A Christian convert from Islam in Somalia has lost his voice after his Muslim wife hit him with a heavy metallic object for practicing his faith, sources said.
In a town in Somalia’s Lower Juba Region undisclosed for security reasons, 35-year-old Abdulai Ramadan suffered the attack on Jan. 20 after his wife became furious that he had held a Bible study with other secret Christians, Ramadan stated in writing to Morning Star News while recovering in a hospital.
Ramadan put his faith in Christ in 2020 and belonged to a secret fellowship. His wife became furious with him on Dec. 25 when he invited three other Christians from one of the area’s secret cell groups for a Christmas celebration, which his four children also joined, he wrote.
His wife refused to participate, and that night they had a heated argument about Christianity and Islam, with her demanding he renounce his faith, he wrote.
“The religion that you have brought to our family is a big embarrassment to family, relatives and Islamic community,” she told him, and he replied, “I refuse to recant my faith in Christ. I am willing and ready to provide all that you need, but to renounce my faith in Christ is what I cannot do,” according to Ramadan.
His wife sternly warned him to refrain from leading any further Christian activities on the family property, saying, “Let such Christian activities be the first and the last in our home,” he wrote.
While she was visiting her parents’ home on Jan. 20, a Christian friend visited him, and the two men had a short time of prayer and Bible study. The friend left at about 5 p.m., and when Ramadan’s wife returned at 6:30 p.m., one of the children told her about the prayers and reading of a holy book.
After questioning Ramadan about the Bible study, his wife became furious, saying, “We had agreed that no Christian activities are to take place in our home, but instead you continued doing the opposite,” according to Ramadan.
She hit him with a heavy metallic object, according to one of the children, whose name is withheld for security reasons.
“My father fell down only to regain consciousness the following day in the morning,” the child said. “My mother left early in the morning without telling us where she was going. My father removed his phone but could not ring with it. He used some sign language and showed me the person to call.”
The child called the number, and a pastor arrived an hour later. The pastor later told Morning Star News that before he took him to the hospital, Ramadan’s wife and five of her relatives arrived as she shouted, “Bad religion, bad religion – go away.”
“On seeing the mood, I tried to cool the situation, but the wife continued insulting the husband as an infidel,” said the pastor, whose name is withheld for security reasons. “The husband could not utter a word. The in-laws were also demanding a divorce to take their daughter back home with the children.”
Muslim neighbors began arriving, he said.
“I started sensing danger and quickly put Ramadan inside my car and drove away as the wife was uttering insults. The wife said, ‘Disappear immediately and never come back again,’” the pastor said. “Ramadan had a deep cut in his forehead, his clothes were soaked in blood, and he was in great pain.”
Upon arriving at the hospital, a doctor determined that Ramadan had lost his speech due to the impact of the metal object that hit him, the pastor said. Ramadan, who has four children ages 11, 8, 6 and 3, is still receiving hospital treatment.
“Please pray for him so that God my restore his speech, and to give us the next course of action,” the pastor said. “The fellowship is also in danger of further attacks and shaken at what happened to Ramadan.”
Somalia’s constitution establishes Islam as the state religion and prohibits the propagation of any other religion, according to the U.S. State Department. It also requires that laws comply with sharia (Islamic law) principles, with no exceptions in application for non-Muslims.
The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to mainstream schools of Islamic jurisprudence. An Islamic extremist group in Somalia, Al Shabaab, is allied with Al Qaeda and adheres to the teaching.
Al Shabaab or Al Shabaab sympathizers also have killed several non-local people in northern Kenya since 2011, when Kenyan forces led an African coalition into Somalia against the rebels in response to terrorist attacks on tourists and others on Kenya’s coast.
Somalia is ranked 2nd on Christian support group Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.
