Muslims have set a church on fire in Mangochi after accusing the pastor of the church of mocking the Muslim faith by drawing a picture depicting ‘god of Muslims’.
The Muslims say the pastor, Gladson Njenekera of Emmanuel International Church, was delivering blasphemous teachings.
The incident has happened at Mpilipili, Makanjira in Mangochi. District police public relations officer, Amina Tepani Daudi, has confirmed and said the investigations are underway.
“It is indeed true that a church has been set ablaze by angry mob in Makanjira, but the situation is calm now. Our officers are on the ground as they continue investigations,” said Daudi.
According to a police report, Njenekera runs a college of Pastors under Golden Eagles Theological College where its lectures came from different denomination.
On 25 October, the college received a lecturer from Mchinji identified as Pastor Wyson Semani of Baptist Church who had lessons at the college until Friday 29 October. His lessons and exams were supposed to be printed and distributed to students.
Njenekera collected the exams and notes and gave it to an employee of Zein Printers for the job of printing.
The employee happens to be a Sheikh and in the course of printing he came across an illustration depicting the god of Muslims which was not due for printing.
He photocopied the diagram then showed some Sheikhs who got angry with it and demanded explanation from the Snr Pastor.
A meeting was convened at Snr Makanjiras house where Njenekera admitted giving the documents for printing but denied ownership of the diagram.
The said owner Pastor Wyson Semani was communicated and agreed to go back to Makanjira today to apologize and was sent K20,000 for transport.
However, the matter got worse after reports that the pastor in question had cancelled his journey due to security reasons.
Muslim faithfuls convened in large numbers then went to the house of the of the Pastor where they destroyed and burned the house, Sunday school block and church. They also looted a lot of property believed to be worth millions.
Mangochi Muslim Association of Malawi chairperson, Sheikh Fahad Kamsuli, told the local media that the violence is not the position of the association but was perpetrated by an angry group of people.
