Zanzibar: Extremists Throw Acid on Priest

By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent

ZANZIBAR CITY, ZANZIBAR (Worthy News)– Claiming Christians don’t belong in Zanzibar, extremists threw acid on a 60-year-old Catholic priest Friday, according to Morning Star News.

As the Rev. Joseph Mwangamba left an Internet cafe on the outskirts of Zanzibar City — capital of the semi-autonomous archipelago off Tanzania’s coast — a cafe worker said assailants threw acid on his face and chest as they warned him to leave the islands.

“Finish him,” said one of Mwangamba’s assailants. “Zanzibar is only for Muslims – not for Christians,” Mariamu Juma told Morning Star News.

As the assailants fled, Juma poured water on the priest, who was rushed to Mnazi Moja Hospital in critical condition; Mwangamba was later transferred to Muhimbili National Hospital in Dar-es Salaam where his condition is stable, according to Pastor Lucian Mgaywa of the Church of God.

A search of the island uncovered 29 liters of acid belonging to suspected members of al Shabaab, a militant Islamist faction fighting the government in Somalia; 15 people were arrested.

Last month on Zanzibar, two men on a motorbike threw acid on a pair of British women.

Muslims comprise more than 97 percent of Zanzibar’s population.