Muslim militia attacks Ethiopian Christians

Ethiopian Christian pilgrims hold candles during an Ethiopian Orthodox ceremony of the 'Holy Fire' at the Dir Al-Sultan Church held on the roof of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem's Old City on April 03.2010 

Islam could never take Ethiopia ~ but that is difficult for some Ethiopian Muslims who feel that other Muslims should not be allowed to leave the religion.

Christians in a remote western Ethiopian village have fallen victim to another vicious attack.

25 Muslims recently burned down ten homes and left 80 Christians in Jimma homeless. Since then, they have been prevented from rebuilding their homes and are forced to live under trees. But Jonathan Racho, regional manager for Africa at International Christian Concern (ICC), tells OneNewsNow the episode gets more shocking than that.

"The attackers were led by a local government militia. They set fire to Christians' barns, killing their animals and destroying their harvest," he reports.

The attackers also celebrated by singing near the burned homes. Since the area is largely populated by Muslims, Racho explains the Christians were harassed because they broke two Muslim rules: "Most of the Christians are converts from Islam, and there have been evangelism activities going on there." That means individuals are not allowed to convert from Islam. But if they do, they are not supposed to try to and convert others.

Aside from burning the Christians' homes, Muslim leaders also "told the Christians that if they inform anyone about this incident, then they are going to burn the Christians alive," Racho adds.

So to keep them from exposing the incident, the attackers trapped the Christians in their village for 16 days. They were freed only after one Christian escaped and informed district officials.

Muslim militia attacks Ethiopian Christians (OneNewsNow.com)