from mainland Tanzania traveling to Zanzibar each month at a cost of $100 per visit.

“We bought the land from Harun Gikaro Wanzo, who passed on in 2009, and now his widow is the one remaining who has a small piece of land,” Pastor Lukanula said, saying the church has allowed Wanzo’s widow, Annah Philippo Barihuta, to remain living on the premises. “Now she might too lose that land, and she has several children to take care of. We appeal for support and prayers as we appeal for justice to be done.”

On Feb. 21, 2011, a lower court ruled in favor of the church, which then continued with construction. But after the death of Amina Binti Saleh, the seller of the property to Wanzo, area Muslims and Saleh’s daughter, Jilubai Binti Saleh, filed another appeal to stop construction in 2011. The Muslims claimed that Saleh’s son, Sadik, was not the blood son of her late husband, Abdul Shakar, and hence did not have the right of ownership of the land that was sold to Christians. They held that Saleh’s daughter, Jilubai Binti Saleh, had been the rightful heir.

In the church’s bid to show that Barihuta’s late husband, Wanzo, had the right to sell the land to the church, the impoverished widow and her family have borne much of the costs of the court case. Barihuta is a member of the church.

The Muslims claimed in court that Barihuta invaded Saleh’s land in 2004 and uprooted 20 coconut trees, then put up a house illegally, and that in 2007, Pastor Lukanula illegally put up the church building within a residential area and destroyed trees worth 2 million Tanzanian shillings (US$885).

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Deon Joubert
Deon Joubert
6 years ago

I lived on Pemba island just north of Zanzibar for 2 years traveled to Zanzibar at least once a month, in the time I was there a Roman Catholic church got burned down 2 times in 2 years, 2013 a British girl got acid thrown in her face, white girls are raped at parties and the embassies are covering up all these attrocites…4 October 2013 on pemba island I was attacked and shot in the head with a shot gun and survived , February 2013 I was thrown in jail for 2 nights for not wanting to pay a “bribe” ..fun living with Muslims..

famouswolf
famouswolf
6 years ago
Reply to  Deon Joubert

Start shooting back.

Lidadhouchens
Lidadhouchens
6 years ago
Reply to  famouswolf

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Tm.
Tm.
6 years ago
Reply to  Deon Joubert

You went through so much and have seen much. I am glad to hear you are okay.

Duchess of Pork
Duchess of Pork
6 years ago
Reply to  Deon Joubert

Wish Discus has the WOW emoji. Not a lot of this information gets reported. Thanks for posting.

Mahou Shoujo
Mahou Shoujo
6 years ago

The less civilization has to do with muslims, the better, they are subhuman, not fit to associate with humans.

famouswolf
famouswolf
6 years ago
Reply to  Mahou Shoujo

So true. I’d seriously like to see a modern crusade against islam in all it’s forms. Everywhere.

Ichabod Crain
Ichabod Crain
6 years ago

Pentecostal Assemblies of God versus Muslims. Hard to pick a side in a property dispute. I have little sympathy for either side. We have no way of assessing the justice or the injustice in this particular case, as we are not versed in the law of the land there and we are not lawyers even if we were. I can tell you this though, from personal experience, that inheritance laws can be very different and enormously complicated in other countries, and court cases can sometimes get tied up for 20 years in 3rd world countries because of such laws. You probably don’t realize it but our inheritance laws in the West are streamlined in comparison. It appears this church did not do a proper title search before buying the property.

Tm.
Tm.
6 years ago
Reply to  Ichabod Crain

Little sympathy for the Pentacostal Church? This is not really about land and title searches. We know what this is. Were the other churches that were destroyed abut land searches? Have you heard tell that the Roman Catholics or the Pentacostals were involved in violent activity such as one commenter above posted, or that the article states?

Tm.
Tm.
6 years ago

This is not right. The followers of this Middle Eastern religion have full expectations to come and go freely in most parts of the world. They expect concessions to be made, and to be received with complete acceptance of themselves and their culture. It appears this is a one way street. Day after day I read how they do not give other cultures and religions the same respect. Why cannot a church or churches be built in Tanzania? Seems to me that the world is being bamboozled big time, courtesy of the left, who does not question, but imposes their agenda on the rest of us. Questions should be asked. It is always one side that must give and the other takes. You can see the goodness in this Pastor’s face. You are beautiful, may God bless you and your group.

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