U.S. missionaries charged over anti-Muslim pamphlets
Pastor Dale Morgan
*U.S. missionaries charged over anti-Muslim pamphlets*
Kenya court could sentence Christians to 3 years in jail
--South Africa Press Association
Nairobi - A Kenyan court on Thursday charged four Christian
missionaries, including two from the United States, with incitement for
distributing anti-Muslim pamphlets outside the capital, officials said.
The four, identified as US nationals Andrew Saucier and Paul Garcia and
Kenyans Michael Mullei and Patrick Mutinda, pleaded not guilty to the
charges in a Nairobi court, they said.
Kibera district magistrate Hellen Wasilwa released them on cash bail of
KES20 000 (about R2 000) each and set trial for October 23 in a case
that has sparked outrage among local Muslims, the officials said.
If convicted, the missionaries could face three-year jail terms and
fines, the officials said.
The four were arrested on Wednesday in Ngong, south of the capital,
where they were allegedly distributing pamphlets that read "Prophet
Mohammed is not a true prophet" and "Allah had no son", according to
court documents.
The leaflets prompted dozens of infuriated Muslims to demonstrate late
on Wednesday outside the Calvary Baptist Church where the four pastors
worked in Ngong, about 32km from Nairobi.
In February, thousands of Muslims protested in Nairobi against the
publication in western media of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed and
more recently Kenya's Islamic community has complained of harassment and
discrimination by police.
Between 10 and 30 percent of Kenya's population of some 32 million
identify themselves as Muslims, according to various surveys and
official statistics. The majority of Kenyans identify themselves as
Christian. - Sapa-AFP
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